Manuscript Collection MS COLL 00081 - J. O. P. Bland Papers

John Otway Percy Bland was born in Malta, second son of Major-General E.L. Bland of County Antrim, Ireland. He was educated in Switzerland, at Victoria College, Jersey, and at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1883 he joined the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs and for some years was also private Secretary to Sir Robert Hart, resigning in 1896 to become Secretary to the Municipality for the Foreign Settlements at Shanghai. He became representative in China of the British and Chinese Corporation Ltd. in 1906, and negotiated four railway loans with the Chinese Government. In 1910 he resigned and left China. He had been Times Correspondent in Shanghai from 1897-1907 and in Peking, 1907-10. After his return to England he engaged chiefly in journalism. He published ten books under his own name, mainly on eastern affiars and current events. He is chiefly renowned for his collaboration with Sir Edmund Backhouse in China under the Empress Dowager, 1910, and Annals of the Court of Peking, 1913.