J.K. Rideout

John Kennedy Rideout was a British Professor of Oriental Studies at the University of Sydney and at the University of Hong Kong. A specialist in Chinese language and literature, he was a classical scholar at Oxford before pursuing studies in Far Eastern languages from the SOAS, where he also taught from 1942. He left the University of Sydney after one year, having found the library without Chinese books, and the Australian National University unwilling to loan the books they had received from the Chinese ambassador, Kan Nai-kuang.

Disappearance and aftermath

Rideout disappeared on 16 February 1950, and his body found twelve days later on the shores of Lantau Island, with some suspicion about a mooted connection to British intelligence, though the authorities ruled the death an accident.