Paul Henry King

[1] Following the example of his maternal uncle, John Alexander Man (later known as Man-Stuart), who was personal secretary to Horatio Nelson Lay and Robert Hart, King joined the Chinese Maritime Customs Service and went to China in 1874.

Paul King served as Commissioner in several treaty port cities in China during a long career of forty-seven years, which he described in his memoir, In The Chinese Customs Service, which was first published in 1924, with a revised edition issued in 1930.

[6] He was appointed Commissioner at Canton (Guangzhou) in 1900, where he worked alongside and was a supporter of the Chinese Statesman, Li Hongzhang, during the period of the Boxer Uprising, when there was much uncertainty regarding the fate of the diplomatic enclave of Western nations in Peking (Beijing).

[3] King authored a number of works of fiction and non-fiction, both singly and writing in partnership with his wife (sometimes under the pseudonym, 'William A. Rivers'), exploring various social and class themes relating to life in the treaty ports of China, notably miscegenation or 'Eurasianism,' as it was then commonly termed.

[16] His obituary for the London Scottish Regiment described him as a great sportsman, his hobbies included: horse riding, fencing, boxing, skating, rowing, cricket, and golf.