Vandeleur Molyneux Grayburn
Sir Vandeleur Molyneux Grayburn (28 July 1881 – 21 August 1943) was the chief manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation from 1930 to 1943. He was the most powerful financier in the Far East in the 1930s, and took an important role in establishing Hong Kong dollar as the official currency of the colony. During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong in World War II, Grayburn was arrested for providing monetary and logistics aid to military prisoners and bank employees held hostage, imprisoned, and later died at Stanley Prison. Early life and career Grayburn was born on 28 July 1881 in England. His grandfather was Rev. William Grayburn serving in Dublin, Ireland. He was the youngest son of William Echlin Grayburn and Margaret Ellen Markham Grayburn with three brothers and three sisters. He was educated in Jersey and at Denstone College in Staffordshire. Upon leaving school he joined the bank of Leatham, Tew & Co in Goole. He joined the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) in 1900. He first worked as an assistant at the London office and in 1904 was transferred to the Far East. He had stationed in the Hong Kong head office, branches in