Gaston Dutronquoy

Dutronquoy was a native of Jersey.[1]

He arrived in Singapore in May 1839 and advertised himself as a painter of miniatures, portraits, houses and palanquins.[1] Six months later, he opened the London Hotel in Commercial Square, which he ran with his wife.[2] He moved the hotel to the Coleman House, the former residence of George Drumgoole Coleman, in late 1841. In the early 1840s, he arrived in Hong Kong and set up a hotel, which was also named the London Hotel, and a theatre. However, he left Hong Kong on 17 December 1842 and returned to Singapore due to "personal violence added to insult and abuse" which he claimed he had received the evening before.[1]

He moved the hotel to a former residence of Edward Boustead at the corner of High Street and The Esplanade.[3] He set up the Theatre Royal in the hotel's dining room with local actors enacting comedies.[2] The theatre operated until 1845.[3] In 1845, he opened the first photographic studio in Singapore in the London Hotel.[2] The studio offered portrait-taking services at ten dollars for one person, and fifteen dollars for a couple.[1] In 1851, he moved the hotel to the former residence of James Guthrie.[2]

Dutronquoy was married.[3] His son, S. Dutronquoy, also became a hotelier, and opened a hotel, also named London Hotel, in 1858.[1]

In the mid-1850s, he disappeared while searching for gold in the Muar River region.[1] It was rumoured that he was murdered.[4] His estate was dissolved in September 1857.[1]