This trophy was presented to the Club in 1969 by Mr. Alec Tomes whose father was one of the founders of Shewan Tomes & Co., a well-known local Hong Kong firm.
The Cup was presented in the memory of Mrs. Dora Delano Forbes who was Mr. Tomes' godmother (and also an aunt of US President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt).
Originally, the Cup was donated by the Hong Kong Sugar Refiners in 1880 and was won on 1 April that year by Dora's husband, Mr. William Howell Forbes sailing his boat Naomi. It then passed into the possession of the Forbes family whose family business of W.H. Russell and Company was a well-known Canton trading house founded in 1830 and subsequently found its way into the possession of the Tomes family.
The Cup was renamed the Tomes Cup by Noel Croucher (1891-1980) who was a stalwart of the Club and served as Commodore from 1941 to 1949.
The first race for the Tomes Cup was held on 9 November 1969.