Businessman who divided time between Hong Kong and London recently became an unlikely champion of the NHS
Sir David Tang, the Hong Kong socialite, businessman and unlikely latter-day champion of the NHS, has died aged 63.
Tang, who divided his time between Hong Kong and London, where he was a feature at A-list parties and known for his spiky column in the Financial Times, had liver cancer.
In one of his final columns for the paper he wrote a moving tribute to the NHS hospital at Hillingdon, west London. Its medical staff helped to prolong his life earlier this month after he was flown by private jet from the French Riviera when he suffered a haemorrhage.
Tang, who mixed with the rich and famous and counted members of the royal family as his friends, wrote of his admiration for the NHS staff and his gratitude at being treated by the NHS rather than a private clinic as planned. “I will howl and hunt down anyone who dares to question the NHS, ” he wrote.
He was educated at the exclusive Perse school in Cambridge after being sent from Hong Kong to England at the age of 13 unable to speak English.
“My mother always told me that the UK provided the best education in the world, to which I now add the best hospital care in the world, ” he wrote.
He added: “I am glad I have paid my taxes in this country – before with reluctance, but now with alacrity. I hereby demote Asclepius and genuflect to Nye Bevan, founder of the NHS.
