Sir Sze-yuen Chung, (; 3 November 1917 – 14 November 2018), often known as Sir S.Y. Chung, was a Hong Kong politician and businessman who served as a Senior Member of the Executive and Legislative Councils during the 1970s and 1980s in the colonial period and the first non-official Convenor of the Executive Council in the SAR period. For his seniority in the Hong Kong political arena, he was nicknamed the "Great Sir" and "Godfather of Hong Kong politics". An-engineer-turned-politician, Chung was appointed to various public positions by the colonial government including the chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries (FHKI) in the 1960s before he was an Unofficial Member of the Legislative and Executive Councils. As a Senior Member of the Executive Council, Chung was involved heavily in the Sino-British negotiations on the Hong Kong sovereignty in the early 1980s, in which he sought to voice the concerns on the behalf of the Hong Kong people between the Chinese and British governments. After his retirement from the colonial positions in 1988, he began to take Beijing appointments of pre-handover posts. In 1997, he was invited by Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa to become the first Convenor of the Non-official Members of the SAR Executive Council until his second retirement in 1999. Early life and education Chung was born in British-ruled Hong Kong on 3 November 1917 with a family root of Fatshan, Kwangtung Province. He was the eldest son of his father's third wife and the fifth of his eight sons. His father was an importing metal merchant. He attended the Anglo-Chinese schools including St. Paul's College and was a member of the St. John's Ambulance and lifesaver of the Royal Life Saving Society as a youth. After he graduated from St. Paul's College in 1936, he went to study Engineering at St. John's University in Shanghai. However, he was cut off from Shanghai when it was invaded by the Japanese Empire in 1937 during his summer holidays. He went on obtained admission to the University of Hong Kong. In May 1941, he graduated with a first class honours bachelor of science degree in Engineering. He was soon hired by the Kowloon Whampoa Shipyard as an assistant engineer working in the machine shops at a monthly salary of 200 Hong Kong dollars. During the Battle of Hong Kong in December 1941, he joined the Auxiliary Transport Services (a unit