John Henry Cantlie is the great grandson of Sir James Cantlie,[6] a doctor who co-founded the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese in 1887 (later the University of Hong Kong). In 1896, he was instrumental in the protection of the Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen who might otherwise have been executed by the Qing dynasty secret service.[7] His grandfather, Colonel Kenneth Cantlie,[6] designed the China Railways KF locomotive, at 260 tons the largest locomotive of post-war China that remained in service until 1972.[8]