A British consul is a government official sent by the British government to be stationed in Taiwan in order to protect the British expatriates and their commercial interests. Article II of the Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing in 1842 stipulated that "...Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, etc., will appoint Superintendents or Consular Officers, to reside at each of the above-named Cities or Towns [Canton, Amoy, Foochow-fu, Ningpo, and Shanghai], to be the medium of communication between the Chinese Authorities and the said Merchants..." Hereafter, a consul could be stationed at ports that were listed to be opened. The British stationed a Vice-Consul in Taiwan in 1861. Later, as the port of Takow had a higher trade volume, the Vice-Consulate was moved to Takow in 1864, and it was promoted to be the Consulate in 1865. A consul has three major responsibilities: 1) protecting its expatriates' liberty, property and safety as well as administrating their various registrations; 2) serving business functions, including producing business investigation reports and mediating business disputes; and 3) promoting diplomatic relations, by facilitating friendly relations between his homeland and host countries.

The duties of British Consul in Takow included the following:

1. Listing all the British citizens' information within his jurisdiction including their place of residence, birth, death, marital status, etc. and reporting them to the British minister in Beijing every January.

2. Submitting the preceding year's trade statistics every January.

3. Compiling a record of warships that had visited the trading ports semi-annually.

4. Exercising consular jurisdiction; hence a jail was built behind consular offices.

5. Mediating with local authorities to protect its overseas citizens' safety and business interests.