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George Jamieson was
Acting Consul for Taiwan [臺灣] from 29 February 1868 to 1 July 1868.
Jamieson replaced Thomas Adkins, who had departed on 16 February 1868
for Peking, and was relieved by John Gibson on 1 July 1868.
George Jamieson was born on 5 February 1843, the
eldest son of Alexander Jamieson, a Farmer, and his wife Helen Pirie of
Crannoch, Grange, Banff-shire, Scotland. He attended Aberdeen
University, where he received a Master’s degree in 1864, and joined the
China Consular Service through the nomination of the university in the
same year. Jamieson travelled out alone to China and arrived at the
British Legation at Peking [北京] to take classes in Chinese around
November 1864. His journey to Peking was extremely arduous since the sea
had frozen over at Tientsin [天津], forcing Jamieson to travel overland
through snow and ice from Chefoo. After two years’ of studying Chinese
at Peking Jamieson was posted to Shanghai [上海] as an Acting 3rd
Assistant around November 1866. Promoted to 3rd Assistant in 1867,
George Jamieson remained at Shanghai until 12 February 1868 when he left
to take up his sudden posting to Taiwan.
George Jamieson travelled to Hongkong [香港] and
then to Amoy [廈門], where he met up with Thomas Adkins, who had left
Formosa as soon as he had received Alcock’s summons to Peking. It was
fortuitous that Jamieson met Adkins as Adkins was then able to transfer
the Consular funds, which were held by Elles & Co, into Jamieson’s name.
It seems extraordinary that Sir Rutherford Alcock, the British Minister
at Peking, should put the Taiwan Consulate into the hands of Jamieson, a
3rd Assistant with less than 18 months’ experience, but that is what
happened and Jamieson arrived at Takow [打狗] on 29 February and took
charge of the Consulate. By 24 April 1868 Jamieson was reporting to
Alcock on disturbances relating to the activities of the missionaries,
who, though tolerated at Takow, were receiving a less friendly reception
in Tainan where riots had taken place. In May he was receiving pressure
from Elles & Co and Tait & Co to allow British ships to dock at West
Coast ports; ostensibly to load sugar and rice, but in all probability
to load camphor. These issues were still brewing when the unfortunate
John Gibson arrived to take over the Taiwan Consulate on 1 July 1868.
George Jamieson stayed on for a fortnight to brief Acting Consul Gibson
over these matters, but Gibson proved to be the wrong man to deal with
them.
From Taiwan, Jamieson was posted to Foochow [福州]
until 1870, when he returned to Shanghai with a promotion to Second
Assistant. With the traditional Scots urge to become a Barrister,
Jamieson returned to England and enrolled as a student of the Inner
Temple, Inns of Court, London, in November 1871, and went to the Middle
Temple in June 1873. Before returning to China, George Jamieson returned
to his Scottish home where he married Margaret Isabella Inkson, the
daughter of Patrick Inkson, a Farmer and JP, and Jane Falconer, at
Grange, Banff-shire, on 1 July 1873.
Jamieson returned to Shanghai with his wife
Margaret at the end of 1873, and their first child, Jane Eleanor
Jamieson, was born there on 11 September 1874. By now Jamieson was a
First Assistant, and was next promoted to Interpreter and transferred to
Chefoo [芝罘], where his next two daughters were born: Elsie Kate Jamieson
was born 24 October 1875; and Adelaide Mary Jamieson was born 24 June
1877. After moving to Pagoda Island [羅星塔] as Vice Consul in November
1877, he took home leave and was called to the English bar at the Middle
Temple on 6 June 1880. He returned to take up the post of Consul at
Kiukiang [九江], where his son Edgar George Jamieson was born 9 October
1882, until 1 April 1891, though he was absent from his post after 1
April 1886. During this period he returned to Scotland to place his two
youngest children, Adelaide and Edgar, in the care of their uncle Thomas
Inkson in Banff-shire for their education.
On 1 April 1891 George Jamieson was appointed the
British Consul at Shanghai and was concurrently appointed an Assistant
Judge at the Supreme Court for China and Japan, which was in Shanghai.
Jamieson was created a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St
George (C.M.G.) at the time of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in June
1897, and appointed Consul-General at Shanghai on 13 November 1897.
Jamieson remained an assistant judge at the Supreme Court until 1898,
but took early retirement, on the grounds of ill-health, from the China
Consular Service on 26 April 1899. After retirement he became a director
of the British and and Chinese Corporation.
Jamieson’s wife Margaret Isabella Jamieson,
formerly Inkson, died at Shanghai on 18 May 1896. His eldest daughter,
Jane Eleanor Jamieson, married William Bruce Robertson, a wealthy
Exchange and Bullion Broker, at Shanghai in 1897; she died on 28
September 1955 in London. His second daughter, Elsie Kate Jamieson,
married Ernest Wynne Martelli, a Barrister, the son of Charles Henry
Ansley Martelli, at Kensington, London, in 1901; Elsie died on 14
October 1952 in London. Jamieson’s third daughter, Adelaide Mary
Jamieson, married Arthur Gaitskell, of the Indian Civil Service, at
Kensington, London, in 1898; Adelaide died on 14 October 1956 in Sussex:
their third child was Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell, the Labour Party
politician. Jamieson’s only son, Edgar George Jamieson, followed in his
father’s footsteps, joining the China Consular Service in 1902; he
married Mabel Armitage, the daughter of William Henry Armitage and Sarah
Ann Blizard, at Kensington, London, in 1910; he died on 12 March 1959 at
Painswick, Gloucestershire.
George Jamieson C.M.G. died, aged 77, at his
home, 43 Onslow Square, South Kensington, London, on 30 December 1920.
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