David Fortune "Taffy" Landale, JP (Chinese: 蘭杜; 7 November 1905 – 15 December 1970), was a British-Hong Kong entrepreneur and politician who was chairman and managing director of Jardine Matheson & Co. from 1945 to 1951, during which he was appointed by the Hong Kong government as an unofficial member of the Executive Council from 1946 to 1951, as well as the senior unofficial member of the Legislative Council from 1946 to 1950.

Nevertheless, having considered the regional instability and the lukewarm response from the general public, the British government announced in 1952 that no major constitutional reform would take place in Hong Kong.

[2][4][5] His brother, a pilot of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, died in a plane crash in the North Sea when he was flying to Hanover, Germany, on a military mission in 1941.

[7] Landale's father had a long career in Jardine Matheson, serving for a time as chairman and managing Director of the firm.

[11] He started from the cash desk, spending his time mainly in Shanghai and Hong Kong, and was eventually appointed a director of the firm in 1936, a position that he held until his death in 1970.

[15] At that time, the future prospect of the firm was shadowed by uncertainties arising from the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War and the increasing instability in the Far East.

[18] He was stationed on HMS Queen Elizabeth and saw active service until 1943, when he retired from the Volunteer Reserve as a lieutenant and was appointed as the Minister of War Transport Representative in the Middle East.

[19] In 1945, Landale succeeded J. J. Paterson to become chairman and managing director of Jardine Matheson with a view to re-establishing the firm's business interests in Hong Kong, China, Japan and other places in the Far East.

[21] Despite that, by the time when the People's Republic of China was founded by the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, the firm still managed to maintain its China head office in Shanghai as well as its branch offices in Hankou, Fuzhou, Qingdao, Tianjin, Canton and Shantou, employing some 20,000 employees and having a total asset of around 30 million pound sterling in the mainland.

And when the Korean War broke out in 1950, Landale was forced to move the headquarters of Jardine Engineering Corporation from Shanghai to Hong Kong in face of the worsening relationship between China and the Western countries.

[16] Having experienced the turbulence in China, Landale tried to explore new business opportunities in Hong Kong during his chairmanship of Jardine Matheson.

[22] Further agreement was made between BOAC and the firm in 1949 to formally transfer the ownership of the airline to the latter, with Landale continuing to chair the board of directors.

[29][30] In 1947, the government started to require an increase in the extent of developments on some of the Rural Buildings Lots in offering re-grants to landowners, as a measure to cope with the influx of refugees from mainland China and the housing shortage.

[32] Landale was one of the members who were appointed to the War Revenue Committee by the government in October 1939, which was tasked to offer advice on the proposed new tax.

[36] He described the government as the "Dormouse", a character in the novel Alice in Wonderland, which would wake up to disclose a little bit more about the whole story only when the "Hatter" pours hot tea upon its nose.

[35][36] Yet, having considered the regional instability and the lukewarm response from the general public, Young's successor, Sir Alexander Grantham, concluded that it was not an appropriate time to implement the reform plan.

[35][36] Finally, the British government told the Parliament in October 1952 that except for increasing the number of elected seats in the Urban Council, no major constitutional reform would take place in Hong Kong.

[2] He retired from the Executive Council as well as the chairmanship of Jardine Matheson the next year, but he retained a seat in the board of directors of the firm.

[38] Although Landale lived in his hometown of Dalswinton, Dumfries, Scotland, he continued to travel to London frequently to manage his business interests.