Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Laing, Douglas 梁德基 (1928-1996)

updated August 7, 2013. 

Big-Time Racehorses Owner.

b.1902-d.1999; born Leung Kwok-cham 梁國湛; name changed to Douglas Laing on April 29, 1920. MBBS (HK) January 3, 1928; intern, Government Civil Hospital February 1931 - August 1932; studied otorhinolaryngology in Britain and the United States August 1932 - September 1934. Registered to practice in Hong Kong on June 9, 1928 through EOP. Assistant to Government Bacteriologist 1929-30.  Private practitioner, ENT surgeon 1934 [1], address: Rm. 202/4, Gloucester Building 1941. President, Welfare League (founded in 1930). WWII 1941-1944, travelled to India via China, RAMC, India-Burma Theatre 1941-1944. Resume practice after the war, address: Gloucester Building (Tel.30635) 1948-1960s. Honorary Clinical Lecturer in Otorhinolaryngology, HKU; founded Digby Memorial Fund in 1959 to provide scholarships and gold medals to outstanding medical students; Senior Founding Member, HKU Foundation for Educational Development and Research; donated more than $3 million to HKU including the funding used to build the new Medical Complex at Sassoon Road. Retired 1996. Consultant, Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital, Nethersole Hospital and Nam Long Hospital. Member, Executive Committee, Hong Kong Anti-Cancer Society. Publications: Prognostic significance in early diagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, 1965. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma in the Chinese in Hong Kong, 1967. Honor: Hon. Fellow, HKU December 2, 1999 (posthumous). Club: Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club, member 1928, Steward 1961, Hon. Steward 1984 [2].

s/o Robert Kenneth Laing, born Leung Kam-ming 梁錦明, b.1876-d.1949, and Mary Yu Che Jordon [3], b.1877-d.1958.
m. Norah Laing, 1945; b.1912-d.1995.

[1] According to a HKU site Dr. Laing became the first ENT surgeon in Hong Kong, but the fact is Dr. Chau Sik-nin, also a HKU graduate and an Otolaryngologist, practiced in Hong Kong in 1927, seven years earlier than Dr. Laing.

[2] Dr. Laing’s reputation as a racehorse owner was well-known amongst the horseracing fans in Hong Kong. According to HKU information, which refers to records of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Dr. Laing owned his first horse as early as in 1927. I do not know how credible that is as he hadn’t finished university in 1927. I've learned that his horses are quite popular, although I was unable to find all the corresponding names of the horses in English; here they are: Gay Eighties 快樂八十, Gay Nineties 快樂九十, 快樂一百, 快樂王子, 快樂龍王, 快樂飛馬, 快樂飛俠.

[3]

Selected bibliography: Find A Grave [internet]. Geni [internet]. The Hong Kong Government Gazette, June 15, 1928, Notice #343; May 9, 1941, Notice #558. The Hong Kong Telegraph, October 3, 1934, p.12, Dr. Douglas Laing. Matthew, Clifford (Ed.), Cheung, Oswald (Ed.), Dispersal and Renewal: Hong Kong University During the War Years, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1998.

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