The University of Hong Kong is one of Hong Kong's largest single community enterprises. First incorporated as a self-governing body of scholars by the University Ordinance of 1911 its first faculties were formed from the Hong Kong College of Medicine founded in 1887. The growth and development of the University to its present internationally-recognized status is a continuing process, but the Council of the University has commissioned the writing and publication of this informal account as a sort of Festschrift for the first seventy years of its existence. After these years of vicissitude, including a complete break in its formal existence during the six years of 1942-47, it has emerged as one of the most influential single forces in the long process of creating an intellectual and cultural identity for the territory of Hong Kong.