The Senior Unofficial Member, later Senior Member and, finally, Convenor of the Non-official Members, was the highest-ranking unofficial member of the Legislative Council (LegCo) and Executive Council (ExCo) of British Hong Kong, which was tasked with representing the opinions of all unofficial members of the council to the Governor.

Ethnic Chinese members of either council were frequently referred to as "Chinese representatives" of the council before the introduction of elected seats in the LegCo; the most senior ethnic Chinese member was dubbed the "Senior Chinese Unofficial Member" (Chinese: 首席華人非官守議員) or "Senior Chinese Representative".

Background

The Executive Council and the Legislative Council were set up in 1843, initially composing of colonial administrators only. The councils were initially chaired by the Governor of Hong Kong. The colony's residents remained unrepresented until 1850, when the government appointed two businessmen to the LegCo, with David Jardine of Jardines as the first Senior Unofficial Member of the LegCo in the history of Hong Kong. It was not until 1896, on his appointment to ExCo, that Catchick Paul Chater became the Senior Unofficial Member.

Historically, ExCo Senior Unofficial Member importance greatly exceeded that of the LegCo counterpart, thus their term of office were longer. Before the Second World War, there were only three Senior Unofficial Members in ExCo, whereas there have been four LegCo Senior Unofficial Members. Initially, membership was restricted to Europeans; ethnic Chinese were admitted at a later date. The first ethnic Chinese to be appointed LegCo Senior Unofficial Member was Ho Kai, who held the post from 1906 to 1914. The first ethnic Chinese to be appointed ExCo Senior Unofficial Member was Chau Tsun-nin, who held the post from 1953 to 1959. Prior to Chau Tsun-nin, Chow Shouson was also ExCo Senior Unofficial Member when he stood in for three months following Henry Pollock.

Senior Unofficial Members of the ExCo would customarily be knighted if they were not already knights, although their LegCo counterparts would not. Pre-WWII ExCo and LegCo Senior Unofficial Member typically served renewable four- to five-year terms. Their seniority implied they would not remain as ordinary Legco/Exco members at the end of their terms, but would leave the council on expiry.

In 1985, indirect elections were introduced for the Legislative Council. To avoid confusion, Sir Edward Youde, the then-Governor, renamed the post Senior Unofficial Member in both councils "Senior Member". The introduction in 1991 of direct elections to the LegCo more than doubled the number of its members. The directly elected members refused to take orders from the Senior Member. The Senior Member at the time, Allen Lee, was unable to represent the council with a single voice and would occasionally have run-ins with the directly elected members. In 1992, Governor David Wilson abolished the LegCo post of Senior Member. In 1995, Governor Chris Patten renamed the ExCo post of Senior Member "Convenor of the Non-official Members".

During colonial times, the Urban Council also had a post entitled "Senior Unofficial Member", with a similar role. However, its importance was considerably less than its ExCo and LegCo counterparts.

Statistical overview

In total there have been 26 and 11 Senior Unofficial Members respectively of LegCo and ExCo. Of these, six have served as Senior Unofficial Members in both councils: Catchick Paul Chater, Sir Henry Pollock, Chau Tsun-nin, Kan Yuet-keung, Chung Sze-yuen and Lydia Dunn.

The longest serving Senior Unofficial Members of LegCo were Sir Henry Pollock and Phineas Ryrie, who sat for 24 and 22 years respectively; the three who served the shortest duration were George Lyall, John Dent and Kwok Chan, who sat for one year. Lydia Dunn was the only female; Dhun Jehangir Ruttonjee was the only Parsee; Roger Lobo was the only Portuguese.

The longest serving Senior Unofficial Members of ExCo was Catchick Paul Chater, who served a total of 30 years; the shortest tenures was Sir Sidney Gordon, serving under one year. Lydia Dunn was the first female ExCo Senior Unofficial Member. Chater was the only Senior Unofficial Member to die in office; Chau Tsun-nin and Chau Sik-nin were the only Senior Unofficial Members drawn from the same clan.

Executive Council

No.	Portrait	Name	Term	Governor	Remarks
1		Sir Catchick Paul Chater	1896–1926	Sir William Robinson Sir Henry Arthur Blake Sir Matthew Nathan Sir Frederick Lugard Sir Francis Henry May Sir Edward Stubbs Sir Cecil Clementi	Former LegCo Senior Unofficial Member (1900–1906); Died in office
2		Sir Henry Pollock	1926–1941	Sir Cecil Clementi Sir William Peel Sir Andrew Caldecott Sir Geoffry Northcote Sir Mark Aitchison Young	Also LegCo Senior Unofficial Member; [a]
Japanese occupation of Hong Kong (1941–1945)
3		Sir Arthur Morse	1946–1953	Sir Mark Aitchison Young Sir Alexander Grantham
4		Sir Tsun-nin Chau	1953–1959	Sir Alexander Grantham Sir Robert Brown Black	Previously LegCo Senior Unofficial Member; First Chinese Senior Unofficial Member
5		Sir Sik-nin Chau	1959−1962	Sir Robert Brown Black	Previously LegCo Senior Unofficial Member
6		Albert Rodrigues	1962–1974	Sir Robert Brown Black Sir David Trench Sir Murray MacLehose	First Portuguese Senior Unofficial Member
7		Sir Yuet-keung Kan	1974–1980	Sir Murray MacLehose	Previously LegCo Senior Unofficial Member
8		Sir Sidney Gordon	1980	Sir Murray MacLehose	Assumed office from March to August 1980
9		Sir Sze-yuen Chung	1980–1985	Sir Murray MacLehose Sir Edward Youde	Previously LegCo Senior Unofficial Member
Post renamed "Senior Member" in 1985
1		Sir Sze-yuen Chung	1985–1988	Sir Edward Youde Sir David Wilson	Previously LegCo Senior Unofficial Member
2		Dame Lydia Dunn	1988–1995	Sir David Wilson Chris Patten	Previously LegCo Senior Unofficial Member; First female Senior Official Member
Post renamed "Convenor of the Non-official Members" in 1995
1		Dame Rosanna Wong	1995–1997	Chris Patten
Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997 See List of Convenor of the Non-Official Members of the Executive Council of Hong Kong

Legislative Council

Term	Assembly	Portrait	Name	Constituency	Party		Entered LegCo
Senior Unofficial Member
1850–1857	–		David Jardine	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1850
1857–1860	–		Joseph Jardine	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1857
1860–1861	–		John Dent	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1857
1861–1864	–		Alexander Perceval	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1860
1864–1866	–		Francis Chomley	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1861
1866–1867	–		James Whittall	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1864
1867–1870	–		Hugh Bold Gibb	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1866
1870–1891	–		Phineas Ryrie	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1867
1891–1905	–		Catchick Paul Chater	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1886	[b]
1905–1914	–		Ho Kai	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1890
1914–1917	–		Wei Yuk	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1896
1917–1940	–		Henry Edward Pollock	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1906	[b][a]
1940–1941	–		John Johnstone Paterson	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1930
Japanese occupation of Hong Kong (1941–1945)
1946–1950	–		David Fortune Landale	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1946
1950–1953	–		Chau Tsun-nin	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1946	[c]
1953–1959	–		Chau Sik-nin	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1946	[c]
1959–1961	–		Ngan Shing-kwan	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1951
1961–1962	–		Kwok Chan	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1952
1962–1968	–		Dhun Jehangir Ruttonjee	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1953
1968–1972	–		Kan Yuet-keung	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1961	[c]
1972–1974	–		Woo Pak-chuen	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1964
1974–1978	–		Chung Sze-yuen	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1965	[c]
1978–1981	–		Oswald Cheung	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1968	[1]
1981–1985	–		Roger Lobo	Appointed		Nonpartisan	1972	[2]
Senior Member
1985–1988	1985–88		Lydia Dunn	Appointed		Independent	1976	[c][3]
1988–1992	1988–91 1991–95		Allen Lee	Appointed		Independent (1978–91)	1978	[4]
						CRC (1991–93)
Highest in order of precedence
1992–1997	1991–95 1995–97		Allen Lee	Appointed (1978–95) New Territories North-east (1995–97)		CRC (1991–93)	1978
						Liberal (1991–98)
1997–1998	PLC		Wong Siu-yee	N/A		LDF (1996–97)	1996
						HKPA (1997–98)
1998–2004	1st 2nd		Kenneth Ting	Industrial (First)		Liberal	1998
2004–2008	3rd		James Tien	Appointed (1988–91)		LDF (1988–91)	1988 Continuous from 1998
				Industrial (First) (1993–95)		BPF (1993)
						Liberal (1993–2008)
				Commercial (First) (1998–2004) New Territories East (2004–08)
2008–2016	4th 5th		Albert Ho	New Territories West (1995–97)		Democratic	1995 Continuous from 1998
				New Territories West (1998–2012) District Council (Second) (2012–16)
2016–2020	6th		James To	Kowloon West (1991–95) Kowloon South-west (1995–97)		UDHK (1991–94)	1991 Continuous from 1998
						Democratic (1994–2020)
				Kowloon West (1998–2012) District Council (Second) (2012–20)
2020–2021	6th		Abraham Shek	Real Estate and Construction		BPA	2000
2022–	7th		Tommy Cheung	Catering		Liberal	2000