Sir John Bowring (1792-1872), Linguist and traveller; Politician and diplomatist

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Linguist, writer and traveller; promoted reforms to the keeping of public accounts and obtained the issue of the florin as the first step towards a decimal system of currency. Friend of John Stuart Mill and editor of the radical 'Westminster Review'; after a varied career as journalist, poet, financial and economic expert. MP, traveller and diplomat, became consul at Canton, 1847; later appointed plenipotentiary to China and governor commander-in-chief and vice -admiral of Hong Kong; undertook hostilities against the Chinese, 1856, and with Palmerston's support withstood a vote censure.