Registrar General's Department (Hong Kong)

The Registrar General's Department (Chinese: 總登記官署, later 登記總署 and 註冊總署) was the name of two different government agencies that existed in two different points of time in British Hong Kong. The portfolio of the departments bearing this name varied from overseeing the land and companies registries to regulating the colony's Chinese population, but the head of the department was always known as the Registrar General.

The first department (1844-1913)

The first department to bear the Registrar General's name was established in 1844 and is the predecessor of the modern Home Affairs Department. Properly known as the Census and Registration Office at the time of its creation, the agency was responsible for overseeing and regulating the Chinese community in Hong Kong.^[1] The agency was referred to as the Registrar General's Department in the Births and Deaths Registration Ordinance 1896.^[2]

The department was renamed the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, and the Registrar General retitled the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, with the passage of the Registrar General (Change of Name) Ordinance 1913.^[3] With that, the title fell into disuse.

The second department (1949-1993)

The second department to bear the name was created on 1 April 1949 as the product of a merger between the Marriage Registry, Land Office, Companies Registry, Trademarks Registry, the Office of the Official Receiver in Bankruptcy, and the Official Trustee's Office. Some of these functions were previously carried out by the Registrar of the Supreme Court and later the Land Officer, whose office was located in the Supreme Court Building on Jackson Road.^[4] The new Registrar General's Department remained at the Courts of Justice until 1959, when it relocated to the West Wing of the newly built Central Government Offices on Ice House Street. Its final location was in the Queensway Government Offices, where it was housed from 1986 to 1993.^[4]

The Registrar General was a legal officer under the Legal Officers Ordinance 1950, and the department was staffed by Assistant Crown Solicitors seconded from the Legal Department.^[5] In 1991, the department consisted of three divisions: the Land Office, the Commercial Division and the Official Receiver's Office. The Registrar General exercised the statutory powers of the Land Officer, Registrar of Companies, Registrar of Money Lenders, Official Receiver and Official Trustee.^[6]

The department was dissolved in 1993, with its functions taken up by the Immigration Department, the new Land Registry, the Intellectual Property Department, Companies Registry, and the Official Receiver's Office.

List of Registrars General

Registrars General, 1845–1912

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No.	Name	Term of office		Governor
1	Samuel Turner Fearon	1845	1845	Sir John Francis Davis (1844–1848)
2	Andrew Lysaght Inglis	16 July 1845	1849	Sir John Francis Davis (1844–1848)
2	Andrew Lysaght Inglis	16 July 1845	1849	Sir George Bonham (1848–1854)
3	William Thomas Mercer 馬撒爾	1 June 1849	1850
4	Charles May	1850	1856
4	Charles May	1850	1856	Sir John Bowring (1854–1859)
5	Daniel Richard Caldwell	15 November 1856	1862	Sir John Bowring (1854–1859)
5	Daniel Richard Caldwell	15 November 1856	1862	Sir Hercules Robinson (1859–1865)
6	Thomas Turner	23 May 1862	October 1864
7	Sir Cecil Clementi Smith	24 October 1864	1881
				Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell (1866–1872)
				Sir Arthur Kennedy (1872–1877)
				Sir John Pope Hennessy (1877–1882)
8	Sir James Russell 羅素	14 May 1881	1883	Sir John Pope Hennessy (1877–1882)
8	Sir James Russell 羅素	14 May 1881	1883	Sir George Bowen (1883–1885)
9	Frederick Stewart 史超域	2 April 1883	1887	Sir George Bowen (1883–1885)
10	James Stewart Lockhart 駱克	10 October 1887	1901	Sir William Des Voeux (1887–1891)
				Sir William Robinson (1891–1898)
				Sir Henry Arthur Blake (1898–1903)
11	Arthur Winbolt Brewin 蒲魯賢	15 March 1901	1912	Sir Henry Arthur Blake (1898–1903)
				Sir Matthew Nathan (1904–1907)
				Sir Frederick Lugard (1907–1912)