Updated December 19, 2014
[Master, Perseverance Lodge 1165 (1883)]
Selected bibliography: Hong Kong Telegraph, November 23, 1882.
temp. notes:
MRCS, LM (Eng.); LRCP (Edin.) August 1, 1865. Hong Kong 1873. Hong Kong Government, Colonial Surgeon November 4, 1873. Registered to practice Hong Kong May 3, 1884 through 1888. Residence: #27 Caine Road 1884.
[Ayres was one of the first nine doctors who registered as medical practitioners in Hong Kong immediately following the enactment of the "Medical Registration Ordinance, 1884" that required all doctors to be licensed before they could treat patients for monetary reward. The nine were:
William Stanley Adams,
Philip Bernard Chenery Ayres,
Johann Gerhard Heinrich Gerlach,
Antonio Simplieio Gomes,
William M. Hartigan,
John H. Lockhead,
Patrick Manson,
James Stockwell, and
Richard Young.]
Selected bibliography: The Hong Kong Government Gazette, November 8, 1873, Notice #172; May 3, 1884, Notice; May 5, 1888, Notice #181.
The last Colonial Surgeon (1873-1897)
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| Philip Bernard Chenery Ayres |
b.July 13, 1840 Oxfordshire – d. October 12, 1899 Kent; son of Philip Burnard Ayres (M.D., London; Chief Medical Officer of the Civil Hospital, Mauritius; lecturer in chemistry at Charing Cross Hospital); M.R.C.S.Eng; M.L.R.C.P.Edin; government medical officer posted in Mauritius and India; arrived in Hong Kong (November 1873) to take up the position of Colonial Surgeon and Inspector of Hospitals (and would become the longest serving Colonial Surgeon – twenty four years); the following establishment were under the purview of the Colonial Surgeon: Police, Troops, Government Civil Hospital, Tung Wah Hospital, Victoria Gaol, Lock Hospital, Health of the Colony, and Sanitation, the Lunatic Asylum was added in 1884 when it as established; annual salary GBP600, allowed to carry on private practice whilst holding the public office aiming to make up the difference of GBP200 ( Ayres had asked for GBP800 per year); oversight the opening of the Government Civil Hospital; instituted the nursing staff of trained nurses from the London Hospital (1889); played a pivotal role in fostering a higher standard in sanitation including institutionalized the Sanitary Board (1883); handled the epidemic of Plague (1894); Master of the Hong Kong Masonic Order, Officer of the District Grand Lodge of China; health began to fail in 1895; home leave (1896, this is the first and only home leave Ayres had ever took since arriving in 1873); retired (1897); died two years later at the age of 59; wrote in his last report before retiring, "What all my reports could not do the epidemic has done.", referring to the drastic improvement in sanitation standard following the epidemic; after his retirement, the position of Colonial Surgeon was changed to Principal Civil Medical Officer.
Annual Salary of some government officials in 1875 (in GBP)
| Chief Judge | 2,500 | |
| Puisne Judge | 1,700 | |
| Attorney General | 1,000 | |
| Postmaster General | 900 | |
| Registrar General | 800 | |
| Captain Superintendent of Police | 800 | |
| Superintendent of the Gaol | 700 | |
| Colonial Surgeon | 600 | |
(It will be interesting to find out why the Postmaster General was so generously paid...)
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