Who is Captain Glessing from Tai-Pan and what is their importance?

Captain Glessing is twenty-six-year-old captain in the British navy. He is in charge of the ceremony where he reads the proclamation making Hong Kong a British possession. He had been active in the war against China and did not agree with Longstaff on the conclusion of the war. He thought they should have gone through to Pekin. A section of the island is named Glessing's Point in honor of him. Glessing proposes to Mary Sinclair, not knowing that she has had an incestuous relationship with her brother Horatio and is pregnant with a Chinese baby. Glessing is injured during the typhoon as loses his arm.