A socially conscious
businessman, Sir Phineas was renowned for promoting freedom of speech
in the Legislative Council. He also spoke out against legalising
gambling, which makes his appointment as the inaugural Jockey Club
chairman somewhat surprising, despite his known love of racing.
He was a sporting enthusiast. He introduced rabbits to Stonecutters'
Island so he could shoot them. But the rabbits failed to reproduce.
Perhaps they knew Sir Phineas was watching. His two brothers made
their names at sea. One brother, Alexander, drowned in 1855, when
his ship, Jardine Matheson's Audax, was lost with all hands during
a typhoon en route from Shanghai to Hong Kong. The older brother
John Ryrie was famous as the captain of Jardine Matheson's big tea
clipper, the "Cairngorm".
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