Admiral Sir Cecil Halliday Jepson Harcourt GBE KCB (11 April 1892 – 19 December 1959) was a British naval officer. He was the de facto governor of Hong Kong as commander-in-chief and head of the military administration from September 1945 to May 1946. He was called by the Chinese name "Ha Kok", a reference to the fourth-century Chinese nobleman Chung Kok [zh].
Military career
Harcourt was born in Bromley, Kent, England, to Halliday Harcourt and Grace Lilian on 11 April 1892. He was educated at Fonthill, East Grinstead, and later at the Royal Naval College at Osborne and Dartmouth (1904–1909). He had a distinguished career in the Royal Navy, which he entered as a midshipman on 15 September 1904, at the age of 12. He served in both world wars.
In 1939, Harcourt was appointed Director of the Admiralty's Operations Division. In 1941 he was Flag Captain of the Home Fleet, while commanding HMS Duke of York. In August 1942 until January 1943 he commanded the 10th Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet. From 1942 to 1944 he took part in the North Africa campaign, the capture of Tunisia, Pantelleria, Lampedusa, and Sicily, and the landing at Salerno. In 1944, he became Naval Secretary. In 1945, he was Flag Officer Commanding 11th Aircraft Carrier Squadron, with his flag in HMS Colossus.
Harcourt commanded Task Group 111.2 for the reoccupation of Hong Kong with his carriers, three cruisers, four destroyers, a submarine, and mine-sweeping flotillas. He ordered his carriers' planes to destroy a small number of Japanese suicide motor boats near Hong Kong. The pre-war colonial secretary Franklin Gimson took Harcourt to the prisoner of war camps and hospitals.