Person    | Male  Born 12/11/1866  Died 12/3/1925

Sun Yat-Sen

Born in Guangdong province, China. A leader in the revolution which overthrew the Qing dynasty in China in 1911.

Qualified as a medical doctor in 1892 in Hong Kong. Often a wanted man in China he escaped at various times to Japan, United States and London.

Arrived in London on 3 October 1896. Dr James Cantlie, the Scotsman who had been Sun’s teacher and friend in Hong Kong, helped him find lodgings at 8 Gray’s Inn Place (no longer standing; site of the plaque). From here Sun could walk to the British Museum to study and walk to visit Dr Cantlie (probably in the Harley Street area).

However his route across London was badly chosen since, on Sunday 11 October as he walked to the Cantlie’s he was approached by some Chinese men who, while chatting with him, bundled him into a house which he found to be the Chinese Legation, at 49 Portland Place (now the Chinese Embassy). Here he was kept prisoner and fully expected to be smuggled back to China for execution.

On Saturday 17th Sun managed to get a message out to Cantlie who struggled to get anyone to take the situation seriously. He tried the police, the Foreign Office, the newspapers, the law. Eventually the press shamed the government into action and Sun was released on Friday 23rd, 12 days after his capture.

He spent some time recovering with the Cantlies and then returned to his political campaign, travelling the world and, following the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, he became President of the Republic of China.

This is a brief version of the story much better told at Kidnap in London. We are left wondering why Dr Cantlie does not have his own plaque.

Sun died in Beijing.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Sun Yat-Sen

Commemorated ati

Sun Yat-Sen

Sun Yat-Sen, 1866 - 1925, father of the Chinese Republic, lived in a house on...

Read More

Other Subjects

Nordahl Grieg

Nordahl Grieg

Norwegian poet, novelist, dramatist, journalist and political activist. Our Norwegian consultant, Johanne Elster Hanson, says that "Grieg adored England and spent many periods of his life here. He...

Person, Literature, Nationalism, Poetry, Norway

1 memorial
India House

India House

An informal Indian nationalist organisation founded in 1905 by Shyamji Krishna Varma at 65 Cromwell Avenue. The term is also used to describe the building in Highgate where many of the student adhe...

Group, Nationalism, Politics & Administration, India

2 memorials
Juan Pablo Viscardo y Guzman

Juan Pablo Viscardo y Guzman

Peruvian essayist, herald of Latin American Independence.

Person, Nationalism, Peru

1 memorial
Ugo Foscolo

Ugo Foscolo

Poet and patriot. Born Niccolò Foscolo on the island of Zakynthos, which was then part of the Republic of Venice (now Greece). His writings include 'Letters of Ortis' and the poem ' I Sepolcri'. Wh...

Person, Nationalism, Poetry, Greece, Italy

1 memorial
Cato Street Conspiracy

Cato Street Conspiracy

A plot to murder the Tory Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, and the whole cabinet, as they had dinner at a house on Grosvenor Square. The dinner had been announced in a newspaper but this was probabl...

Event, Nationalism, Politics & Administration

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Barlow, 'Duke of Shoreditch'

Barlow, 'Duke of Shoreditch'

From British History on-line:  "In the reign of Henry VIII., when Shoreditch was still a mere waste of fields, dotted with windmills and probably, like Islington (fields, much frequented by archers...

Person, Sport / Games

1 memorial
Sir Henry Meux

Sir Henry Meux

Henry Bruce Meux was born at 41 Brook Street into a wealthy brewery family and became the 3rd baronet. Theobalds, the family country seat, had been closed as a result of his father's insanity, but,...

Person, History, Property

1 memorial
Duke of Westminster, 2nd, Hugh Grosvenor

Duke of Westminster, 2nd, Hugh Grosvenor

Extremely wealthy man, grandson of the first duke.  Nick-named Bendor, a "jovial" reference to a lost symbol on their coat of arms (go read Wikipedia if this sort if thing interests you).   Had a 1...

Person, Politics & Administration, Property

1 memorial
P. Bishop

P. Bishop

Name on one of the main panels of the East Ham WW1 memorial.

Person

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Frederick George Scheib

Frederick George Scheib

Co-church warden of St James & St John, Clerkenwell in 1890. Frederick George Scheib was born on 4 June 1850, the younger son of Philip Scheib (c.1821 in Germany-1882) and Mary Scheib née Hunt...

Person, Politics & Administration

2 memorials