#985, John (the younger) Henry KESWICK

John Keswick followed his brother to the Far East in 1929 and replaced him in Shanghai after the shooting incident.  Like his brother he worked for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) alongside Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek's spy chief General Dai Li in Chongqing.  He fled Shanghai when the Japanese took the city, eascaping with his wife Clare to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and served during the war with Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten's staff.

John Keswick returned to Sganghai after the war to organise the rebuilding of Jardine's office and to reestablish the firm's trading links throughout China and Asia.  In 1949, after the communist party's takeover, Jardine's head office was moved to Hong Kong.  Despite attampting to work with the communists, business conditions became worse.  Operations were closed in 1954 with the effective nationalisation of the company's interests.  John keswick became a member of the Hong Kong Executive Council in 1952.  He retired as Taipan in 1953 and joined Matheson & Co in 1956.  Hr returned temporarily as non-executive chairman of Jardine Matheson in Hong Kong from 1970 to 1972.  While in England, he and his brother financed the buy-out and then public flotation of Jardine Matheson.  

When Sir John and Lady Clare returned from China in the '50s they bought Portrack House in Dumfries (built in 1893 and standing in 30 acres) where they moved the staircase, added a terrace and started a major development of the garden.