David John Beaves

Following up from the already posted message……meeting by chance as K&I protested and David trying to pass through on sidewalk.

David was a very kind and generous person, we did not know him deeply but have met him many times over the last 16 years (for me (Peter) I met him some 30 years ago).

Thoughtful, kind, considerate, embracing; a proud family father some of the words you would describe him by (and who partied like James Bond)

David met Carmen in the Philippines during my late husband Mike’s stag do. When David returned from a business meeting one evening, he told Mike that he had met the woman he was going to marry.

Three years later in 1993, Mike was his best man and this is his wedding speech.

Mike, my late husband with David 2012. They were kindred spirits now having a great time in heaven.

For David Saturday Jan 31, 2026

I was with Carmen that day she mentioned that she knelt for a very long time on the bare marble floor of the Chapel of the Miraculous Medal on Rue de Bac, Paris. Enroute back to our hotel in the Metro I told Carmen, “Gee whatever you were praying for, it had better be worthwhile.” And a few months later she met David thanks to Chuchu here.

As Chuchu mentioned, Carmen is incorrigibly late. She was more than an hour late for her wedding to the point some guests inquired , “Is she coming?”.

A most infuriating habit and I wondered if the marriage would endure. But when Carmen was delayed for the post-wedding trip with friends to Boracay, and David was all but ready to lie on the tarmac to keep the plane from flying I said, “Oh this will work.”

On the professional side my partner ran the Philippine branch of a swashbuckling investment banking firm that crash and burned in the late-90’s. He asked if I knew a lawyer, that he needed a capable one to deal with the liquidators from America. I said I knew a lawyer , a local from HK, but that I also knew David, British, that he is tall, has a commanding presence but that he specialized in maritime law. My partner said, “I’ll take the Brit. And David made the deal happen. He also helped my family in some trying situations. For that was David, a solver. Coming from a family of lawyers I appreciated David who was always positive and fixed sooner than later cases he worked on. He will be missed.

David was great company to be with. While having a meal at this very home, while Carmen chatted with staff in the vernacular I asked David, “How’s your Filipino? He replied, “I don’t know Beng. Am still working on my English.”

As a husband and a father whenever David looked at Carmen you could read in his eyes such deep admiration and a love that will last forever.

And when he spoke of his boys he was so full of pride and joy. Nicholas, Henry and William, you all are a credit to your father, may his goodness and memory live on in you.

I was with Carmen that day she mentioned that she knelt for a very long time on the bare marble floor of the Chapel of the Miraculous Medal on Rue de Bac, Paris. Enroute back to our hotel in the Metro I told Carmen, “Gee whatever you were praying for, it had better be worth it!”.
A few months later she met David thanks to Chuchu here.

As Chuchu mentioned, Carmen is incorrigibly late, she kept me waiting for two hours on a cold London afternoon at the front porch of a flat she alone had the keys for. She was more than an hour late for her wedding to the point some guests inquired , “Is she coming?”.

A most infuriating habit and I wondered if the marriage would endure. But when Carmen was delayed for the post-wedding trip with friends to Boracay, and David was all but ready to lie on the tarmac to keep the plane from flying I said, “Oh this will work.”

On the professional side my partner ran the Philippine branch of a swashbuckling investment banking firm that crash and burned in the late-90’s. He asked if I knew a lawyer, that he needed an imposing one to buy the branch with the American liquidators. I said I knew a lawyer , a local from HK, but that I also knew David, British, that he is tall, a commanding presence but that he specialized in shipping law.
My partner said, “I’ll take the Brit”. David made the deal happen.

He also fixed complicated cases for my family. For that was David, a solver. Coming from a family of lawyers I appreciated David who was always positive and fixed sooner than later cases he worked on. He will be missed.

David was great company to be with. While having a meal at this very home, while Carmen chatted with staff in the vernacular I asked David, “How’s your Filipino?.

He replied, “I don’t know Beng. Am still working on my English.”

As a husband and a father whenever David looked at Carmen you could read in his eyes such deep admiration and a love that will last forever.

And when he spoke of his boys he was so full of pride and joy. Nicholas, Henry and William, you all are a credit to your father, may his goodness and memory live on in you.

I will always be grateful to David for his kindness and generosity to me when I first arrived in Hong Kong. I knew no one in Hong Kong and my wife had to return to the UK to await the arrival of our first born son Alistair; my partners at my then law firm went off on holiday and I felt very much alone. David took me under his wing and made sure that I was occupied and entertained during this period. He had no reason to do so: I was working for a competitor (albeit not much of one) and was a callow ‘new bug’ whilst he was even then an old China Hand! The fact that he looked after me just demonstrated his kind heart and good fellowship.
He was a formidable lawyer - he could be tough and prevailed in many a negotiation by dint of his energy and stamina. He could grind the opposite side down by simply depriving them of sleep!
I saw his Macbeth and I can honestly say it was extraordinary. I have seen many professional Shakespearean actors, but David brought the language to life in a way I had never heard before: his rhythm, intonation, accentuation and natural delivery made the meaning of every phrase as clear as if it was written in the plainest modern idiom.
He liked to play the reactionary old buffer and loved to pepper the conversation with incendiary statements from time to time, but the twinkle in his eye betrayed him, and we weren’t fooled for a minute because we knew him to be the most soft-hearted of men.
He loved life and he crammed a lot into his time. Above all he loved Carmen and his family. They can all feel as proud of him as he was of them.
I will miss him terribly. I bitterly regret that I did not spend more time with him, but I suspect that however much time I spent with him I would regret not spending more - I don’t think one can say more of anyone.

Wan and I feel privileged to have known David, who was always lovely company even in the midst of health challenges that would have made most of us depressing company indeed.

We admired this resilience as well as his many other fine qualities as a professional and a citizen, as a husband to amazing Carmen and as a father to accomplished sons Nicholas, Henry and William.

In our experience, David was unfailingly kind and polite, generous of spirit and as a host, interested and engaged with the news of the day, however much it dismayed him at times, always with a readiness to amuse and be amused.

We have no difficulty believing and endorsing the many fulsome tributes paid to David by many others.

He is already much missed.

I have little to add to the beautiful tributes already paid to David—a man granted an abundance of talents, successes, and humanity. I want to talk instead about the man I came to know through the eyes of Carmen, specifically during those "fretting hours" between their first meeting and getting married.

Carmen and I were returning to Singapore after a long weekend at Club Med Kuantan when she mentioned an imminent date with an "English Lawyer in Hong Kong." Now, I have known Carmen for years, and I had never seen her flustered. Usually, even when dramatically late—a not infrequent occurrence—she appears perfectly composed with a big smile.

But this time? The pre-date conversation fluttered between: “Will he, won’t he?”, “Can I even remember how to play this game?” and, “Well, we’re not getting any younger, and he’ll be a good father.”

Clearly, the date was a success and worth all the emotional upheaval. Carmen was, as usual, absolutely right. David proved to be a loving husband and a wonderful father to their three boys—now decent, interesting and delightful young men.

To be honest, I was expecting a somewhat entitled, "post-colonial Englishman in Asia" type of character. Instead, I met a man whose kindness and humanity shone through his eyes. He had a Big Brain without the attendant ego—no pushover, and perhaps with just a touch of that confident “gwailou in Asia" charm—making him a perfect match for my dear friend.

And he clearly adored her just as she is.

How many men would agree to take a posse of the bride’s friends on their honeymoon? How many grooms would stand at the altar for an hour—or was it 90 minutes?—because the bride was late? Only a man who believed in himself, who truly loved his woman, and who was prepared to take risks and be vulnerable.

As a husband, a father, and a human being, life shaped David Beaves into a very good man. What more can one ask for?

In Norwegian, we say: «Må Fred lyse over ditt minne.»
May peace and light shine over our memories of you, David.

Eulogy delivered by Charles Sussex:

David always declared himself to be an Englishman through and
through, with a deep love of Shakespeare. Whenever we consulted our diaries to fix a lunch engagement, David would come out with the line “If it were done, when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly”. That, of course, is a quotation from Macbeth. I could never quite work out why planning the murder of King Duncan was in any way comparable with having lunch with me. But, as you have heard, David played the title role in a production of Macbeth by the Hong Kong Players. Although the Scottish Play is Shakespeare’s shortest, to remember all those lines is no mean feat.

On one of the last occasions I saw David, he told me that he was trying to keep “the little grey cells” in working order by memorising the famous monologue by Jacques from As You Like it, which begins “All the world’s a stage And all the men and women merely players they have their exits and their entrances
And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages”.

David made his entrance, as far as I am concerned, in 1981, when he first came to Hong Kong. We were both working for Sinclair Roche, and we hit it off immediately. David was highly intelligent, very articulate, and most importantly of all he had a very good sense of humour, and a finely tuned sense of the ridiculous. He had a lively interest in books, music, theatre, films, food, wine, and (remember this was BCE – before the Carmen era) he enjoyed the company of women. He always seemed to have an attractive woman in tow. He was then 26, and in the third age described by Shakespeare – that of the lover. “Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad made to his mistress’ eyebrow”

I don’t remember that any of the women with whom David consorted in those days had eyebrows so remarkable that he was inspired to immortalise them in verse. Indeed, I am bound to say that it comes as a surprise to me that David ever earned the reputation of being the most eligible bachelor in Hong Kong. Although he did see off competition when he acted as best man, in this very church, at my wedding in 1982. Thereafter he was godfather to my eldest daughter, who was born in 1986.

We enjoyed some pretty riotous times in the 80s. One in particular comes to mind. A mutual friend had chartered a 35 foot sailing boat, and we decided to take it out for the day. We sailed off to Sunshine Island, where we anchored, had a very bibulous lunch, and went for a swim. As light was fading we decided to head back. At some stage somebody, rather unwisely, suggested that we should “splice the mainbrace”. In consequence a bottle of Lamb’s Navy Rum was produced and opened, and we sipped as we tacked back up the harbour. It rapidly became apparent that we should not be in charge of a boat. Upon taking down the sails, we motored in to the Yau Ma Tei typhoon shelter, having mistaken it for the Yacht Club.

Another occasion reminds me of David’s visceral love of music. He was coming for lunch at our home in Chung Hum Kok. I heard his car drive up and park in the area under our flat. David did not emerge. Gradually I caught the unmistakeable strains of the fourth movement of Mahler’s 1st Symphony wafting upwards from his car. David did not move until it was over, so caught up was he in Gustav Mahler’s wonderful music. What I hadn’t realised was that David had been broadcasting to the entire block where we lived. A neighbour, who taught bassoon at the Academy for the Performing Arts, mentioned it to me a few days later.

I was away from Hong Kong for most of the 90s, but I did see David when I was here, and stayed with him on occasion. And he visited me when he was in England. But the 90s were very significant, because it was then that he met and married Carmen, whom David confided to me on more that one occasion had been the making of him. David and Carmen produced 3 fine sons, of whom David was extremely proud. In fact, he once told me that he thought that Carmen was far more intelligent than he was. I told him that I was sure he was right, but that it probably wasn’t a good idea for him to share that particular opinion with Carmen.

From that time the closest that David got to Shakespeare’s description was of the fifth age, when he was senior partner of his local firm, “In fair round belly with good capon lin’d with eyes severe and beard of formal cut. Full of wise saws and modern instances” Here we depart from Jacques’ famous monologue, because David most assuredly did not shift “into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon”, let alone “second childishness”.

Although in his later years David suffered many health setbacks, he remained intellectually vigorous, and extremely good company. Ogden Nash once observed that “senescence begins and middle age ends the day your descendants outnumber your friends”. David, deservedly, had no shortage of friends.
Psalm 90 verse 10 in the King James Version of the Bible, which was completed in 1611 (during the lifetime of William Shakespeare) tells us that “the days of our years are threescore years and ten”. Very sadly, David was not able to play into extra time. But his threescore years and ten were packed with varied and vivid experiences, much love, and great fulfilment. In particular, he had the considerable satisfaction of a very happy marriage and a joyous family life. David was a very good friend. I shall miss him enormously.

Eulogy for our father:

Anyone who knew my father knew that he didn’t start with much in life. He grew up in Bexleyheath, a small town on the outskirts of London. His father was a livestock auctioneer and his mother Mary was devoted to the upbringing of her two boys. From a young age, he understood the importance of a solid education, not only for its intellectual benefit but for the character it cultivates. He truly believed that nothing can replace hard work, and that you must try your best and apply yourself fully to everything you do. He truly embodied this belief; he worked as a bin man and a newspaper delivery boy during the holidays. He spent countless hours studying and did so even in the depths of winter, when the family couldn’t afford heating.

My father was also a risk taker. He was the first in his family to go to university, Cambridge University no less where he excelled as a rower. He was also the first to live and work abroad, more than 9000km from home. Without this appetite for risk and adventure, he would never have met our mother Carmen, where his story truly blossoms.

He arrived in Hong Kong in 1981 as a fresh faced solicitor at the age of 26. Clasped with a book in one hand and a telephone in the other, his first mission was to assist in a listing, which, despite his intellect, he had no knowledge of or experience in. Yet, he secured the deal. It was the start of a distinguished law career at Sinclair Roche and Temperley, becoming partner in 1984 at the age of 29. He was a brilliant lawyer, a visionary leader, and a generous mentor. In 2002 he moved to INCE & CO. where he concentrated on building a ship finance practice from the ground up. He saw it as the final piece of the puzzle, transforming Ince into a true one-stop shop for the shipping world. But for him, Ince was more than just a firm; it was home where he stayed for more than 20 years, with various partners worldwide becoming his extended family. Under his guidance, what started with a single assistant grew into ten solicitors - he built not just a practice but a legacy.

He combined the theatre of law with that of the stage. He was an esteemed member of the Hong Kong Players, and took on major roles such as MacBeth and the Sheriff of Nottingham just hours after work. In 1990, he was in Hanoi, as the Vietnamese government then starting to engage with the West. He told the Ministry of Shipping that he had to leave for Hong Kong as he was on stage that night in “A Midsummer Night´s Dream”, the dignitaries urged him to bring the play to Hanoi. He did, performing in the first ever Shakespeare in English in Vietnam, and in the National Theatre too. The gala night saw the attendance of Government and Ambassadors alike. and ticket touts outside the theatre. A distinguished actor, unlike many others, without the ego.

It is not an understatement to say that he was the most eloquent and well-read person I have ever known. My brothers and I said he was a human dictionary; if we were ever unsure of a word’s meaning, he would reply with an uncannily precise definition. His command and enjoyment of the English language was admirable and so rare these days.

His burgeoning reputation in Hong Kong earned him the unofficial title of, not that our mother would like to hear, the most eligible bachelor in Hong Kong. My brothers and I hope that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Among the pretension and artificiality of the modern world, he was a refreshingly honest man. He maintained that he never enjoyed happy clappy music. He lived and died by the notion that handkerchiefs were still in vogue, despite me and my brothers agreeing that they are in fact out of fashion and unhygienic. He regularly professed his love for the archers, despite the fact that no one this century, other than cattle herders, tune in to the programme.

He was immensely proud of me and my brothers (from some reason) and instilled in us the same values that he carried throughout his life. He regularly told me to treat others as you would like to be treated. Whenever I made mistakes or suffered hardship, he always said that if I told the truth and be myself, no one can ask for anything more. Never once did he make me feel alone in these tough moments.

He often remarked that if it was left solely to him, me and my brothers would be running around in loincloths with bones through our noses. While that amusingly reflects his own shortcoming, it reveals something more significant - his wife and our mother, Carmen. He lived in constant adoration of her. Whenever she was away, or even out of the room, he would remind us that he didn’t deserve someone as truly remarkable as her, and that we must take care of her as long as we live. He regularly mentioned that he truly I know that the best thing to ever happen to him was meeting my mother.

His health faltered over the last few years, but never did his razor sharp wit, nor pride for his wife and sons. He left us in the knowledge that we could take it from here. He cultivated a loving family that will support each other for as long as we’re around. He started as a man from modest beginnings, and leaves all of us today and his family in particular, with so much.

Damien Laracy: Eulogy for David Beaves
St. Joseph’s Church, Garden Road, Hong Kong
10:30 am Saturday 31 January 2026

Good morning everybody.

Looking around the room, this could be a HK Maritime Week event.

My recollections this morning will be of David as a boss, a lawyer, and a colleague.

In preparing these words I have had the benefit of material from many sources, including from David's protégés - now my partners - Gary Wong and Janice Lee, and from Jim James. Gary and Janice became acquainted with David during their time together at Ince & Co and there are many former colleagues from those days here today who, like me, were blessed to have worked alongside David.

My own chronology with David predates his time with Inces however, back to when David and Carmen occupied a Bond-like apartment on Magazine Gap Road in the 1990's, with its own funicular for access.

And so, and notwithstanding the collaboration with my Hill Dickinson partners on the following material, if some of what follows is autobiographical it is simply because David was hugely influential in my early years in Hong Kong in the 1990's. But I also suspect that some of what follows reflects the experience of other junior lawyers who worked with David.

I arrived in Hong Kong via Auckland and London in January 1995, with a backpack and an overdraft, and started work with Sinclair Roche & Temperley, or SRT, on the 42nd floor of the Bank of China Tower. I had been interviewed by David’s good friend and SRT partner, Peter Murray. I was a junior general commercial litigator who had been hired to supplement the established marine practice. I was very pleased to be working in the 2nd tallest building in Asia and some might say that I burned the candle at both ends.

David headed the corporate team at SRT Hong Kong when I arrived. However, shortly after I arrived he succeeded Ian Gaunt as the Hong Kong office Managing Partner and office head. It was then that I began to receive the odd reprimand from David about office hours ........ and something about not burning a candle at both ends.

But, to my eternal good fortune, David's words to me were always pastoral rather than punitive.

Before arriving in Hong Kong in 1981 – on what was meant to be a 6 week secondment with SRT – David had done his Articles in London with Rowe and Moore.

Although David was a transactional lawyer, his value to the SRT office stretched well beyond his personal practice and his administration role. That is to say, because of his strong training in London, and due also to his pragmatism and warm demeanour, clients were very comfortable with him. As a result he was a prodigious introducer of a wide variety of work for us disputes lawyers at SRT.

It was through David's connections that I was introduced to a client that followed me when I set up a practice with another SRT colleague in June of 2002. A long running piece of commercial litigation for that client (a complex shareholder's dispute for an Indian billionaire) finally went to trial in early 2004. My fledgling new firm won the 25 day trial for the client. But for today's purposes, the real point is that as a new proprietor of a small Hong Kong law firm I could not have hoped for a stronger start than that; a 25 day trial to prepare for and conduct .........and behind it all was the introduction from David.

So I owe David a huge personal debt, as do others in this church today, not just for his pastoral interest in young lawyers and their careers, but also for the kind and generous professional introductions that he made.

David is also due rich thanks for his enthusiastic mentoring of junior lawyers - both as to technical legal skills but also in the ways of business development, marketing, client care and work ethic.

David's stature never overshadowed his humanity and his humility. He was extremely generous with his time beyond the billable hour, lending his expertise pro bono to institutions like the Hong Kong Maritime Museum, the Chartererd Institute of Transport and Logistics and to the Hong Kong Society of Notaries.

Whilst David was a fine lawyer, he never took himself too seriously. I am told by the Inces cohort - and I see many Ince people and alumni here this morning, inlcudig Rosita Lau - that there was a very memorable evening when David did a turn as Austin Powers at a Standard Chartered Bank charity event dancing with a randomness previously unseen.

David was a giant in his field, yet he showed his trainees, like my current HD partner Janice Lee, a very relatable side. That made David so much more of a motivational force for aspiring young lawyers.

David's wisdom was passed down in many forms. Some more healthy than others. For example, before discussions about complex deal structures the first thing he passed to Gary was a Silk Cut cigarette, sharing moments of camaraderie and quiet reflection in the office.

On the subject of work ethic, David was sending emails up until the end and I have wondered to myself recently whether I should have cut off David's work email access during his last days in hospital. However, I have made peace with myself on the basis that he would have rebuked me for even raising the issue. Because the fact is that David hugely enjoyed his worklife, and the interaction with the professional community in which he became so embedded. That is why he so tenaciously kept up his caseload, showing great fighting spirit as various ailments collaborated against him.

As to David’s character his friend and former SRT colleague, Nigel Taylor, said the following in a recent email:

“David was always an incredibly positive person and an inspiration to all around him. He will be greatly missed. He was also the ultimate gentleman, who exuded old-fashioned courtesies and charm.”

In closing, it was a huge privilege to be reunited with David professionally in 2023. And of course it's one of life's beautiful ironies - really quite theatrical - that I stand here now speaking fondly of a man, my former boss, who on more than one occasion chastised me in the 1990's.

David, from all of your friends and colleagues across the decades, very many thanks, and rest in peace.

Remarks at David’s memorial service from the Hong Kong Maritime Museum, delivered by Richard Hext :

David Beaves and his supporting team from Hill Dickinson, and before that, Ince, have been a blessing to the Hong Kong Maritime Museum. David was a senior advisor to the museum since well before its inception- helping guide the museum's founders, boards and staff over 23 years from “just an idea“ to a 50,000 square foot leading public private partnership on the Central Waterfront.

The museum’s staff are not experienced in legal matters. So David took on their burden....whether it was a matter of general business or of drawing up a staff employment contract, a government subvention agreement, a property lease agreement, a construction or architectural contract, a museum object donation or loan agreement, a matter of corporate governance for the museum’s complicated structure (which includes two trusts and one limited company under section 88 of the inland revenue ordinance), a mainland Chinese exhibition or collaboration agreement… you get the picture. Whatever it was, he was gentle and wise and, when needed, tough- but always with a great sense of humour.

David and the Hill Dickinson team, whom he often called in for additional expertise, did all this pro bono because the museum exists for public benefit and is always short of money. The museum’s purpose is to inspire and remind Hong Kong’s citizens and tourists regarding the importance of the seas around us. Indeed, without its maritime connections, Hong Kong would barely exist. Also ,without the world's water systems, including its seas, we would not exist ! This purpose resonated strongly with David as a leading Hong Kong maritime lawyer. David repeatedly said that his work for the HK Maritime Museum was “the most meaningful work I do“.

Nor did David ever seek praise or public recognition. He just went quietly and efficiently about his work for the HKMM he loved. David was a jewel and the Hong Kong Maritime Museum will never forget him.

David truly cared about those who worked for him. He is the kind of person I aspire to be.

These two photos were taken during the Christmas dinner at his home on 23 December 2018.