Orders, Decorations and Medals

A rare and important Defence of Legations group awarded to Mr Arthur D. Brent, an employee of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, present throughout the Siege of Pekin

China 1900, 1 clasp, Defence of Legations (A. D. Brent, H.K.& S. Bank); U.S.A., Military Order of the Dragon, China 1900 (Arthur D. Brent, British Legation Defence. No. 738) complete with Pagoda top suspension bar and original ribbon; Peking Siege Commemoration Medal, bronze, 57 mm, impressed on the edge ‘A. D. Brent. (H.K. & S. Bank)’, contained in its J. Tayler Foot, Medallist, fitted case of issue, the lid embossed in gold letters ‘peking siege 1900. a. d. brent.’, together with original printed note by Arthur Brent which was issued with the medal in July 1903, extremely fine and extremely rare (3) £8000-10000

See front cover illustration

The Hongkong & Shanghai Bank’s Agent in Peking, Mr E. G. Hillier, was on leave when the Boxers, supported by regular Chinese forces, began the Siege of the Legations in June 1900. The Peking agency was in the charge of Mr J. K. Tweed, a young man who had come East only in 1894; he was assisted by Mr Arthur D. Brent, who had come East even more recently in 1897. Both gentlemen had some knowledge of the Chinese language and had been first assigned to Peking to improve on their elementary studies in London. They had handled the routine banking business while Hillier had been primarily concerned with loan negotiations. The Bank’s Peking office had burned down some two months before the uprising had begun. When the troubles broke out Tweed decided to move the cash into the safer British Legation compound. Accordingly a cart was hired, and while Tweed whipped on the camel, Brent ran along behind and picked up the dollars or bullion that fell out of holes made by snipers’ bullets.

A graphic account of the siege was written by Arthur Brent for Reuters which was published as ‘The Siege of Peking by one who went through it, Diary of a besieged resident’, in the London Daily News on 16 October, 1900. By chance his mother had been visiting him in Peking, and she too endured the siege; like many of the ladies, Brent reported, she bore up well in the crisis but suffered a relapse shortly thereafter. For their part in protecting the Bank’s interests throughout the siege, the Board of Directors awarded £750 and £500 to Tweed and Brent respectively, and their personal losses were met under the terms of the indemnity.

After the raising of the siege Brent was sent with the Bank’s mail to Shanghai where he arrived at the Manager’s office in his tattered Volunteer uniform with a month-old beard and still carrying a rifle. A keen amateur actor he later concluded that this was the most spectacular entrance of his career! Brent then proceeded to Tientsin which had itself been besieged; he found the agency remitting small sums for the troops of various nations, the Indians suspicious, the British complaining of the usual commission, and the Italians demanding sterling. To give the staff a rest the Manager, Hewat, closed the office for the Chinese New Year Holiday. The Peking and Tientsin Times objected, and Brent wrote a letter signed ‘Over-worked Bank Clerk’ (published 23 February 1901) in which he noted that customers have to recognize ‘that the bank is neither a philanthropic institution nor a systematic swindling institution’.

Brent subsequently became the Bank’s Agent in Tsingtau and, at the request of H.M.’s Minister in Peking, he served for three months, during 1911-12, as acting Vice-Consul in Tsingtau on the understanding that it involved only one hour’s work a day. In 1915 he became the Agent in Harbin where the Bank had positioned itself in an attempt to gain access to the finance of trade between Northern Manchuria, Siberia, and the markets to the south. Making use of his command of the German language, Brent went on to become post-war Manager of the Hongkong Bank in Hamburg.

The Peking Siege Commemoration Medal is a most interesting piece and rarely encountered. The accompanying explananatory leaflet states: ‘The writer had his wife and eldest son in the British Legation during the Siege, and the idea occurred to him, if he could get sufficient subscribers, to have these medals struck from designs made by some of the besieged, their original intention having been abandoned owing to those interested being dispersed to all parts of the world. As only a limited number of the medals have been made for those actually present at the Siege, it is hoped they will be an interesting souvenir for them to pass down to their descendants. Arthur Brent. 44, Great Tower Street, London, E.C., July, 1903.’

Arthur Brent’s personal papers are now held in Hongkong Bank Group Archives and acknowledgement is hereby made to them for much of the information given here.