Follows (whose second name is also spelt Geoffrey) was born in West Derby, Lancashire,[1] to Arthur John Follows and Gertrude Lancaster.
[5] When civilian government was restored on 1 May 1946 he was appointed Financial Secretary of Hong Kong under governor Sir Mark Young.
[5] By running significant budget surpluses within a year of taking office, he made Hong Kong financially independent of UK government support, and in October 1948 the UK government granted Hong Kong a significant degree of financial independence.
[citation needed] Follows introduced the Inland Revenue Bill (1947) which made the temporary pre-war introduction of income tax permanent.
[citation needed] In budget forecasting he established a tradition of conservatism, with revenues usually underestimated and costs usually overestimated versus out-turns.