Historical person
John Kidston Swire
1893–1983
John Kidston Swire was a British businessman and a fourth-generation leader of the Swire family enterprise. He became chairman of John Swire & Sons during a period when the group had to recover from wartime disruption and the loss of much of its mainland Chinese business after 1949, refocusing its operations around Hong Kong, shipping, aviation and diversified commercial interests.
His career encompassed the disruption of the Second World War, the loss of mainland Chinese operations after 1949 and the rebuilding and diversification of the group around Hong Kong, shipping and aviation.
Robert Bickers’ China Bound follows John Kidston Swire as part of the later generations who inherited and reshaped the Swire commercial network built between Britain, China and the wider Pacific. Drawing on the firm’s archives, the book uses the family’s decisions, correspondence and businesses to show how a nineteenth-century trading house adapted to war, nationalism, political upheaval and the changing terms of Britain’s relationship with China.
Non Fiction
Non Fiction featuring John Kidston Swire (1 book)
Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.