Sir adrian swire biography of michael

Sir Adrian Swire, who died on 24th August aged 86, was a driving force in the fifth generation of his family’s Far Eastern transport, trading and real estate empire and a leader of the British shipping industry.  He worked in harmonious partnership with his elder brother Sir John, who maintained a strategic guiding hand while Adrian led many of the entrepreneurial initiatives that kept them abreast of economic and political developments in Hong Kong, ‘Greater China’ and beyond.

Adrian enjoyed a happy wartime childhood at Hubbards Hall, the family home near Harlow in Essex.  It was there that his ambition to fly was born, inspired by witnessing the Battle of Britain overhead.

He was educated first at St Peter’s Court prep school, which had been evacuated from Broadstairs to Devon.  There on the night of 23rd Januar