William Tarrant (died 26 January 1872; Chinese: 泰倫; Cantonese Yale: Taailèuhn) was a civil servant and newspaper editor in British Hong Kong.
A man of "humble" origin,[1] Tarrant first arrived in China as a ship steward in 1837, before the cession of Hong Kong in 1841, and spent the next four years as a sailor in East Asia.
[2] Tarrant's health suffered from working outside in the Hong Kong climate, however,[3] and the Surveyor General, his superior, reshuffled him to the post of Registrar of Deeds, charged with the preparation of land leases.
Tarrant asked the government for his reinstatement and payment of his salary in arrears, but the office of Registrar of Deeds was abolished in September 1847 and Governor John Francis Davis refused to re-employ him.
[6] Excluded from the colonial administration, Tarrant decided to embark on a new career as a journalist, and in 1850 purchased The Friend of China, an influential Hong Kong newspaper, becoming its editor and publisher.
As editor of the Friend of China, he helped to publicise allegations that Daniel Richard Caldwell, the Registrar General, had been collaborating with members of the Chinese criminal underworld, including the pirate Ma-chow Wong.
[14] He spent his time in prison writing letters to other newspapers about abuses in the gaol[13] and, his case having received coverage in the colonial, Indian and United Kingdom press, the concern of the Secretary of State was aroused when Tarrant became the subject of debate in Parliament.
[14][15]: 621–2 His release was short-lived, however: Bridges obtained an order for costs incurred at trial (at which the entire bar appeared for the prosecution, leaving Tarrant without a barrister) in the enormous sum of HK$2,353.