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UK / China: Sir Henry Pottinger, First Governor of Hong Kong (1841-1843)

Lieutenant General Sir Henry Pottinger, 1st Baronet, GCB, PC (Chinese: 砵甸乍; 3 October 1789 – 18 March 1856), was an Anglo-Irish soldier and colonial administrator who became the first Governor of Hong Kong.

Pottinger accepted Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston's offer of the post of envoy and plenipotentiary in China and superintendent of British trade, thus replacing Charles Elliot. In 1841, when Pottinger was sent to China, Palmerston instructed him to 'examine with care the natural capacities of Hong Kong, and you will not agree to give up that Island unless you should find that you can exchange it for another in the neighbourhood of Canton, better adapted for the purposes in view; equally defensible; and affording sufficient shelter for Ships of War and Commerce'.

After Pottinger led the navy and defeated Yishan at Humen, he negotiated the terms of the Treaty of Nanking (1842), which ended the First Opium War and ceded Hong Kong Island to the United Kingdom. Pottinger became the second administrator of Hong Kong (1841–1843) and the first Governor of Hong Kong (1843–1844).

When he forwarded the treaty to Aberdeen, Pottinger remarked, 'the retention of Hong Kong is the only point in which I have intentionally exceeded my modified instructions, but every single hour I have passed in this superb country has convinced me of the necessity and desirability of our possessing such a settlement as an emporium for our trade and a place from which Her Majesty's subjects in China may be alike protected and controlled'.