Royal Commonwealth Society Hong Kong Branch records with deepest sorrow the passing on 9th February 2025 of Dr. Verner Bickley MBE, long time Council Member and former Chairman.
Dr. Verner Bickley was a distinguished author, publisher, educationist and cultural administrator. In addition to serving as Assistant Director of Education and Director of the Hong Kong Government’s Institute of Language in Education for nine years, among his many accomplishments he was an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre of Asian Studies (now the Centre for Humanities and Social Science at the University of Hong Kong and a Sector/Subject Specialist for the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic & Vocational Qualifications. He was also founding Chairman of the Executive Committee of the English Speaking Union in Hong Kong. Along with his wife, Dr. Gillian Bickley, he was co-director of Proverse Hong Kong and co-founder of the International Proverse Prize for unpublished writing.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Bickley was a member of the Singapore Education Department and a British Council Officer in Burma, Indonesia and Japan. He then served as Director of the Culture Learning Institute and Chairman of the Directors of the East West Center in Hawaii, and was appointed to hold a concurrent appointment as Full Professor of English at the University of Hawaii. He was also President of the Hawaii Branch of the English Speaking Union, founding Chairman of the Executive Committee of the English Speaking Union in Hong Kong and latterly Chairman Emeritus in Hong Kong.
Dr. Bickley was devoted to the Commonwealth ideal, and made an enormous contribution to the Royal Commonwealth Society in Hong Kong over many years, including as a Council Member and former Chairman. He successfully negotiated for Hong Kong students to resume participation in the Commonwealth Essay Competition after 1997 – one of our most important activities which continues today.
Dr. Bickley has written more than twenty books and numerous articles on international education, language and culture and language pedagogy. His memoirs were published in two volumes, “Steps to Paradise and Beyond: Hawaii to China, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and elsewhere” (2013) and “Footfalls Echo in the Memory” (2010).