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Tuesday, August 28, 2007
E.W Barker
Edmund William Barker: Statesman, Scholar, Sportsman:
Edmund William Barker (b. 1 December 1920, Singapore - d. 12 April 2001, Singapore), a.k.a. E. W. Barker, was a prominent local politician.
Educational Background:
Edmund (Eddie) William Barker was born on the 1st of December, 1920. He was educated at Serangoon English School and Raffles Institution. There, he contributed much. School captain, head prefect, and champion athlete in 1938. He represented the school in cricket, hockey, athletics and badminton, and later in Raffles College, he added rugby to the collection. Outside school, E.W. Barker played sports like cricket and hockey for the Singapore Recreation Club (SRC) between 1934 to 1941, when the SRC was almost the strongest team in Singapore. As a hockey player, young Edmund Barker, along with Reggie Thoy, were one of the first schoolboys to be chosen to play on a national level.
Achievements: Not only establishing himself as both sportsman and leader in his schooling days, but also much of scholar. Being awarded the prestigious Queen's Scholarship in 1946 a testament to his skill. Two years later, he graduated with honours in law at St. Catherine's College, Cambridge University. And if the demanding law degree was not enough, Edmund Barker still played sport at the university, winning the badminton blue at Cambridge.
Mr Barker returned to Singapore and practiced law from 1952 to 1964. He was elected as the MP for Tanglin in 1963– a post he held firmly until 1988, returning without opposition in recurring general elections. That same year, he was also serving as the speaker of the Singapore Legislative Assembly. Being a politician, he was committed wholly to the people of Singapore and its progress, being a notable leader of the House for around 15 years. His political portfolios include being Minister for Labour, National Development, Science and Technology, and Law. He was one of the longest serving of the Law Ministers in the Commonwealth.
After separation, he took on the additional portfolio consisting of National Development. He is considered as one of the Old Guard leaders, and left office in 1988, after 25 years of service.
In between the years of 1970 to 1990, he held other positions, like the first President of the Singapore National Olympic Council, President of the South-East Asia Peninsular Games Federation Council, Chairman of Bukit Turf Club, and Chairman of the Singapore Stock Exchange.
His appointments in Parliament consist of: Speaker, Minister for Law, Minister for Law and National Development, Minister for Law, Home Affairs and National Development, Minister for Law and National Development, Minister for Law and Environment, Minister for Law, the Environment and Science and Technology, Minister for Law and Science and Technology, Minister for Law,
Minister for Law and Labour, Minister for Law.
Continued Service:
After retiring himself from the world of politics, Mr Baker remained an active citizen, serving on boards of several public and private corporations.
But sports were still very much the first love of his, and rightfully so, the sporting fraternity fondly remembers him. Being a dedicated team player in his competitive days, he was a sport administrator and leader. He also served as the president of the Singapore National Olympic Council for two decades since 1970, and being active in the organizing committee in Singapore's successful hosting of the 12th and 17th South East Asia Games.
Mr Barker was an honorary member of the SEA Games Federation. He was also responsible for the building of the National Stadium in Kallang, seeing as he persuaded the government to allocate the land and financial resources for it. In respect to his contributions to the development of sport in Singapore, Mr Barker was presented the Olympic Order (Silver) by the International Olympic Committee in 1985, and the Distinguished Service Award of the USA Sports Academy in 1983.
Family:
Barker was the son of Clarence Barker and Dorothy Evelyne Paterson. He was married to Gloria Hyacinth Quintal and had four children. He was in good health until April 2000 when he was hit by a series of medical problems. He died on 12 April 2001 at 12:40 pm at the National University Hospital, after two months of intensive care following an emergency colon surgery in February 2001.
Legacies:Mr E W Barker, former Minister for Law and President of the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC), was awarded the Olympic Order (Silver) for his outstanding merit in the cause of world sport and faithfulness to the Olympic ideal in 1986. His was the first award given to a Singaporean.
In honour of E. W Barker, Ken Jalleh the sports writer wrote these words:
"These are Singaporeans content to play, happy to be good enough to be selected for a Raffles side, a SRC team, and better still, the state eleven. To this army of sportsmen, the satisfaction comes in the playing or in the service they can give to club, association or country.
If in playing their best, the applause came, they took it like bonuses freely given. The bonuses were many for young Eddie in the days of his prime."
In remembrance of Mr E. W Barker, and his contributions as statesman, scholar, sportsman and supporter of sports, it was proposed that a professorship and scholarship be named in his honour. The professorship and scholarship seeks to continue Mr. Barker's legacy and involvement in sport and physical activity.
Mr Barker was, and had always been, in the driving seat promoting and nurturing the sport scene in Singapore. In the several reports on sports in Singapore that were made, including the recent CoSS report, recommendations for the need to nurture effective sporting bodies, building a sports industry, promoting sport for all, and developing sporting excellence have been made. Much needs to be done in each of these areas, and research, understanding and development of best-practices in these areas are clearly essential.
Our Thoughts:
Singapore has a number of people who have contributed to it’s progress. E.W. Barker is one of them. He comes across as an extremely passionate man, contributing endlessly to the progress and development of our nation, our youths, and inspired the common citizen. He was able to achieve much during his youth, of which, we think, reflect his already apparent passion and indifference to ordinary limits. Nothing hindered his achieving, and it is apparent that we should follow his spirit of perseverance.
Even after retirement, he continued to contribute, to causes that he had the foresight to see were necessary. It is probably a hope of those who had known him, heard of him or have been inspired by him, that future generations will channel the very same spirit of passion and achievement, for the sake of furthering society’s progress, and that of the nation. And it is obvious that E.W. Barker’s founding of the further development of the areas which inspired him will see to this.
References:
Whos who in Malaysia and guide to Singapore. Kuala Lumpur: V. V. Morais.
(Call no.: R 920.0595 WWM)
Old guard Stalwart Eddie Barker dies. (2001, April 13). The Straits Times, p. 1.
The reluctant politician. (2001, April 13). The Straits Times, Home, p. 2.
Kind, friendly and a real gentleman. (2001, April 13). The Straits Times, Home, p. 3.
Breadwinner. (1970, May 8). The Straits Times, p. 6.
Done By: Courtney Sim(6)
Ham Shi Ying(8)
Pearlyn(17)
2 Faith
Edmund William Barker (b. 1 December 1920, Singapore - d. 12 April 2001, Singapore), a.k.a. E. W. Barker, was a prominent local politician.
Educational Background:
Edmund (Eddie) William Barker was born on the 1st of December, 1920. He was educated at Serangoon English School and Raffles Institution. There, he contributed much. School captain, head prefect, and champion athlete in 1938. He represented the school in cricket, hockey, athletics and badminton, and later in Raffles College, he added rugby to the collection. Outside school, E.W. Barker played sports like cricket and hockey for the Singapore Recreation Club (SRC) between 1934 to 1941, when the SRC was almost the strongest team in Singapore. As a hockey player, young Edmund Barker, along with Reggie Thoy, were one of the first schoolboys to be chosen to play on a national level.
Achievements: Not only establishing himself as both sportsman and leader in his schooling days, but also much of scholar. Being awarded the prestigious Queen's Scholarship in 1946 a testament to his skill. Two years later, he graduated with honours in law at St. Catherine's College, Cambridge University. And if the demanding law degree was not enough, Edmund Barker still played sport at the university, winning the badminton blue at Cambridge.
Mr Barker returned to Singapore and practiced law from 1952 to 1964. He was elected as the MP for Tanglin in 1963– a post he held firmly until 1988, returning without opposition in recurring general elections. That same year, he was also serving as the speaker of the Singapore Legislative Assembly. Being a politician, he was committed wholly to the people of Singapore and its progress, being a notable leader of the House for around 15 years. His political portfolios include being Minister for Labour, National Development, Science and Technology, and Law. He was one of the longest serving of the Law Ministers in the Commonwealth.
After separation, he took on the additional portfolio consisting of National Development. He is considered as one of the Old Guard leaders, and left office in 1988, after 25 years of service.
In between the years of 1970 to 1990, he held other positions, like the first President of the Singapore National Olympic Council, President of the South-East Asia Peninsular Games Federation Council, Chairman of Bukit Turf Club, and Chairman of the Singapore Stock Exchange.
His appointments in Parliament consist of: Speaker, Minister for Law, Minister for Law and National Development, Minister for Law, Home Affairs and National Development, Minister for Law and National Development, Minister for Law and Environment, Minister for Law, the Environment and Science and Technology, Minister for Law and Science and Technology, Minister for Law,
Minister for Law and Labour, Minister for Law.
Continued Service:
After retiring himself from the world of politics, Mr Baker remained an active citizen, serving on boards of several public and private corporations.
But sports were still very much the first love of his, and rightfully so, the sporting fraternity fondly remembers him. Being a dedicated team player in his competitive days, he was a sport administrator and leader. He also served as the president of the Singapore National Olympic Council for two decades since 1970, and being active in the organizing committee in Singapore's successful hosting of the 12th and 17th South East Asia Games.
Mr Barker was an honorary member of the SEA Games Federation. He was also responsible for the building of the National Stadium in Kallang, seeing as he persuaded the government to allocate the land and financial resources for it. In respect to his contributions to the development of sport in Singapore, Mr Barker was presented the Olympic Order (Silver) by the International Olympic Committee in 1985, and the Distinguished Service Award of the USA Sports Academy in 1983.
Family:
Barker was the son of Clarence Barker and Dorothy Evelyne Paterson. He was married to Gloria Hyacinth Quintal and had four children. He was in good health until April 2000 when he was hit by a series of medical problems. He died on 12 April 2001 at 12:40 pm at the National University Hospital, after two months of intensive care following an emergency colon surgery in February 2001.
Legacies:Mr E W Barker, former Minister for Law and President of the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC), was awarded the Olympic Order (Silver) for his outstanding merit in the cause of world sport and faithfulness to the Olympic ideal in 1986. His was the first award given to a Singaporean.
In honour of E. W Barker, Ken Jalleh the sports writer wrote these words:
"These are Singaporeans content to play, happy to be good enough to be selected for a Raffles side, a SRC team, and better still, the state eleven. To this army of sportsmen, the satisfaction comes in the playing or in the service they can give to club, association or country.
If in playing their best, the applause came, they took it like bonuses freely given. The bonuses were many for young Eddie in the days of his prime."
In remembrance of Mr E. W Barker, and his contributions as statesman, scholar, sportsman and supporter of sports, it was proposed that a professorship and scholarship be named in his honour. The professorship and scholarship seeks to continue Mr. Barker's legacy and involvement in sport and physical activity.
Mr Barker was, and had always been, in the driving seat promoting and nurturing the sport scene in Singapore. In the several reports on sports in Singapore that were made, including the recent CoSS report, recommendations for the need to nurture effective sporting bodies, building a sports industry, promoting sport for all, and developing sporting excellence have been made. Much needs to be done in each of these areas, and research, understanding and development of best-practices in these areas are clearly essential.
Our Thoughts:
Singapore has a number of people who have contributed to it’s progress. E.W. Barker is one of them. He comes across as an extremely passionate man, contributing endlessly to the progress and development of our nation, our youths, and inspired the common citizen. He was able to achieve much during his youth, of which, we think, reflect his already apparent passion and indifference to ordinary limits. Nothing hindered his achieving, and it is apparent that we should follow his spirit of perseverance.
Even after retirement, he continued to contribute, to causes that he had the foresight to see were necessary. It is probably a hope of those who had known him, heard of him or have been inspired by him, that future generations will channel the very same spirit of passion and achievement, for the sake of furthering society’s progress, and that of the nation. And it is obvious that E.W. Barker’s founding of the further development of the areas which inspired him will see to this.
References:
Whos who in Malaysia and guide to Singapore. Kuala Lumpur: V. V. Morais.
(Call no.: R 920.0595 WWM)
Old guard Stalwart Eddie Barker dies. (2001, April 13). The Straits Times, p. 1.
The reluctant politician. (2001, April 13). The Straits Times, Home, p. 2.
Kind, friendly and a real gentleman. (2001, April 13). The Straits Times, Home, p. 3.
Breadwinner. (1970, May 8). The Straits Times, p. 6.
Done By: Courtney Sim(6)
Ham Shi Ying(8)
Pearlyn(17)
2 Faith
Syed Omar Al-junied
MP for Aljunied Islamic
Aljunied GRC College's logo
Syed Omar Al-junied
Syed Omar Al-junied, his full name Syed Sharif Omar bin Ali Aljunied, the patriarch of the Aljunieds now living in Singapore, was born in Hadramaut, Yemen in 1792. Although much of his family background and childhood years are not known, it is clear that his ancestors, being the descendants of the Prophet Muhammed, established themselves as traders in Southeast Asia long before immigrating to Singapore. One such member of the family was Syed Sharif Omar al-Junied and his uncle, Syed Mohammed bin Harun Aljunied, were probably the first Arabs to come to Singapore. The first in the family to leave Yemen, Syed Omar travelled to the East in 1816 in his effort to spread the Muslim faith. But when he landed in Palembang, Sumatra, through hard work, he became a successful trader in spices. His fame in Palembang was not only as a merchant but also as a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammed, for which he was honoured with the title of “Pengeran Sherif “or "Prince" of the Malays. He was well-known as a leader of the Arabs in the Malay Sultanate in the East, an upright and honourable man.
Syed Mohammed managed to set up business by June 1819, just four months after the founding of Singapore in 1819. Syed Omar soon followed and established himself as a businessman as well as an important leader of the Arab community in the East. He was personally welcomed by Stamford Raffles who was eager to court the wealth of the Arab traders who had then established a flourishing trade between the Far East and the known world. The Arabs in turn were attracted to Singapore's free port which contrasted with the heavy duties charged at ports held by the Dutch.
The Aljunieds along with the Alkaffs and Alsagoffs were the three most prominent and wealthiest Arab families in Singapore for some time. The Aljunied Islamic School (Madrasah Aljunied Al-Islamiah) built in 1927 is attributed to one of the Aljunieds, Syed Abdul Rahman Aljunied. Large sums of money were also contributed by the family for the building of the Town Hall. The business moved to 737 North Bridge Road under the name Toko Aljunied which meant “Aljunied’s shop”, long famous for its atar, an alcohol-free perfume preferred by Muslims. The family also started the House of Batik.
With the support of Raffles, the Aljunieds profited a plot of land between High Street and the Singapore River. Soon after arriving in Singapore, Mr. Syed Omar built a house near the junction of High Street and North Bridge Road. He imported spices from Indonesia and exported them to the Middle-East and London, and imported cotton from England under his own brand name, then sent them to Indonesia for batik printing. With his acute sense for business, Mr. Syed Omar’s wealth grew.
Just as his business flourished, the charitable side of Mr. Syed Omar also became known and much appreciated. One of his biggest contribution to Singapore was his giving away of the land and the Masjid Kampong Melaka (Masjid Omar Kampong Melaka or Malacca Mosque) in Chinatown which was the first place of worship constructed in Singapore. In 1981 to 1982, after almost a hundred years of use, the original structure of a temporary timber building, was demolished and reconstructed into a brick mosque that had a tall minaret with a small roof dome which was added at the entrance of the mosque. This reconstruction coincided with the laying of a new road through Kampong Malacca which brought worshippers from the surrounding area. Today, the mosque is in much the same state as it was after the last reconstruction — a simple building that is well complemented by its surrounding space. With a sitting capacity of about 1,000 people, it is the focal point for office workers during daily and Friday prayers.
He also gave away the land for the St Andrew's Cathedral and the land for Dr Tan Tock Seng paupers' hospital which later became Tan Tock Seng Hospital and was resited to Moulmein Road.
Mr. Syed Omar did too donated a large burial ground at Jalan Kubor off Victoria Street and built another mosque in Bencoolen Street. Large wells with granite sides were also dug behind Fort Canning, Selegie Road, Pungulu Kisang and Telok Ayer with the rest of the Aljunieds to supply water to the early residents of Singapore.
When Mr. Syed Omar died on 6 November 1852 in Singapore, he left behind five sons and several grandchildren. He was buried with his uncle Syed Mohammed at the Syed Omar Cemetery. The family business was then carried on by his nephew, Mr. Syed Ali who was a community leader in his own right, contributing land and money in the spirit of the Aljunied clan and his son, Mr. Syed Abdullah Omar.
For Mr. Syed Ali, One of his earliest contributions was the building of four community wells at his own expense and the donation of land for the Bukit Wakaff Cementery at Grange Road. Mr. Syed Ali was also a philanthropist. He is best known for filling in a swamp purchased by his father, Mr. Syed Mohammed, who was also Mr. Syed Omar’s uncle-land that would become Weld Road and Jalan Besar. Three bridges in the area were also built at his expense.
As for Mr. Syed Abdullah Omar, he was the one who rebuilt the Masjid Kampong Melaka, and named the road next to it after his father - Omar Road.
The family home was eventually sold and the Aljunieds moved to a new house in Balestier Road owned by Mr. Syed Omar's other son, Mr. Syed Abu Bakar Omar Aljunied. Mr. Syed Abu Bakar is one of the Founders of the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce and the only non-European member on the Board of Governors of the Singapore Harbour Board, now known as Port of Singapore Authority, in its pioneering years. Mr. Syed Abu Bakar later passed on the house to his daughter, Sharifah Alawiyah Abu Bakar Aljunied. Madam Sharifah is the wife of Mr. Syed Abdul Rahman Junied Aljunied. Mr. Syed Abdul Rahman is the Founder of the Aljunied Islamic School in Victoria Street.
Their contributions are recognised not only in the naming of Masjid Omar Kampong Melaka after its founder but also in the naming of Syed Alwi Road in Serangoon and Aljunied Road in Aljunied.
Aljunied Road which is now a sub-urban area located in the eastern part of the city-state of Singapore was officially named in 1926 after either Mr. Syed Omar or his family members. Aljunied Road was formally a piece of agricultural land which has since been heavily urbanised and presently comprises a variety of landuses. Today, Aljunied is a bustling neighbourhood with HDB flats with amenities like shops, schools, parks and recreational facilities. The area also has a constituency, the Aljunied Group Pepresentation Constituency (Aljunied GRC) with five Members of Parliament sitting in the Parliament of Singapore. Aljunied GRC was hotly contested in the 2006 general election.
Currently, there are about 300 Aljunieds living in Singapore. True to tradition, the Aljunieds continue to prosper in Singapore and the region. Like their forefathers, they have carried on the practice of giving to society what they have gained from it.
The Alkaff Mansion and Arab institution in Singapore are permanent reminders to Singaporeans of the affluence, the business acumen and contribution of the early Arab families toward the development and prosperity of Singapore. Their descendants are continuing their contribution to our Republic. We should also never forget Mr. Syed Omar, the patriarch of the Aljunieds in Singapore, who was unforgettably an Arab spice trader and businessman, philanthropist and important leader of the early Arab community.
Source of information: www.infonet.com
www.yahoo.com.sg
www.google.com
Done by: Shi Meng Qing(20)
Teow Yi Qin(23)
Wang Mei Qiong(24)
Syed Omar Al-junied
Syed Omar Al-junied, his full name Syed Sharif Omar bin Ali Aljunied, the patriarch of the Aljunieds now living in Singapore, was born in Hadramaut, Yemen in 1792. Although much of his family background and childhood years are not known, it is clear that his ancestors, being the descendants of the Prophet Muhammed, established themselves as traders in Southeast Asia long before immigrating to Singapore. One such member of the family was Syed Sharif Omar al-Junied and his uncle, Syed Mohammed bin Harun Aljunied, were probably the first Arabs to come to Singapore. The first in the family to leave Yemen, Syed Omar travelled to the East in 1816 in his effort to spread the Muslim faith. But when he landed in Palembang, Sumatra, through hard work, he became a successful trader in spices. His fame in Palembang was not only as a merchant but also as a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammed, for which he was honoured with the title of “Pengeran Sherif “or "Prince" of the Malays. He was well-known as a leader of the Arabs in the Malay Sultanate in the East, an upright and honourable man.
Syed Mohammed managed to set up business by June 1819, just four months after the founding of Singapore in 1819. Syed Omar soon followed and established himself as a businessman as well as an important leader of the Arab community in the East. He was personally welcomed by Stamford Raffles who was eager to court the wealth of the Arab traders who had then established a flourishing trade between the Far East and the known world. The Arabs in turn were attracted to Singapore's free port which contrasted with the heavy duties charged at ports held by the Dutch.
The Aljunieds along with the Alkaffs and Alsagoffs were the three most prominent and wealthiest Arab families in Singapore for some time. The Aljunied Islamic School (Madrasah Aljunied Al-Islamiah) built in 1927 is attributed to one of the Aljunieds, Syed Abdul Rahman Aljunied. Large sums of money were also contributed by the family for the building of the Town Hall. The business moved to 737 North Bridge Road under the name Toko Aljunied which meant “Aljunied’s shop”, long famous for its atar, an alcohol-free perfume preferred by Muslims. The family also started the House of Batik.
With the support of Raffles, the Aljunieds profited a plot of land between High Street and the Singapore River. Soon after arriving in Singapore, Mr. Syed Omar built a house near the junction of High Street and North Bridge Road. He imported spices from Indonesia and exported them to the Middle-East and London, and imported cotton from England under his own brand name, then sent them to Indonesia for batik printing. With his acute sense for business, Mr. Syed Omar’s wealth grew.
Just as his business flourished, the charitable side of Mr. Syed Omar also became known and much appreciated. One of his biggest contribution to Singapore was his giving away of the land and the Masjid Kampong Melaka (Masjid Omar Kampong Melaka or Malacca Mosque) in Chinatown which was the first place of worship constructed in Singapore. In 1981 to 1982, after almost a hundred years of use, the original structure of a temporary timber building, was demolished and reconstructed into a brick mosque that had a tall minaret with a small roof dome which was added at the entrance of the mosque. This reconstruction coincided with the laying of a new road through Kampong Malacca which brought worshippers from the surrounding area. Today, the mosque is in much the same state as it was after the last reconstruction — a simple building that is well complemented by its surrounding space. With a sitting capacity of about 1,000 people, it is the focal point for office workers during daily and Friday prayers.
He also gave away the land for the St Andrew's Cathedral and the land for Dr Tan Tock Seng paupers' hospital which later became Tan Tock Seng Hospital and was resited to Moulmein Road.
Mr. Syed Omar did too donated a large burial ground at Jalan Kubor off Victoria Street and built another mosque in Bencoolen Street. Large wells with granite sides were also dug behind Fort Canning, Selegie Road, Pungulu Kisang and Telok Ayer with the rest of the Aljunieds to supply water to the early residents of Singapore.
When Mr. Syed Omar died on 6 November 1852 in Singapore, he left behind five sons and several grandchildren. He was buried with his uncle Syed Mohammed at the Syed Omar Cemetery. The family business was then carried on by his nephew, Mr. Syed Ali who was a community leader in his own right, contributing land and money in the spirit of the Aljunied clan and his son, Mr. Syed Abdullah Omar.
For Mr. Syed Ali, One of his earliest contributions was the building of four community wells at his own expense and the donation of land for the Bukit Wakaff Cementery at Grange Road. Mr. Syed Ali was also a philanthropist. He is best known for filling in a swamp purchased by his father, Mr. Syed Mohammed, who was also Mr. Syed Omar’s uncle-land that would become Weld Road and Jalan Besar. Three bridges in the area were also built at his expense.
As for Mr. Syed Abdullah Omar, he was the one who rebuilt the Masjid Kampong Melaka, and named the road next to it after his father - Omar Road.
The family home was eventually sold and the Aljunieds moved to a new house in Balestier Road owned by Mr. Syed Omar's other son, Mr. Syed Abu Bakar Omar Aljunied. Mr. Syed Abu Bakar is one of the Founders of the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce and the only non-European member on the Board of Governors of the Singapore Harbour Board, now known as Port of Singapore Authority, in its pioneering years. Mr. Syed Abu Bakar later passed on the house to his daughter, Sharifah Alawiyah Abu Bakar Aljunied. Madam Sharifah is the wife of Mr. Syed Abdul Rahman Junied Aljunied. Mr. Syed Abdul Rahman is the Founder of the Aljunied Islamic School in Victoria Street.
Their contributions are recognised not only in the naming of Masjid Omar Kampong Melaka after its founder but also in the naming of Syed Alwi Road in Serangoon and Aljunied Road in Aljunied.
Aljunied Road which is now a sub-urban area located in the eastern part of the city-state of Singapore was officially named in 1926 after either Mr. Syed Omar or his family members. Aljunied Road was formally a piece of agricultural land which has since been heavily urbanised and presently comprises a variety of landuses. Today, Aljunied is a bustling neighbourhood with HDB flats with amenities like shops, schools, parks and recreational facilities. The area also has a constituency, the Aljunied Group Pepresentation Constituency (Aljunied GRC) with five Members of Parliament sitting in the Parliament of Singapore. Aljunied GRC was hotly contested in the 2006 general election.
Currently, there are about 300 Aljunieds living in Singapore. True to tradition, the Aljunieds continue to prosper in Singapore and the region. Like their forefathers, they have carried on the practice of giving to society what they have gained from it.
The Alkaff Mansion and Arab institution in Singapore are permanent reminders to Singaporeans of the affluence, the business acumen and contribution of the early Arab families toward the development and prosperity of Singapore. Their descendants are continuing their contribution to our Republic. We should also never forget Mr. Syed Omar, the patriarch of the Aljunieds in Singapore, who was unforgettably an Arab spice trader and businessman, philanthropist and important leader of the early Arab community.
Source of information: www.infonet.com
www.yahoo.com.sg
www.google.com
Done by: Shi Meng Qing(20)
Teow Yi Qin(23)
Wang Mei Qiong(24)
Monday, August 27, 2007
Lim Nee Soon
Lim Nee Soon (b. 12 November, 1879 Singapore - d. 20 March 1936, Shanghai, China), planter and general merchant. Educated in Singapore, on completion of his studies, he worked for various organizations until 1911 when he founded his own company, Lim Nee Soon & Co. A rubber and pineapple planter and rubber factory owner, his businesses soon were a booming success. He was one of the pioneers of rubber planting along with Tan Chor Nam (1884-1971), Lim Boon Keng (Dr) (1869-1957), and Tan Chay Yan (1871-1916). He was consultant to other rubber estate owners, and played an important role in the development of rubber plantations in Nee Soon. His big investments in the pineapple industry won him the nickname "Pineapple King". He was a generous charitable benefactor with a keen interest in social and community matters. A respected community leader and, one of the most influential businessmen of the day, he was made a Justice of the Peace (1925).
Early years
Lim Nee Soon, a Teochew, was born in Beach Road in Kampong Glam, Singapore, on 12 November 1879. His grandfather, and father Lim Peng Nguan arrived from Chao-chow-fu (Swatow), China, in a junk, in the 1860s, and became a sundries trader, in Beach Road. Lim Peng Nguan married Teo Lee's eldest daughter, but he died in 1887, and left his son Nee Soon, then eight years old in the care of his maternal grandfather, Teo Lee (1833) who provided the young orphan boy with a sound Chinese and English education. As a Straits-born Chinese Baba, he was popularly known as Bah Soon, and because of that, Bah Soon Pah Road is named after Lim Nee Soon.
Education
The young lad was first educated in English at St. Joseph's Institution, and then later, at the Anglo Chinese School. We have no details of his Chinese education.
Early career
Nee Soon's first job was with timber merchants, Messers. Tan Tye & Co. He took great interest in rubber planting, and in 1904, was an assistant manager in Tan Chor Nam's rubber estate. His next job was acting manager of United Singapore Rubber Estates Ltd. In 1909, when Sembawang Rubber Estates was formed, Nee Soon became its first General Manager, and later, its Consultant. He resigned in 1911 to start his own business as a rubber and pineapple planter and rubber factory owner. He was consultant to other rubber estate owners too, and by then he had already engaged in business as a merchant, contractor, and general commission agent.
History of rubber
Henry Nicholas Ridley (b. Norfolk 1855 - d. 1956, Kew, Surrey, England), Director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, developed an improved rubber-tapping technique, and he was the strongest advocate of rubber-planting as a crop. Early this century the automobile industry boomed and rubber tyres were in great demand. In 1910, the government opened more than 2,000 acres of reserved land in Nee Soon to encourage rubber-planting. Rubber was Malaya and Singapore's export wealth for more than 50 years.
Business enterprises
In the wake of declining fortunes from gambier an pepper, Lim converted large tracts of gambier and pepper plantations in Yishun into rubber and pineapple ones. In 1911, Lim founded Lim Nee Soon & Co., chop Thong Bee, with an office at No 5 Beach Road; and in 1912, he built a row of shophouses and dwellings at Sembawang Road, and established chop Thong Aik Rubber Factory in Kangkar(chop refers to the traditional seal or official stamp bearing the Chinese characters of a company name, used for legal endorsements etc.). His businesses quickly flourished. He owned large rubber estates, 6,000 acres of rubber plantations in Singapore, and more than 20,000 acres in Johore and other small estates. In 1913 he started Nee Soon Rubber Factory in Choa Chu Kang, and also cultivated pineapples which was a good inter-crop with slow-growing rubber trees. His great interest in the pineapple industry won him the nickname, "Pineapple King". His generosity is remembered during the World War I, when he presented pineapples to the officers and men of H.M.S. Malaya during the ship's stopover in Singapore. For his liberal pineapple gifts to the troops, he received special acknowledgement from Brigadier-General Ridout.
In 1918, his address was 33, Robinson Road, and in that year, he was also Director of many companies, as follows: Chinese Commercial Bank, Eastern United Assurance Co. Ltd. Ulu Pandan Rubber Estates Ltd., United Sawmills Ltd., Hanyang Plantations Ltd., and Kulim Plantations Ltd.
1920s
Chop Thong Aik Rubber Factory at Kangkar was renamed Nee Soon & Sons Ltd. Rubber Works. In 1928, "Rubber King" Lee Kong Chian took over Nee Soon & Sons Ltd., and renamed it Lee Rubber. In 1925, Lim was listed as one of the founders, and executive of the following companies: Overseas Chinese Bank (Chairman), Chinese Commercial Bank Ltd. (vice-Chairman), Overseas Assurance Corporation (Chairman), Eastern United Assurance Corporation Ltd. (Director), and Nee Soon & Sons (Chairman).
1930s
The 1930s was the decade of depression. By then, Lim had sold most of his rubber holdings, but held directorships in many banks and other financial institutions. In early 1936, he was overworked, and had been feeling unwell, and was advised to take a holiday. He took a trip to China
Property
Lim Nee Soon owned Marsiling Estates, Yunan Estates, and Eho Yuan Estates, all in Singapore. By 1924, a large area along the Seletar River were his rubber plantations, and he also built shophouses and dwellings at Seletar Village which was eventually named Nee Soon Village after him. The list of his large holdings in Johore is unavailable.
Community service
Lim took a keen and active interest in public affairs and was very charitable benefactor. He was one of the co-founders of the Ee Hoe Hean Club, with Gan Eng Seng (1844-99) and Dr. Lim Boon Keng (1869-1957). He donated burial land for the Chinese community at Seletar. In 1915, during the Singapore Mutiny, Nee Soon succeeded single-handed in persuading six mutineers to surrender to the government without resistance. He was made a Justice of the Peace in 1925.
He was also a member of the Singapore Rural Board (1918-1925), and Member of the Reformatory Board (1918-1925), and served on the committees of Raffles College and St. Andrew's Medical Mission Hospital. Mr. Tan Kah Kee and Lim Nee Soon founded the Chinese High School, the first Chinese secondary school in Singapore, which opened on 21 Mar 1919. He had donated $10,000 to the school's building fund, and, from its beginnings, was made the school's treasurer. In 1919 too, he was made President of Thong Chi Yi Yuen Hospital. He was President of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce for two periods, from 1921-1922, and 1925-1926, and a Member of the British Malaya Opium Committee in 1924. With other Teochew leaders, they formed the Singapore Teo Chew Poit Ip Huay Kuan in 1929.
The diplomat
He travelled extensively in the Far East, and visited China several times. In 1916, he had the honour of an audience with President Li Yuen Hung at Tientsin, and during this visit, he witnessed the North China great flood. In that same year, he also had an audience with acting President Feng Kuo Chang in Peking, and ex-President Dr. Sun Yat Sen (b. 12 November 1866, Zhongshan, Guangdong, China - d. 12 March 1925, Dongcheng, Beijing) in Canton, where he also interviewed Premier Tuan Chi Jui. In 1925 he was Honorary Adviser to the President of China, and to the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, in Peking (today's Beijing).
Family
Wife: Wi Pek Hay.
Sons: Three sons; the two elder sons, the eldest Lim Chong Kuo (Chong Kuo Road was named after him in 1955) and Lim Chong Pang (b. 6 June, 1904 Singapore - d. 1956, Singapore; married Lee Poh Neo, and Chong Pang Village is named after him) were first educated at St. Andrew's School in Singapore, and later at Stephen's College in Hong Kong. After their studies, they returned to Singapore to help in their father's business. Chong Kuo married a daughter of Tan Kah Kee. The other son was Chong Min.
Daughters: Six daughters, three married at the time of his death; Mrs Oei Tjong Tiong, Mrs See Bong Him and Mrs Tan Tuck Hoe. The others were Mui Gek, Lek Gek and Seok Gek.
Awards
For his services and efforts in promoting Chinese industries abroad, the Peking (today Beijing) Government awarded him the 2nd Class Order of Chiaho Decoration (Excellent Crop).
Death
He had been unwell, and was on a holiday trip. He was heading home from China, when he died in Shanghai, on 2 March 1936, at the comparatively young age of 57. His embalmed body was to have been brought back to Singapore by his eldest son, Lim Ching Kuo, but the Nanking (today Nanjing) Government expressed their desire to give Lim Nee Soon a State funeral, and have him buried in Nanking, near the mausoleum of his old friend Dr Sun Yat Sen.
Political and revolutionary activities
Lim Nee Soon has always been recognized by all Chinese as one of the best friends of great revolutionary leader, Dr Sun Yat Sen , whom he befriended and helped with funds to set the revolutionary forces on the uprising against the Manchu feudal rule in China. The Manchurians ruled China for 267 years during the Qing dynasty, until the revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat Sen overthrew the Manchus and brought about the birth of the Republic of China on 1 January, 1912.
In 1904, Lim Nee Soon contributed $50,000 to found the revolutionary newspaper, the T'oo Nan Daily (Thoe Lam Jit Poh). In early 1905, Dr Sun Yat Sen stumbled upon the Thoe Lam Jit Poh 1905 Almanac, superscribed with a motto urging Chinese nationals 'to relieve themselves of Manchuria's control in China'. It was produced by Singapore Chinese sympathizers, Tan Chor Nam (b. 1884, Singapore - d. 1971, Singapore), Teo Eng Hock (b. 1871 Singapore - d. 1958, Singapore) and his nephew Lim Nee Soon. He wanted to meet them. On 6 April 1906, at Wang Ching Yuan House (the former name of Sun Yat Sen Villa), Dr Sun started a political party, the first Singapore branch of the T'ung Meng Hui (Chinese Revolutionary League), with co-founders Tan Chor Nam as chairman, Teo Eng Hock , and his nephew Lim Nee Soon, Hsu Tzu Lin, as office bearers. Their main activities were to create awareness of the revolution and garner support from the overseas Chinese people, collect funds to help fight the cause, and assemble volunteers to join in the uprisings. In the fall of 1907, they produced the short-lived newspaper, the Chong Shing Yit Pao (Chong Shing Daily) with Nee Soon as its manager. It failed due to people's concern of showing open support for the revolution, as they feared arrest on their return home to China. On 15 December 1911, Dr Sun Yat Sen made his last visit to Singapore, and Nee Soon was among the local leaders, who entertained Dr Sun and his entourage. After Lim Nee Soon's death, his son Lim Chong Pang, related much of this story in the Sunday Times of how Nee Soon had played a part in the birth of the Republic of China. The T'ung Meng Hui was reorganized as the Kuomintang, and its Singapore branch in 1912 had Dr Lim Boon Keng and Lim Nee Soon among the first office-bearers.
Nee Soon Village, Nee Soon Road, Bah Soon Pah Road were named after him.
Today
In line with the education and use of Mandarin as the official Chinese Language, much of Singapore's names in Chinese dialects were translated to Pinyin, so the 'Nee Soon' place names became Yishun! A statue of Lim Nee Soon stands in his honour, at Yishun Town Park.
Done by : Amanda Soh, Grace Ker & Wu Meiqi 2 Faith
Early years
Lim Nee Soon, a Teochew, was born in Beach Road in Kampong Glam, Singapore, on 12 November 1879. His grandfather, and father Lim Peng Nguan arrived from Chao-chow-fu (Swatow), China, in a junk, in the 1860s, and became a sundries trader, in Beach Road. Lim Peng Nguan married Teo Lee's eldest daughter, but he died in 1887, and left his son Nee Soon, then eight years old in the care of his maternal grandfather, Teo Lee (1833) who provided the young orphan boy with a sound Chinese and English education. As a Straits-born Chinese Baba, he was popularly known as Bah Soon, and because of that, Bah Soon Pah Road is named after Lim Nee Soon.
Education
The young lad was first educated in English at St. Joseph's Institution, and then later, at the Anglo Chinese School. We have no details of his Chinese education.
Early career
Nee Soon's first job was with timber merchants, Messers. Tan Tye & Co. He took great interest in rubber planting, and in 1904, was an assistant manager in Tan Chor Nam's rubber estate. His next job was acting manager of United Singapore Rubber Estates Ltd. In 1909, when Sembawang Rubber Estates was formed, Nee Soon became its first General Manager, and later, its Consultant. He resigned in 1911 to start his own business as a rubber and pineapple planter and rubber factory owner. He was consultant to other rubber estate owners too, and by then he had already engaged in business as a merchant, contractor, and general commission agent.
History of rubber
Henry Nicholas Ridley (b. Norfolk 1855 - d. 1956, Kew, Surrey, England), Director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, developed an improved rubber-tapping technique, and he was the strongest advocate of rubber-planting as a crop. Early this century the automobile industry boomed and rubber tyres were in great demand. In 1910, the government opened more than 2,000 acres of reserved land in Nee Soon to encourage rubber-planting. Rubber was Malaya and Singapore's export wealth for more than 50 years.
Business enterprises
In the wake of declining fortunes from gambier an pepper, Lim converted large tracts of gambier and pepper plantations in Yishun into rubber and pineapple ones. In 1911, Lim founded Lim Nee Soon & Co., chop Thong Bee, with an office at No 5 Beach Road; and in 1912, he built a row of shophouses and dwellings at Sembawang Road, and established chop Thong Aik Rubber Factory in Kangkar(chop refers to the traditional seal or official stamp bearing the Chinese characters of a company name, used for legal endorsements etc.). His businesses quickly flourished. He owned large rubber estates, 6,000 acres of rubber plantations in Singapore, and more than 20,000 acres in Johore and other small estates. In 1913 he started Nee Soon Rubber Factory in Choa Chu Kang, and also cultivated pineapples which was a good inter-crop with slow-growing rubber trees. His great interest in the pineapple industry won him the nickname, "Pineapple King". His generosity is remembered during the World War I, when he presented pineapples to the officers and men of H.M.S. Malaya during the ship's stopover in Singapore. For his liberal pineapple gifts to the troops, he received special acknowledgement from Brigadier-General Ridout.
In 1918, his address was 33, Robinson Road, and in that year, he was also Director of many companies, as follows: Chinese Commercial Bank, Eastern United Assurance Co. Ltd. Ulu Pandan Rubber Estates Ltd., United Sawmills Ltd., Hanyang Plantations Ltd., and Kulim Plantations Ltd.
1920s
Chop Thong Aik Rubber Factory at Kangkar was renamed Nee Soon & Sons Ltd. Rubber Works. In 1928, "Rubber King" Lee Kong Chian took over Nee Soon & Sons Ltd., and renamed it Lee Rubber. In 1925, Lim was listed as one of the founders, and executive of the following companies: Overseas Chinese Bank (Chairman), Chinese Commercial Bank Ltd. (vice-Chairman), Overseas Assurance Corporation (Chairman), Eastern United Assurance Corporation Ltd. (Director), and Nee Soon & Sons (Chairman).
1930s
The 1930s was the decade of depression. By then, Lim had sold most of his rubber holdings, but held directorships in many banks and other financial institutions. In early 1936, he was overworked, and had been feeling unwell, and was advised to take a holiday. He took a trip to China
Property
Lim Nee Soon owned Marsiling Estates, Yunan Estates, and Eho Yuan Estates, all in Singapore. By 1924, a large area along the Seletar River were his rubber plantations, and he also built shophouses and dwellings at Seletar Village which was eventually named Nee Soon Village after him. The list of his large holdings in Johore is unavailable.
Community service
Lim took a keen and active interest in public affairs and was very charitable benefactor. He was one of the co-founders of the Ee Hoe Hean Club, with Gan Eng Seng (1844-99) and Dr. Lim Boon Keng (1869-1957). He donated burial land for the Chinese community at Seletar. In 1915, during the Singapore Mutiny, Nee Soon succeeded single-handed in persuading six mutineers to surrender to the government without resistance. He was made a Justice of the Peace in 1925.
He was also a member of the Singapore Rural Board (1918-1925), and Member of the Reformatory Board (1918-1925), and served on the committees of Raffles College and St. Andrew's Medical Mission Hospital. Mr. Tan Kah Kee and Lim Nee Soon founded the Chinese High School, the first Chinese secondary school in Singapore, which opened on 21 Mar 1919. He had donated $10,000 to the school's building fund, and, from its beginnings, was made the school's treasurer. In 1919 too, he was made President of Thong Chi Yi Yuen Hospital. He was President of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce for two periods, from 1921-1922, and 1925-1926, and a Member of the British Malaya Opium Committee in 1924. With other Teochew leaders, they formed the Singapore Teo Chew Poit Ip Huay Kuan in 1929.
The diplomat
He travelled extensively in the Far East, and visited China several times. In 1916, he had the honour of an audience with President Li Yuen Hung at Tientsin, and during this visit, he witnessed the North China great flood. In that same year, he also had an audience with acting President Feng Kuo Chang in Peking, and ex-President Dr. Sun Yat Sen (b. 12 November 1866, Zhongshan, Guangdong, China - d. 12 March 1925, Dongcheng, Beijing) in Canton, where he also interviewed Premier Tuan Chi Jui. In 1925 he was Honorary Adviser to the President of China, and to the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, in Peking (today's Beijing).
Family
Wife: Wi Pek Hay.
Sons: Three sons; the two elder sons, the eldest Lim Chong Kuo (Chong Kuo Road was named after him in 1955) and Lim Chong Pang (b. 6 June, 1904 Singapore - d. 1956, Singapore; married Lee Poh Neo, and Chong Pang Village is named after him) were first educated at St. Andrew's School in Singapore, and later at Stephen's College in Hong Kong. After their studies, they returned to Singapore to help in their father's business. Chong Kuo married a daughter of Tan Kah Kee. The other son was Chong Min.
Daughters: Six daughters, three married at the time of his death; Mrs Oei Tjong Tiong, Mrs See Bong Him and Mrs Tan Tuck Hoe. The others were Mui Gek, Lek Gek and Seok Gek.
Awards
For his services and efforts in promoting Chinese industries abroad, the Peking (today Beijing) Government awarded him the 2nd Class Order of Chiaho Decoration (Excellent Crop).
Death
He had been unwell, and was on a holiday trip. He was heading home from China, when he died in Shanghai, on 2 March 1936, at the comparatively young age of 57. His embalmed body was to have been brought back to Singapore by his eldest son, Lim Ching Kuo, but the Nanking (today Nanjing) Government expressed their desire to give Lim Nee Soon a State funeral, and have him buried in Nanking, near the mausoleum of his old friend Dr Sun Yat Sen.
Political and revolutionary activities
Lim Nee Soon has always been recognized by all Chinese as one of the best friends of great revolutionary leader, Dr Sun Yat Sen , whom he befriended and helped with funds to set the revolutionary forces on the uprising against the Manchu feudal rule in China. The Manchurians ruled China for 267 years during the Qing dynasty, until the revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat Sen overthrew the Manchus and brought about the birth of the Republic of China on 1 January, 1912.
In 1904, Lim Nee Soon contributed $50,000 to found the revolutionary newspaper, the T'oo Nan Daily (Thoe Lam Jit Poh). In early 1905, Dr Sun Yat Sen stumbled upon the Thoe Lam Jit Poh 1905 Almanac, superscribed with a motto urging Chinese nationals 'to relieve themselves of Manchuria's control in China'. It was produced by Singapore Chinese sympathizers, Tan Chor Nam (b. 1884, Singapore - d. 1971, Singapore), Teo Eng Hock (b. 1871 Singapore - d. 1958, Singapore) and his nephew Lim Nee Soon. He wanted to meet them. On 6 April 1906, at Wang Ching Yuan House (the former name of Sun Yat Sen Villa), Dr Sun started a political party, the first Singapore branch of the T'ung Meng Hui (Chinese Revolutionary League), with co-founders Tan Chor Nam as chairman, Teo Eng Hock , and his nephew Lim Nee Soon, Hsu Tzu Lin, as office bearers. Their main activities were to create awareness of the revolution and garner support from the overseas Chinese people, collect funds to help fight the cause, and assemble volunteers to join in the uprisings. In the fall of 1907, they produced the short-lived newspaper, the Chong Shing Yit Pao (Chong Shing Daily) with Nee Soon as its manager. It failed due to people's concern of showing open support for the revolution, as they feared arrest on their return home to China. On 15 December 1911, Dr Sun Yat Sen made his last visit to Singapore, and Nee Soon was among the local leaders, who entertained Dr Sun and his entourage. After Lim Nee Soon's death, his son Lim Chong Pang, related much of this story in the Sunday Times of how Nee Soon had played a part in the birth of the Republic of China. The T'ung Meng Hui was reorganized as the Kuomintang, and its Singapore branch in 1912 had Dr Lim Boon Keng and Lim Nee Soon among the first office-bearers.
Nee Soon Village, Nee Soon Road, Bah Soon Pah Road were named after him.
Today
In line with the education and use of Mandarin as the official Chinese Language, much of Singapore's names in Chinese dialects were translated to Pinyin, so the 'Nee Soon' place names became Yishun! A statue of Lim Nee Soon stands in his honour, at Yishun Town Park.
Done by : Amanda Soh, Grace Ker & Wu Meiqi 2 Faith
SIR THOMAS STAMFORD RAFFLES
SIR THOMAS STAMFORD RAFFLES
1781 - 1826
The birth and growing up years
On the ship Ann off the coast of Jamaica, was Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles’ birthplace. It was 6th July 1781. His father, Benjamin Raffles, was a captain in the East West Indies trade. Little is known of Raffles' parents. His family was poor and was forced to leave school when his father died being involved in the slave trade in the Caribbean. Although he was only 14, Raffles had to work as his family was in debt. He started working as a clerk in London for the British East India Company, the quasi-government trading company that shaped many of Britain's overseas conquests.
He was sent to Prince of Wales Island (now Penang in Malaysia) in 1805, starting a long association with Southeast Asia, working as a Assistant Secretary under the Governor of Penang (Philip Dundas). Prior to that, he married Olivia Mariamne Devenish, a widow whose ex-husband was Jacob Cassivelaun Fancourt. Jacob was an assistant surgeon in Madras who died in 1800. In the meantime, Raffles developed a good friendship with Thomas Otho Travers. Due to him being fluent with the Malay language, he was imperative to the British Government, and he was later given a post as Malay translator to the Government of India.
When the British navy invaded Java to ‘dispose off’ Dutch and French traders in 1811, Raffles went along and was made Lieutenant governor of this multi-island colony. He was soon promoted to Governor of Bencoolen (now Sumatra). His wife passed away in 1814. In 1816, ill health forced him to return to London. He won an election to the Royal Society and a knighthood due to his studies of East Indian people.
He remarried to Sophia Hull in London. It was 1817. To safeguard British shipping to the China seas, Raffles conceived a plan to find a fort east of the Straits of Malacca by 1818.
Contribution to Singapore
On 29th January, 1819, Raffles founded modern Singapore.
The only reason Raffles came to Singapore was for trade. Prior to that, Singapore had many geographical advantages:
• She lay in the main trading rout of India and China.
• She had a deep harbor for big ships to anchor.
• She had a plentiful supply of fresh water.
There where only 200 people living in Singapore when Raffles first arrived, but in 3 years time, there were about 5000 people populating Singapore.
Major William Farquhar, British Resident of Malacca, had been attempting to negotiate commercial treaties with the local chiefs of the Riau Archipelago, especially with the heads of the Sultanate of Johore. Due to the death and subsequent turmoil of the sultanate at the time of Farquhar's arrival, Farquhar was compelled to sign the treaty not with the official head of the sultanate, but rather, the Raja Muda (Regent or Crown Prince) of Riau. Noting it as a success and reporting it as such back to Raffles, Raffles sailed to Calcutta in late 1818 to personally secure a British presence in the Riau area, especially Singapura, which was favored by both him through the readings of Malayan histories and by Farquhar's explorations.
Despite Lord Hastings' less-than-enthusiastic opinion of Raffles before (which had necessitated his trip to England to clear his name at the end of his tenure as Governor-General of Java), the now well-connected and successful Raffles was able to secure the permission to set up a settlement where the Malaysian name Lion City was applied and was in a strategically advantageous position. However, he was not to anger the Dutch, and his actions were watched closely. Despite the best efforts in London by authorities such as the Viscount Castlereagh to quell Dutch fears and the continuing efforts to reach an agreement between the nations that eventually became the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London of 1824.He also sent instructions to Raffles to undertake far less intrusive actions, the distance between the Far East and Europe had meant that the orders had no chance of reaching Raffles in time for his venture to start.
After a brief survey of the Karimun Islands on 29 January 1819, at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, Raffles established a free-trade post. It was confirmed that there was no Dutch presence on the island of Singapore. Johore also no longer had any control of the area, hence contact was made with the local Temenggong, or Raja. The contacts were friendly and Raffles, knowledgeable about the muddled political situation, took advantage to provide a rudimentary treaty between the nominal chiefs of the area that called for the exclusivity of trade and the English protection of the area. The members of Raffles' party surveyed the island and proceeded to request the presence of the sultan, or whoever at the time had supreme nominal power, to sign a formal treaty, while Major Farquhar was ordered to do the same in Rhio. A few days later, a man who claimed to be the "lawful sovereign of the whole of territories extending from Lingen and Johore to Mount Muar", signed the formal treaty. He was Tengku Long. Even though he had no previous contact with the British, he had certainly heard about the power of the British navy and hence was in no position to argue against the terms. Raffles, however, was able to convince the man and reassure him that the Dutch posed no threat in the area. As the Dutch were present, Farquhar's attempt to establish a more favorable treaty in Rhio was met with greater challenge. It made a rather awkward position. The Dutch were justifiably alarmed and sent a small contingent to the island. Despite a covert offer of subterfuge against the Dutch offered by the Raja of Rhio, Farquhar returned and an official protest was sent by the Raja to Java regarding the matter.
On 6th February, Raffles announced the foundation of what was to become modern Singapore, securing transfer of control of the island to the East India Company. Much pomp and ceremony was done, and the official treaty was read aloud in languages representing all nations present, as well as the Malay and Chinese inhabitants. Farquhar was officially named the Resident of Singapore as Raffles was named as "Agent to the Most Noble the Governor-General with the States of Rhio, Lingin and Johor". Although ownership of the post was to be exclusively British, explicit orders were given to Farquhar to maintain free passage of ships through the Strait of Singapore and a small military presence was established alongside the trading post. After issuing orders to Farquhar and the remaining Europeans, Raffles left the next day, 7 February 1819.
Raffles also planned to start a British presence in Achin, at the northern tip of Sumatra. As soon as he left, the Raja of Rhio sent letters to the Dutch, claiming innocence and a British encroachment. The Dutch in Malacca responded at once, and ordered that no Malays could go to Singapore. Raffles' bold claim of Singapore created a curious geographic situation where although Penang was clearly closer distance-wise to Singapore, Raffles, in his capacity as the Governor-General of Bencoolen, was in control. This undoubtedly irked the authorities in Penang to the point where they refused to send any sepoys to Singapore to complete the garrison. Before the end of the month, Official Dutch complaints came, and Raffles attempted to appease the situation by instructing Farquhar to not interfere with the politics of surrounding islands. Despite numerous threats and serious considerations by the Dutch Governor-General in Java, the Dutch did not take any military action.
The muddled political situation in Johore and Rhio also created a certain uneasiness and instability for the two nations. Turku Long was claimed to be a pretender to the throne, and since the succession laws in the Malay sultanates were not as clear cut as, for example, the Salic laws of Europe, the treaties signed between native rulers and the European powers always seemed to be on the verge of being invalidated, especially if a sultan is deposed by one of his siblings or other pretenders.
Nevertheless, amidst the uncertainty and intrigue, Raffles landed in Achin on 14 March, 1819, with the begrudging help of Penang. Once again, it seems that multiple people were in power, but none wanted to formally deal with the British. The hostile atmosphere created allowed for Raffles to cancel the only meeting he was able to arrange, with Panglima Polim, a powerful divisional chief, fearing treachery. As the influential merchant John Palmer, Raffles, and fellow commissioner John Monckton Coombs of Penang sat offshore, waiting for a response, Calcutta debated whether to reinforce Singapore or not. Evacuation plans were made, but the Dutch never acted and finally Lord Hastings prompted Colonel Bannerman, the Governor of Penang, to send funds to reinforce Singapore.
Raffles finally was able to convince his fellow commissioners to sign a treaty with Jauhar al-Alam Shah, the ruler of Achin, which placed a British resident as well as the exclusivity of trade. By the time Raffles returned to Singapore, on 31 May, much of the immediate crisis that the establishment of the colony have caused in both Penang and Calcutta have passed. By then, the initial five-hundred villagers have grown to become five-thousand merchants, soldiers, and administrators on the island. Raffles was determined to both destroy the Dutch monopoly in the area and create a gateway to the trade with China and Japan, the latter nation he attempted and failed to reach while governing Java.
While in Singapore, Raffles readily established schools and churches in the native languages. Rather, he allowed for missionaries and local businesses to flourish. Certain colonial aspects remained the same: a European town was quickly built to segregate the population, separated by a river; carriage roads were built and cantonments constructed for the soldiers. However, no duties were imposed. Confident that Farquhar have followed his instructions well, he sailed for Bencoolen once again on 28 June.
The plan of the town of Singapore, also know as the Jackson Plan. It was drawn by Lieutenant Philip Jackson.
Raffles was pleased at the fact that Singapore had grown exponentially in such short years. The colony was a bustling hub of trade and activity. However, Farquhar's development work was considered unsatisfactory. Raffles was not pleased with the settlement’s haphazard growth, and his instructions to reserve land on the north bank of the Singapore River exclusively for the government had not been followed.
To set things right, Raffles formed a Town Committee and issued a detailed list of instructions covering every aspect of Singapore’s future development on 4th November. Jackson had drawn up a general plan of the town by 1823.
It was still a segregated plan, giving the best land to the Europeans, yet it was considered remarkably scientific for the time. It was also during the replanning and reconstruction of the town that allowed Farquhar to clash dramatically with Raffles. He considered Farquhar unfit for the position of Resident, so Raffles took direct control with a heavy hand. In 1823, Raffles instituted a code of settlement for the populace, and soon followed with laws regarding the freedom of trade. He also quickly instituted a registration system for all land, regardless of ownership, and the repossession of the land by the government if land remained unregistered. This act greatly asserted the power of the British government as it covered land previously owned by the Sultan as well. A police force and magistrate was then set up, under British principles. In a very short period of time, Raffles had turned a semi-anarchic trading post into a proper city with at least a semblance of order.
Repeated efforts by Raffles for Calcutta to send a replacement for Farquhar remained unanswered. As Raffles started to hint at his impending retirement, he made Johore a British protectorate, causing a protest from van der Capellen. Finally, Calcutta appointed John Crawfurd, who had followed Raffles for over twenty years, as the Resident of Singapore. Captain William Gordon MacKenzie took over Bencoolen from Raffles. It's March 1823, and coincidentally, on the same day he was replaced, he received an official reprimand from London for the takeover of Nias.
With politics against him, Raffles finally turned back to the natural sciences. He gave a speech regarding the opening of a Malay college in Singapore that heavily involved his observations of his years in Southeast Asia and the importance of both the local and the European languages. Raffles personally gave $2000 towards the effort, as the East India Company gave $4000.
In 1823, Raffles drafted the first constitution for Singapore, which followed a fairly moralistic stance, outlawing gaming and slavery. A specific regulation in the constitution called for the multiethnic population of Singapore to remain as is, and there shall be no crimes based on being a race. He then went to work drafting laws, defining on exactly "what" constituted a crime.
Later Years
On 9th July, 1823, feeling that his work on establishing Singapore was finished, he boarded a ship for home, but not before a stop in Batavia to visit his old home and adversary, van der Capellen. A final stop in Bencoolen ensued, and the journey back home was interrupted by a heart-rending experience as one of the ships caught fire off Rat Island, which claimed many of his drawings and papers.
Upon arrival to England, Raffles was in poor health. Both Sir and Lady Raffles convalesced in Cheltenham until September, after which he entertained distinguished guests in both London and his home. Considerations to run for parliament during this time was made, but this goal was never realized. He moved to London at the end of November, just in time to have a war of words in front of the Court of Directors of the EIC regarding Singapore with Farquhar, who had also arrived in London. Despite several severe charges put upon Raffles, Farquhar was ultimately unable to discredit him and was denied a chance to be restored to Singapore, but he was given a military promotion instead.
With the Singapore matter settled, Raffles turned to his other great hobby - botany. Raffles was a founder (in 1825) and first president (elected April 1826) of the Zoological Society of London and the London Zoo. Meanwhile, he was not only not granted a pension, but was called to pay over twenty-two thousand pounds sterling for the losses incurred during his administrations. Raffles replied and clarified his actions, and moved to his country estate, Highwood, but before the issue was resolved, he was already much too ill.
A day before his forty-fifth birthday, Raffles died in London, England. He died on 5th July 1826 due to apoplexy. His properties summed up around ten thousand pounds sterling, which was paid to the Company to cover his outstanding debt. Because of his anti-slavery stance, he was refused burial inside his local parish church (St. Mary's, Hendon) by the vicar, whose family had made its money in the slave trade. A brass tablet was finally placed in 1887 and the actual whereabouts of his body was not found until 1914 when it was found in a vault. When the church was extended in the 1920s his tomb was incorporated into the body of the building.
In memory of Raffles
The Bronze Statue of Raffles
The original bronze statue of Sir Stamford Raffles was sculptured by Thomas Woolner at a cost of $20,446.10. It was unveiled at the Padang in 1887. The statue showed Raffles's meditative pose with arms folded and was officially unveiled by the Governor of the Straits Settlements, Sir Frederick Weld on 27 June 1887 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Queen Victoria's reign (Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee Year).
The inscription on the statue reads as follows:
This tablet to the memory of Sir Stamford Raffles to whose foresight and genius Singapore owes its existence and prosperity Unveiled on February 6th 1919 .The 100th anniversary of the foundation of the settlement.
White Statue of Raffles
There is another statue of Raffles built in 1972 and is placed on the banks of the Singapore River where he first landed. With his back to the River, the white polymarble copy of the original bronze statue of Sir Stamford Raffles marks his first landing site on Singapore.
From the banks of the Singapore river, you can catch a panoramic view of Boat Quay and the Raffles Place skyline behind, and marvel at the development and progress that has taken place since Raffles first landed.
Inscription on the Statue :
'On this historic site, Sir Stamford Raffles first landed in Singapore on 28th January 1819 and with genius and perception changed the destiny of Singapore from an obscure fishing village to a great seaport and modern metropolis.'
(There are similar inscriptions in Chinese, Malay and Tamil at each corner).
Landmarks
In Singapore, a number of landmarks have been named after him: Raffles College, Raffles Institution, Raffles Hotel, Stamford Road, Stamford House, Raffles City and Raffles Place. There is also a Raffles Lighthouse located at the southwest of Sentosa Island, and a Raffles Place Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station!
On the southern corner of Raffles City stands a world's tallest hotel, "The 73-floor, 1,235 room Westin Stamford."
Raffles Hotel
An ancient hotel established since 1887 by Armenian brothers; Martin, Tigran, Aviet, and Arshak Sarkies, the Raffles Hotel was first a colonial bungalow known as Beach House before becoming Raffles Hotel. Raffles Hotel is one of the world's most famous hotels. It was declared a National Monument in 1987 and was reopened in 1991 after renovations.
Raffles Institution
On June 5 1823, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles laid the foundation stone of a building which he named 'Singapore Institution' which was later renamed Raffles Institution, in memory of its founder in 1868.
The Rafflesia
One of the largest flowers in the world - the Rafflesia - was also named after him.
Bibliography
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamford_Raffles
• http://www.answers.com/topic/sir-thomas-stamford-raffles
• http://www.uwcsea.edu.sg/grade4/Sanaya%20Khaneja/new_page_5.htm
• http://www.uwcsea.edu.sg/grade4/Robinfriden/sir_stamford_raffles.htm
• http://www.aoto.com.sg/show_details.cgi?ITEM_ID=86
• http://www1.moe.edu.sg/learn@/singaporerivertrail/pri/G191_Elias_Park_Pri/c_civic_raffles.html
1781 - 1826
The birth and growing up years
On the ship Ann off the coast of Jamaica, was Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles’ birthplace. It was 6th July 1781. His father, Benjamin Raffles, was a captain in the East West Indies trade. Little is known of Raffles' parents. His family was poor and was forced to leave school when his father died being involved in the slave trade in the Caribbean. Although he was only 14, Raffles had to work as his family was in debt. He started working as a clerk in London for the British East India Company, the quasi-government trading company that shaped many of Britain's overseas conquests.
He was sent to Prince of Wales Island (now Penang in Malaysia) in 1805, starting a long association with Southeast Asia, working as a Assistant Secretary under the Governor of Penang (Philip Dundas). Prior to that, he married Olivia Mariamne Devenish, a widow whose ex-husband was Jacob Cassivelaun Fancourt. Jacob was an assistant surgeon in Madras who died in 1800. In the meantime, Raffles developed a good friendship with Thomas Otho Travers. Due to him being fluent with the Malay language, he was imperative to the British Government, and he was later given a post as Malay translator to the Government of India.
When the British navy invaded Java to ‘dispose off’ Dutch and French traders in 1811, Raffles went along and was made Lieutenant governor of this multi-island colony. He was soon promoted to Governor of Bencoolen (now Sumatra). His wife passed away in 1814. In 1816, ill health forced him to return to London. He won an election to the Royal Society and a knighthood due to his studies of East Indian people.
He remarried to Sophia Hull in London. It was 1817. To safeguard British shipping to the China seas, Raffles conceived a plan to find a fort east of the Straits of Malacca by 1818.
Contribution to Singapore
On 29th January, 1819, Raffles founded modern Singapore.
The only reason Raffles came to Singapore was for trade. Prior to that, Singapore had many geographical advantages:
• She lay in the main trading rout of India and China.
• She had a deep harbor for big ships to anchor.
• She had a plentiful supply of fresh water.
There where only 200 people living in Singapore when Raffles first arrived, but in 3 years time, there were about 5000 people populating Singapore.
Major William Farquhar, British Resident of Malacca, had been attempting to negotiate commercial treaties with the local chiefs of the Riau Archipelago, especially with the heads of the Sultanate of Johore. Due to the death and subsequent turmoil of the sultanate at the time of Farquhar's arrival, Farquhar was compelled to sign the treaty not with the official head of the sultanate, but rather, the Raja Muda (Regent or Crown Prince) of Riau. Noting it as a success and reporting it as such back to Raffles, Raffles sailed to Calcutta in late 1818 to personally secure a British presence in the Riau area, especially Singapura, which was favored by both him through the readings of Malayan histories and by Farquhar's explorations.
Despite Lord Hastings' less-than-enthusiastic opinion of Raffles before (which had necessitated his trip to England to clear his name at the end of his tenure as Governor-General of Java), the now well-connected and successful Raffles was able to secure the permission to set up a settlement where the Malaysian name Lion City was applied and was in a strategically advantageous position. However, he was not to anger the Dutch, and his actions were watched closely. Despite the best efforts in London by authorities such as the Viscount Castlereagh to quell Dutch fears and the continuing efforts to reach an agreement between the nations that eventually became the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London of 1824.He also sent instructions to Raffles to undertake far less intrusive actions, the distance between the Far East and Europe had meant that the orders had no chance of reaching Raffles in time for his venture to start.
After a brief survey of the Karimun Islands on 29 January 1819, at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, Raffles established a free-trade post. It was confirmed that there was no Dutch presence on the island of Singapore. Johore also no longer had any control of the area, hence contact was made with the local Temenggong, or Raja. The contacts were friendly and Raffles, knowledgeable about the muddled political situation, took advantage to provide a rudimentary treaty between the nominal chiefs of the area that called for the exclusivity of trade and the English protection of the area. The members of Raffles' party surveyed the island and proceeded to request the presence of the sultan, or whoever at the time had supreme nominal power, to sign a formal treaty, while Major Farquhar was ordered to do the same in Rhio. A few days later, a man who claimed to be the "lawful sovereign of the whole of territories extending from Lingen and Johore to Mount Muar", signed the formal treaty. He was Tengku Long. Even though he had no previous contact with the British, he had certainly heard about the power of the British navy and hence was in no position to argue against the terms. Raffles, however, was able to convince the man and reassure him that the Dutch posed no threat in the area. As the Dutch were present, Farquhar's attempt to establish a more favorable treaty in Rhio was met with greater challenge. It made a rather awkward position. The Dutch were justifiably alarmed and sent a small contingent to the island. Despite a covert offer of subterfuge against the Dutch offered by the Raja of Rhio, Farquhar returned and an official protest was sent by the Raja to Java regarding the matter.
On 6th February, Raffles announced the foundation of what was to become modern Singapore, securing transfer of control of the island to the East India Company. Much pomp and ceremony was done, and the official treaty was read aloud in languages representing all nations present, as well as the Malay and Chinese inhabitants. Farquhar was officially named the Resident of Singapore as Raffles was named as "Agent to the Most Noble the Governor-General with the States of Rhio, Lingin and Johor". Although ownership of the post was to be exclusively British, explicit orders were given to Farquhar to maintain free passage of ships through the Strait of Singapore and a small military presence was established alongside the trading post. After issuing orders to Farquhar and the remaining Europeans, Raffles left the next day, 7 February 1819.
Raffles also planned to start a British presence in Achin, at the northern tip of Sumatra. As soon as he left, the Raja of Rhio sent letters to the Dutch, claiming innocence and a British encroachment. The Dutch in Malacca responded at once, and ordered that no Malays could go to Singapore. Raffles' bold claim of Singapore created a curious geographic situation where although Penang was clearly closer distance-wise to Singapore, Raffles, in his capacity as the Governor-General of Bencoolen, was in control. This undoubtedly irked the authorities in Penang to the point where they refused to send any sepoys to Singapore to complete the garrison. Before the end of the month, Official Dutch complaints came, and Raffles attempted to appease the situation by instructing Farquhar to not interfere with the politics of surrounding islands. Despite numerous threats and serious considerations by the Dutch Governor-General in Java, the Dutch did not take any military action.
The muddled political situation in Johore and Rhio also created a certain uneasiness and instability for the two nations. Turku Long was claimed to be a pretender to the throne, and since the succession laws in the Malay sultanates were not as clear cut as, for example, the Salic laws of Europe, the treaties signed between native rulers and the European powers always seemed to be on the verge of being invalidated, especially if a sultan is deposed by one of his siblings or other pretenders.
Nevertheless, amidst the uncertainty and intrigue, Raffles landed in Achin on 14 March, 1819, with the begrudging help of Penang. Once again, it seems that multiple people were in power, but none wanted to formally deal with the British. The hostile atmosphere created allowed for Raffles to cancel the only meeting he was able to arrange, with Panglima Polim, a powerful divisional chief, fearing treachery. As the influential merchant John Palmer, Raffles, and fellow commissioner John Monckton Coombs of Penang sat offshore, waiting for a response, Calcutta debated whether to reinforce Singapore or not. Evacuation plans were made, but the Dutch never acted and finally Lord Hastings prompted Colonel Bannerman, the Governor of Penang, to send funds to reinforce Singapore.
Raffles finally was able to convince his fellow commissioners to sign a treaty with Jauhar al-Alam Shah, the ruler of Achin, which placed a British resident as well as the exclusivity of trade. By the time Raffles returned to Singapore, on 31 May, much of the immediate crisis that the establishment of the colony have caused in both Penang and Calcutta have passed. By then, the initial five-hundred villagers have grown to become five-thousand merchants, soldiers, and administrators on the island. Raffles was determined to both destroy the Dutch monopoly in the area and create a gateway to the trade with China and Japan, the latter nation he attempted and failed to reach while governing Java.
While in Singapore, Raffles readily established schools and churches in the native languages. Rather, he allowed for missionaries and local businesses to flourish. Certain colonial aspects remained the same: a European town was quickly built to segregate the population, separated by a river; carriage roads were built and cantonments constructed for the soldiers. However, no duties were imposed. Confident that Farquhar have followed his instructions well, he sailed for Bencoolen once again on 28 June.
The plan of the town of Singapore, also know as the Jackson Plan. It was drawn by Lieutenant Philip Jackson.
Raffles was pleased at the fact that Singapore had grown exponentially in such short years. The colony was a bustling hub of trade and activity. However, Farquhar's development work was considered unsatisfactory. Raffles was not pleased with the settlement’s haphazard growth, and his instructions to reserve land on the north bank of the Singapore River exclusively for the government had not been followed.
To set things right, Raffles formed a Town Committee and issued a detailed list of instructions covering every aspect of Singapore’s future development on 4th November. Jackson had drawn up a general plan of the town by 1823.
It was still a segregated plan, giving the best land to the Europeans, yet it was considered remarkably scientific for the time. It was also during the replanning and reconstruction of the town that allowed Farquhar to clash dramatically with Raffles. He considered Farquhar unfit for the position of Resident, so Raffles took direct control with a heavy hand. In 1823, Raffles instituted a code of settlement for the populace, and soon followed with laws regarding the freedom of trade. He also quickly instituted a registration system for all land, regardless of ownership, and the repossession of the land by the government if land remained unregistered. This act greatly asserted the power of the British government as it covered land previously owned by the Sultan as well. A police force and magistrate was then set up, under British principles. In a very short period of time, Raffles had turned a semi-anarchic trading post into a proper city with at least a semblance of order.
Repeated efforts by Raffles for Calcutta to send a replacement for Farquhar remained unanswered. As Raffles started to hint at his impending retirement, he made Johore a British protectorate, causing a protest from van der Capellen. Finally, Calcutta appointed John Crawfurd, who had followed Raffles for over twenty years, as the Resident of Singapore. Captain William Gordon MacKenzie took over Bencoolen from Raffles. It's March 1823, and coincidentally, on the same day he was replaced, he received an official reprimand from London for the takeover of Nias.
With politics against him, Raffles finally turned back to the natural sciences. He gave a speech regarding the opening of a Malay college in Singapore that heavily involved his observations of his years in Southeast Asia and the importance of both the local and the European languages. Raffles personally gave $2000 towards the effort, as the East India Company gave $4000.
In 1823, Raffles drafted the first constitution for Singapore, which followed a fairly moralistic stance, outlawing gaming and slavery. A specific regulation in the constitution called for the multiethnic population of Singapore to remain as is, and there shall be no crimes based on being a race. He then went to work drafting laws, defining on exactly "what" constituted a crime.
Later Years
On 9th July, 1823, feeling that his work on establishing Singapore was finished, he boarded a ship for home, but not before a stop in Batavia to visit his old home and adversary, van der Capellen. A final stop in Bencoolen ensued, and the journey back home was interrupted by a heart-rending experience as one of the ships caught fire off Rat Island, which claimed many of his drawings and papers.
Upon arrival to England, Raffles was in poor health. Both Sir and Lady Raffles convalesced in Cheltenham until September, after which he entertained distinguished guests in both London and his home. Considerations to run for parliament during this time was made, but this goal was never realized. He moved to London at the end of November, just in time to have a war of words in front of the Court of Directors of the EIC regarding Singapore with Farquhar, who had also arrived in London. Despite several severe charges put upon Raffles, Farquhar was ultimately unable to discredit him and was denied a chance to be restored to Singapore, but he was given a military promotion instead.
With the Singapore matter settled, Raffles turned to his other great hobby - botany. Raffles was a founder (in 1825) and first president (elected April 1826) of the Zoological Society of London and the London Zoo. Meanwhile, he was not only not granted a pension, but was called to pay over twenty-two thousand pounds sterling for the losses incurred during his administrations. Raffles replied and clarified his actions, and moved to his country estate, Highwood, but before the issue was resolved, he was already much too ill.
A day before his forty-fifth birthday, Raffles died in London, England. He died on 5th July 1826 due to apoplexy. His properties summed up around ten thousand pounds sterling, which was paid to the Company to cover his outstanding debt. Because of his anti-slavery stance, he was refused burial inside his local parish church (St. Mary's, Hendon) by the vicar, whose family had made its money in the slave trade. A brass tablet was finally placed in 1887 and the actual whereabouts of his body was not found until 1914 when it was found in a vault. When the church was extended in the 1920s his tomb was incorporated into the body of the building.
In memory of Raffles
The Bronze Statue of Raffles
The original bronze statue of Sir Stamford Raffles was sculptured by Thomas Woolner at a cost of $20,446.10. It was unveiled at the Padang in 1887. The statue showed Raffles's meditative pose with arms folded and was officially unveiled by the Governor of the Straits Settlements, Sir Frederick Weld on 27 June 1887 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Queen Victoria's reign (Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee Year).
The inscription on the statue reads as follows:
This tablet to the memory of Sir Stamford Raffles to whose foresight and genius Singapore owes its existence and prosperity Unveiled on February 6th 1919 .The 100th anniversary of the foundation of the settlement.
White Statue of Raffles
There is another statue of Raffles built in 1972 and is placed on the banks of the Singapore River where he first landed. With his back to the River, the white polymarble copy of the original bronze statue of Sir Stamford Raffles marks his first landing site on Singapore.
From the banks of the Singapore river, you can catch a panoramic view of Boat Quay and the Raffles Place skyline behind, and marvel at the development and progress that has taken place since Raffles first landed.
Inscription on the Statue :
'On this historic site, Sir Stamford Raffles first landed in Singapore on 28th January 1819 and with genius and perception changed the destiny of Singapore from an obscure fishing village to a great seaport and modern metropolis.'
(There are similar inscriptions in Chinese, Malay and Tamil at each corner).
Landmarks
In Singapore, a number of landmarks have been named after him: Raffles College, Raffles Institution, Raffles Hotel, Stamford Road, Stamford House, Raffles City and Raffles Place. There is also a Raffles Lighthouse located at the southwest of Sentosa Island, and a Raffles Place Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station!
On the southern corner of Raffles City stands a world's tallest hotel, "The 73-floor, 1,235 room Westin Stamford."
Raffles Hotel
An ancient hotel established since 1887 by Armenian brothers; Martin, Tigran, Aviet, and Arshak Sarkies, the Raffles Hotel was first a colonial bungalow known as Beach House before becoming Raffles Hotel. Raffles Hotel is one of the world's most famous hotels. It was declared a National Monument in 1987 and was reopened in 1991 after renovations.
Raffles Institution
On June 5 1823, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles laid the foundation stone of a building which he named 'Singapore Institution' which was later renamed Raffles Institution, in memory of its founder in 1868.
The Rafflesia
One of the largest flowers in the world - the Rafflesia - was also named after him.
Bibliography
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamford_Raffles
• http://www.answers.com/topic/sir-thomas-stamford-raffles
• http://www.uwcsea.edu.sg/grade4/Sanaya%20Khaneja/new_page_5.htm
• http://www.uwcsea.edu.sg/grade4/Robinfriden/sir_stamford_raffles.htm
• http://www.aoto.com.sg/show_details.cgi?ITEM_ID=86
• http://www1.moe.edu.sg/learn@/singaporerivertrail/pri/G191_Elias_Park_Pri/c_civic_raffles.html
David Marshall by Celine,Vivecka and Dahlia (2F)
David Marshall
In His Early Years
David Marshall was born on, March 12, 1908, into an Orthodox Jewish family of Iraqi ancestry in Singapore He was the eldest son of seven children of Saul Nassim Mashal, father of Marshall and his mother’s name was Flora Ezekiel Mashal. Marshall had a strict Jewish orthodox background observing all Jewish ceremonies and rituals since his childhood.
As a child, he went to the Kindergarten of the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus. Then as he grew older, he went to St. Joseph's Institution. Then in 1919, he went to St Andrew’s school. Later, he studied in an impressive school which was the Raffles Institution in 1922. His group friends included Singapore's second President, Sir Benjamin Sheares and Sir George Oehlers. Marshall was always known to have poor health since young and had suffered from malaria and then later, tuberculosis. His dream of obtaining a Queens' scholarship to pursue a medical degree was let down when he collapsed on the eve of his examination.
Instead, he went to Belgium to study textile manufacturing. After he returned, he joined a Straits company as a textile representative and later worked as salesman and a language teacher before deciding to pursue a law career in London when he was in his late twenties.
A few years later, after graduating from the University of London and the Middle Temple in Britain, he was called to the Bar in 1937. With the impending Japanese invasion of Asia, Marshall's family members had left Singapore but Marshall refused to leave as he joined the Singapore Volunteer Corps (SVC) "B" company. During the war, he was stationed at the southern area under the command of Major-General Keith Simmons. He was captured in February 1942, jailed in Changi Prison and later sent to a forced labour camp to Hokkaido, Japan. He was moved to 26 different prisoner of war camps where he gained popularity as a chief spokesperson for his fellow prisoners. After the Japanese surrendered, he chose to go to Australia. In 1946, he returned to Singapore and rejoined the law firm of Allen and Gledhill.
David Marshall’s Contribution to Singapore
Soon after, the Department of Education issued a circular banning David Marshall from ever speaking in the colony's schools.
The late Mr Marshall was a flamboyant, irascible man who leapt onto the Singapore political stage at a simpler time when charisma, pure human energy, passion and perhaps romantic idealism mattered more than organisation in the political scheme of things.
His entry into politics took a circuitous route, for until he became Singapore's first Chief Minister for 15 heady months in 1955-6, he did not think that -- as a minority of minorities ("I am both a Jew and an Asian") -- he could steer the fledgling nation. But once in the political forefront, his driving ambition was to deliver Singapore freedom from the British.
When he failed to convince the colonialists to relinquish control to him, he kept his promise to the people and resigned in protest, leaving the seats of power to be filled by more modest men.
By then, he had fired the imagination of a whole generation of post-war nationalists. In his inimitable, innocent and enthusiastic way, he was a populist politician who, more than anyone else in the early 1950s, aroused the interest of the common man in elections. He could mesmerise a crowd with his magnificent oratory -- the commanding, authoritative tone, the measured cadences, the well-chosen words -- or send them into paroxysms of laughter.
His tenure as Chief Minister was, by present standards, not a phenomenal success. He was strong on ideas but poor on details, leading what some hacks of the day called a "walking administration"; policies were formed as he walked along the corridors of power from one department to another.
But even though he failed to follow through on the numerous good ideas he spawned, many were subsequently embellished and translated into policies by the People's Action Party that took over the reins of government in 1959, such as the creed of multi-lingualism and multi-racialism, an education policy for nation-building, meet-the-people sessions and the Central Provident Fund.
As his political biographer ,Chan Heng Chee, put it, Mr Marshall had gone into Singapore politics "like a shooting star, and as in the nature of a shooting star, filled the sky with brilliance and disappeared".
He did not disappear immediately from Singapore politics and stayed on the backbench for a while, quitting the ruling Labour Front party in 1957 and starting the Workers' Party the same year.
David Marshall slipped the wedding ring onbride Jean Mary Gray's finger in 1961.
In his political uniform of white bush-jacket and grey trousers, with a hammer, he was the Workers' Party symbol.
He became a vocal critic of the PAP government and remained a factor in opposition politics until 1972. That year, he was found guilty of unprofessional conduct as defence lawyer for executives of the Chinese-language newspaper, Nanyang Siang Pau, who had been detained under the Internal Security Act.
Suspended from the Bar for six months, he decided thereafter to stay out of politics because, as Dr Chan explains in her book, "he felt the condition of his return to his profession was implicitly a non-political role in the Republic's politics henceforth".
And after a highly successful career as a criminal lawyer -- such was his reputation that the enduring myth was: "Marshall never loses" -- he switched to commercial law.
Perhaps David Marshall had entered the political scene at a propitious time, when the British colonial authorities were prepared to relinquish some power to the local people, but not yet to an Asian Asian. For despite his trademark bush jacket, he was quintessentially European in social habits. Despite his public appeal to the masses, he had little close contact with the grassroots.
According to an account of a meeting that took place in 1954 between members of his Labour Front and the nucleus of the future PAP -- including Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Dr Goh Keng Swee and Mr S Rajaratnam -- to discuss a possible merger, the guests were offered champagne and tiny shrimps on cheese crackers, which had a "dampening effect on the proceedings for it became difficult to discuss unifying the anti-colonial classes while enjoying bourgeois tidbits".
Certainly Mr Marshall did not take to the PAP founder members. After the first meeting, he wrote in his diary: "Bitter taste". On their part, the PAP activists found the Marshall group politically naive and decided not to work with it. His political ideology defied easy labels for unlike Mr Lee's, his was not refined in continuous political debate with a group of peers.
Yet, the story of David Marshall is one of several epochs. He was born into an Orthodox Jewish family of Iraqi ancestry in turn-of-the-century Singapore. The eldest son of six children, he became profoundly influenced by Judaism's stress on social justice and quickly acquired the qualities that were to be his abiding hallmarks: humanitarianism, compassion and generosity.
As a schoolboy, he witnessed the oppression of the local people by the white colonial overseers and fought those who taunted him or his friends with racial epithets. He was later to say that the rage it bred in him drew him towards the independence movement and politics.
He was first and foremost a nationalist. When the call came to serve the nation in a different capacity, the former Ambassador to France, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland kept the flag flying high.
Despite his differences with the PAP government, he always defended Singapore's interests abroad and played the role of ambassador with great aplomb for 15 years, even when his eyesight failed. He wore an orchid at every official function, and became widely-known as the "Ambassadeur a orchidee" (the Ambassador with an orchid).
Such was his zest for life that when he retired to Singapore in 1993, his restlessness was almost palpable. He railed at the press for its servile attitude towards the ruling government, and yet in private moments, gave credit where it was due.
In His Later Years
A legend in his own lifetime, he enjoyed the respect even of those he lashed at in his more flamboyant moods. Above all, he was a great friend to all who knew and loved him.
Bibliography
We got most of our information and pictures from:
http://infopedia.nlb.gov.sg/articles/SIP_283_2005-01-13.html
http://ourstories.asiaone.com.sg/independence/ref/david.html
http://images.search.yahoo.com
In His Early Years
David Marshall was born on, March 12, 1908, into an Orthodox Jewish family of Iraqi ancestry in Singapore He was the eldest son of seven children of Saul Nassim Mashal, father of Marshall and his mother’s name was Flora Ezekiel Mashal. Marshall had a strict Jewish orthodox background observing all Jewish ceremonies and rituals since his childhood.
As a child, he went to the Kindergarten of the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus. Then as he grew older, he went to St. Joseph's Institution. Then in 1919, he went to St Andrew’s school. Later, he studied in an impressive school which was the Raffles Institution in 1922. His group friends included Singapore's second President, Sir Benjamin Sheares and Sir George Oehlers. Marshall was always known to have poor health since young and had suffered from malaria and then later, tuberculosis. His dream of obtaining a Queens' scholarship to pursue a medical degree was let down when he collapsed on the eve of his examination.
Instead, he went to Belgium to study textile manufacturing. After he returned, he joined a Straits company as a textile representative and later worked as salesman and a language teacher before deciding to pursue a law career in London when he was in his late twenties.
A few years later, after graduating from the University of London and the Middle Temple in Britain, he was called to the Bar in 1937. With the impending Japanese invasion of Asia, Marshall's family members had left Singapore but Marshall refused to leave as he joined the Singapore Volunteer Corps (SVC) "B" company. During the war, he was stationed at the southern area under the command of Major-General Keith Simmons. He was captured in February 1942, jailed in Changi Prison and later sent to a forced labour camp to Hokkaido, Japan. He was moved to 26 different prisoner of war camps where he gained popularity as a chief spokesperson for his fellow prisoners. After the Japanese surrendered, he chose to go to Australia. In 1946, he returned to Singapore and rejoined the law firm of Allen and Gledhill.
David Marshall’s Contribution to Singapore
Soon after, the Department of Education issued a circular banning David Marshall from ever speaking in the colony's schools.
The late Mr Marshall was a flamboyant, irascible man who leapt onto the Singapore political stage at a simpler time when charisma, pure human energy, passion and perhaps romantic idealism mattered more than organisation in the political scheme of things.
His entry into politics took a circuitous route, for until he became Singapore's first Chief Minister for 15 heady months in 1955-6, he did not think that -- as a minority of minorities ("I am both a Jew and an Asian") -- he could steer the fledgling nation. But once in the political forefront, his driving ambition was to deliver Singapore freedom from the British.
When he failed to convince the colonialists to relinquish control to him, he kept his promise to the people and resigned in protest, leaving the seats of power to be filled by more modest men.
By then, he had fired the imagination of a whole generation of post-war nationalists. In his inimitable, innocent and enthusiastic way, he was a populist politician who, more than anyone else in the early 1950s, aroused the interest of the common man in elections. He could mesmerise a crowd with his magnificent oratory -- the commanding, authoritative tone, the measured cadences, the well-chosen words -- or send them into paroxysms of laughter.
His tenure as Chief Minister was, by present standards, not a phenomenal success. He was strong on ideas but poor on details, leading what some hacks of the day called a "walking administration"; policies were formed as he walked along the corridors of power from one department to another.
But even though he failed to follow through on the numerous good ideas he spawned, many were subsequently embellished and translated into policies by the People's Action Party that took over the reins of government in 1959, such as the creed of multi-lingualism and multi-racialism, an education policy for nation-building, meet-the-people sessions and the Central Provident Fund.
As his political biographer ,Chan Heng Chee, put it, Mr Marshall had gone into Singapore politics "like a shooting star, and as in the nature of a shooting star, filled the sky with brilliance and disappeared".
He did not disappear immediately from Singapore politics and stayed on the backbench for a while, quitting the ruling Labour Front party in 1957 and starting the Workers' Party the same year.
David Marshall slipped the wedding ring onbride Jean Mary Gray's finger in 1961.
In his political uniform of white bush-jacket and grey trousers, with a hammer, he was the Workers' Party symbol.
He became a vocal critic of the PAP government and remained a factor in opposition politics until 1972. That year, he was found guilty of unprofessional conduct as defence lawyer for executives of the Chinese-language newspaper, Nanyang Siang Pau, who had been detained under the Internal Security Act.
Suspended from the Bar for six months, he decided thereafter to stay out of politics because, as Dr Chan explains in her book, "he felt the condition of his return to his profession was implicitly a non-political role in the Republic's politics henceforth".
And after a highly successful career as a criminal lawyer -- such was his reputation that the enduring myth was: "Marshall never loses" -- he switched to commercial law.
Perhaps David Marshall had entered the political scene at a propitious time, when the British colonial authorities were prepared to relinquish some power to the local people, but not yet to an Asian Asian. For despite his trademark bush jacket, he was quintessentially European in social habits. Despite his public appeal to the masses, he had little close contact with the grassroots.
According to an account of a meeting that took place in 1954 between members of his Labour Front and the nucleus of the future PAP -- including Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Dr Goh Keng Swee and Mr S Rajaratnam -- to discuss a possible merger, the guests were offered champagne and tiny shrimps on cheese crackers, which had a "dampening effect on the proceedings for it became difficult to discuss unifying the anti-colonial classes while enjoying bourgeois tidbits".
Certainly Mr Marshall did not take to the PAP founder members. After the first meeting, he wrote in his diary: "Bitter taste". On their part, the PAP activists found the Marshall group politically naive and decided not to work with it. His political ideology defied easy labels for unlike Mr Lee's, his was not refined in continuous political debate with a group of peers.
Yet, the story of David Marshall is one of several epochs. He was born into an Orthodox Jewish family of Iraqi ancestry in turn-of-the-century Singapore. The eldest son of six children, he became profoundly influenced by Judaism's stress on social justice and quickly acquired the qualities that were to be his abiding hallmarks: humanitarianism, compassion and generosity.
As a schoolboy, he witnessed the oppression of the local people by the white colonial overseers and fought those who taunted him or his friends with racial epithets. He was later to say that the rage it bred in him drew him towards the independence movement and politics.
He was first and foremost a nationalist. When the call came to serve the nation in a different capacity, the former Ambassador to France, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland kept the flag flying high.
Despite his differences with the PAP government, he always defended Singapore's interests abroad and played the role of ambassador with great aplomb for 15 years, even when his eyesight failed. He wore an orchid at every official function, and became widely-known as the "Ambassadeur a orchidee" (the Ambassador with an orchid).
Such was his zest for life that when he retired to Singapore in 1993, his restlessness was almost palpable. He railed at the press for its servile attitude towards the ruling government, and yet in private moments, gave credit where it was due.
In His Later Years
A legend in his own lifetime, he enjoyed the respect even of those he lashed at in his more flamboyant moods. Above all, he was a great friend to all who knew and loved him.
Bibliography
We got most of our information and pictures from:
http://infopedia.nlb.gov.sg/articles/SIP_283_2005-01-13.html
http://ourstories.asiaone.com.sg/independence/ref/david.html
http://images.search.yahoo.com
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Lim Bo Seng
Life in the Early Years
He was born in Nan'an, Fujian, China, on 27 April 1909 to Lim Loh, a very rich businessman who owned a biscuit and brick manufacturing business in Singapore. When he was a boy, his family and him migrated to Malaya. Lim came to Singapore in the year 1917 when he was 16 to study in the Raffles Institution of Singapore under the British colonial government, and proceed on to further his studies later in the University of Hong Kong. In 1930, Lim married Gan Choo Neo who is a Nonya woman in the Lim Clan association hall of Singapore. They had seven children. Initially raised as a Taoist, Lim converted to Christianity after receiving strong European influence. Each war would have a hero and each country would have a patriot whose deeds would stand the test of time. It was sixty one years ago this month, in the dark years of the Japanese Occupation in Malaya, that such a person existed. He was Lim Bo Seng.
Lim Bo Seng, in spite of his privileged background and success as a businessman, was staunchly anti-Japanese even before the war came to Malaya. An alert contributor of the China Relief Fund, he was the Director of the Labour Service Department later in the newly formed Singapore Chinese Mobilisation Council. Certain to be an aim of reprisals for the Japanese, he was compelled to flee Singapore just before it capitulated. He was able to arrive in Sumatra where he then went to Colombo and gradually to Calcutta in India. He met a British officer named Basil Goodfellow there who convinced him to join the British efforts in building up a joint China-Britain espionage network in Malaya. He then moved on to Nationalist China to recruit overseas Malayan Chinese for this job. This endurance network came to be known as Force 136.
He was held in high regard by the British and other members of Force 136 for his patriotism, leadership and organisational capabilities. After going through training from the British in India, the men of Force 136 were sent into Malaya by submarine in groups. Chosen leader of the Malayan Chinese section, he arrived in Malaya in November 1943 to co-ordinate the efforts personally. He was one of the five signatories in the Bukit Bidor Agreement signed on 1st January 1944 where the British and the Malayan Communist Party agreed to work together and help each other against the Japanese.
Tragedy was to strike when he was stopped at a checkpoint at Gopeng and arrested. He had earlier ignored warnings and pleas from his comrades about the harm of his mission, which was to revamp the entire intelligence network and raise funds from his friends who are rich in wealth. Brought to Batu Gajah Prison, he was subjected to non-stop interrogations and torture by the not popular Kempeitai. Lim Bo Seng was already sick in health, having just gone for a haemorrhoids operation in India before arriving in Malaya. To make matters worse, he suffered from dysentary. Finally, on 29th June 1944, he succumbed under the painful suffering and passed away.
After the surrender of the Japanese in Malaya in September 1945, the accolades for Lim Bo Seng began to flow in. The Nationalist Government in China accorded to him a posthumous rank of Major-General and a grand funeral procession was held on 13th January 1946. His grave is situated at MacRitchie Reservoir. On the 10th Anniversary of his death, in 1954, a memorial was unveiled at the Esplanade to commemorate him.
Lim Bo Seng attained everlasting fame not only becuase he gave up everything, including his life, to fight against a foe he deemed to be tyrannical and wicked but also because of his steadfast disagreement under pain and torture to tell the information which would harm the lives of his comrades and the cause he was fighting for.
Force 136
Lim Bo Seng's name is inextricably linked with that of Force 136, for he had a hand in setting it up and bringing it to fruition. The British regrouped after their disastrous capitulation and plans were afoot to regain their lost territories. However, they have no enough intelligence on the Japanese troops in Malaya and this could only be remedied if they had a good intelligence network on the ground. For this reason, Lim Bo Seng was persuaded by the British to help set up a clandestine spy network in Malaya. With Lim's help, the British joined forces with Nationalist China to recruit and train the Force 136 members, which comprised mainly of overseas Malayan Chinese. From China, these men were sent to the Far East Military School in Poona, India where they were taught shooting and surviving skill, jungle and guerilla warfare and intelligence gathering techniques.
Upon graduation, they were sent to Malaya in batches, in the beginning by submarine. The first team, Gustavus I, departed for Malaya on 11th May 1943 and landed in Tanjong Hantu on the 24th. The first base was set up at Bukit Segari. Subsequent batches were landed along the west coast of Malaya. Later on in the war, Force 136 members were parachuted into various Malayan states. As the war dragged on and it became apparent that Japan was losing the war, more and more British officers and Force 136 members were parachuted in, along with weapons and supplies. However, before Operation Zipper (the planned British invasion of Malaya) was launched, the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Soon after the surrender, Force 136 was disbanded, but not before its members had been feted as liberation heroes who had put their lives on the line of freedom.Life as a Force 136 veteranTan Chong Tee and Lim Bo Seng. At the time of the Second Sino-Japanese war, Lim, a loyal Chinese patriot, took part in fund-raising on Japanese resistant forces and boycott activities of Japanese goods planned by the Nanyang Federation. On February 11, exactly before the fall of Singapore to the Japanese, Lim left his family for the last time to the care of his wife and fled from Singapore to Sumatra with other Chinese community leaders. Before he went to India, where he took over and trained hundreds of secret agents through thorough missions from the military and intelligence point of view in India and China. Around this time, together with Captain John Davis, they set up the Sino-British guerilla group Force 136 in mid-1942. One of his best friends and students, Tan Chong Tee, participated actively in anti-Japanese activities until his capture on 26 March 1944. Operation Gustavus
Soon after he organized everything in China and India, Lim sent the first batch of Force 136 agents to Malaya to set up an espionage network to gather the military intelligence about the Japanese. This updated the Force 136 against the Japanese. One of the Chinese provision shops in Ipoh, Jian Yik Jan who was an Allied espionage base. According to historical sources, messages were smuggled in empty tubes of toothpaste, salted fish and also in their own diaries. Lim passed himself through checkpoints as a businessman, using the alias Tan Choon Lim to avoid identification by the Japanese.However; there were many traitors that led to the downfall of Lim Bo Seng and Force 136. An unknown communist guerilla was captured in January 1944, who told the existence of an Allied spy network operating on Pangkor Island. The Japanese later began a full-scale counter-espionage operation on the island. By late March, more than 200 Japanese soldiers were swarming all over Pangkor. Tan Chong Tee encouraged Lim to leave Ipoh in view of the situation, but he diagreed to flee until he had heard from Wu Chye Sin, another agent who had gone to Singapore to look for funds. On March 24th, the Kempeitai arrested a fisherman working for Force 136, Chua Koon Eng, at Teluk Murrek on the Perak coast. Chua was merely a fisherman working on Pangkor when a member of Force 136, Li Han Kwang, approached him, asking permission to use his boat to help them with their spy network. He told the secret police everything, from the spy network and members of Force 136, without even being interrogated. The Japanese then used Chua as bait to lure Li. Under torture, Li confirmed Chua's story. Then the Japanese were hoping to make Li work for them, and began to treat him quite good. He was held at the Kempeitai headquarters in Ipoh. Li was still determined to run away, and on the pretext of taking a bath, he jumped from the second floor bathroom. He then got into a taxi, telling the driver that he was an anti-Japanese guerilla making his escape. The driver responded magnificently as he was an Allied sympathizer, and rushed to Bidor. But he was not able to escape to hold back the Japanese. Within a few hours of Li's escape, the Japanese had raided the network's headquarters, capturing Tan, and later Lim Bo Seng. The entire network was destroyed by March 31. John Davis and Richard Broome were blissfully not aware that their spies had fallen like dominoes until the escapee Li staggered into their camp on March 29. The destruction of the network was a huge blow to the British. It destroyed their plans to develop spy networks in Malaya and hopes of an early invasion by military force. It was not re-established until early 1945. After going through the situation, Broome found out that Chua Koon Eng was the man to blame. He noted that Chua was released early by the Japanese and that his business in Pangkor thrived under Japanese rule. He was privy to the whole network of agents and he knew where the hideouts were located. He also noted that Chua had not been screened when he was roped in to help with the rendezvous arrangements. He was never seeing again when the Allied forces returned to Malaya and Singapore.
Tortured to Death, Lim Bo Seng Memorial in Singapore, on March 26, 1944, Tan Chong Tee was captured by the Japanese. Upon hearing this news, Lim initially wanted to escape straight away, but was convinced to wait till the next morning. This proved to be a deadly mistake, because the Japanese had blocked all the roads out of Gopeng immediately after Tan has been captured. Marshall Onishi Satoru, the man who captured Lim, suspected that Tan was trying to convince Lim to escape. Lim was caught and taken to the Kempeitai headquarters for interrogation. Strong as he was, Lim battled through all sorts of physical and mental torture and duress daily but he never uttered a single word about pain and refused to give up information about Force 136. Instead, he protested against the ill-treatment of his comrades in the prison. However, Lim soon became ill with dysentery and was bedridden by the end of May 1944. In his final letter, Lim bade farewell to his wife: Don't grieve for me, but take pride in my sacrifice. Devote yourself to the bringing up of the children. As his condition worsened, Lim was taken to a small terraced prison-house a little away from the main prison building. In the last days of his life, Lim was not given food, water or medicine; although he received some porridge, but his condition was so bad that he could not even swallow the porridge. Many of his fellow prisoners cried to the Japanese soldiers to give him some medicine. The Japanese, however, did respond to their pleas. In the early hours of June 29, 1944, Lim's groans gradually faded away until there was complete silence. Lim was later buried at the age of 35 behind the Batu Gajah prison compound in an unmarked spot. However, after the death of Lim Bo Seng, many of the Japanese authorities softened their stance a little. The prisoners, for a period of time had better food. Simple medical treatment and daily exercises in the prison compound were provided for the prisoners. After the Japan had surrendered, Lim's wife, Choo Neo, was told of her husband's death by the priest of St Andrew's School. Choo Neo later traveled with her eldest son to bring her husband's remains home. A funeral ceremony was held on January 13, 1946 in front of City Hall to mourn the death of Lim. In his eulogy, Colonel Richard Broome said of Lim: He died so that Singapore and Malaya might be the home of free people who could once again enjoy peace, prosperity and happiness.
The coffin containing his remains was brought to a hill in MacRitchie Reservoir for burial with full military honours.
Done by : Nurul Nazurah , Claire Chiam , Sharaladevi
He was born in Nan'an, Fujian, China, on 27 April 1909 to Lim Loh, a very rich businessman who owned a biscuit and brick manufacturing business in Singapore. When he was a boy, his family and him migrated to Malaya. Lim came to Singapore in the year 1917 when he was 16 to study in the Raffles Institution of Singapore under the British colonial government, and proceed on to further his studies later in the University of Hong Kong. In 1930, Lim married Gan Choo Neo who is a Nonya woman in the Lim Clan association hall of Singapore. They had seven children. Initially raised as a Taoist, Lim converted to Christianity after receiving strong European influence. Each war would have a hero and each country would have a patriot whose deeds would stand the test of time. It was sixty one years ago this month, in the dark years of the Japanese Occupation in Malaya, that such a person existed. He was Lim Bo Seng.
Lim Bo Seng, in spite of his privileged background and success as a businessman, was staunchly anti-Japanese even before the war came to Malaya. An alert contributor of the China Relief Fund, he was the Director of the Labour Service Department later in the newly formed Singapore Chinese Mobilisation Council. Certain to be an aim of reprisals for the Japanese, he was compelled to flee Singapore just before it capitulated. He was able to arrive in Sumatra where he then went to Colombo and gradually to Calcutta in India. He met a British officer named Basil Goodfellow there who convinced him to join the British efforts in building up a joint China-Britain espionage network in Malaya. He then moved on to Nationalist China to recruit overseas Malayan Chinese for this job. This endurance network came to be known as Force 136.
He was held in high regard by the British and other members of Force 136 for his patriotism, leadership and organisational capabilities. After going through training from the British in India, the men of Force 136 were sent into Malaya by submarine in groups. Chosen leader of the Malayan Chinese section, he arrived in Malaya in November 1943 to co-ordinate the efforts personally. He was one of the five signatories in the Bukit Bidor Agreement signed on 1st January 1944 where the British and the Malayan Communist Party agreed to work together and help each other against the Japanese.
Tragedy was to strike when he was stopped at a checkpoint at Gopeng and arrested. He had earlier ignored warnings and pleas from his comrades about the harm of his mission, which was to revamp the entire intelligence network and raise funds from his friends who are rich in wealth. Brought to Batu Gajah Prison, he was subjected to non-stop interrogations and torture by the not popular Kempeitai. Lim Bo Seng was already sick in health, having just gone for a haemorrhoids operation in India before arriving in Malaya. To make matters worse, he suffered from dysentary. Finally, on 29th June 1944, he succumbed under the painful suffering and passed away.
After the surrender of the Japanese in Malaya in September 1945, the accolades for Lim Bo Seng began to flow in. The Nationalist Government in China accorded to him a posthumous rank of Major-General and a grand funeral procession was held on 13th January 1946. His grave is situated at MacRitchie Reservoir. On the 10th Anniversary of his death, in 1954, a memorial was unveiled at the Esplanade to commemorate him.
Lim Bo Seng attained everlasting fame not only becuase he gave up everything, including his life, to fight against a foe he deemed to be tyrannical and wicked but also because of his steadfast disagreement under pain and torture to tell the information which would harm the lives of his comrades and the cause he was fighting for.
Force 136
Lim Bo Seng's name is inextricably linked with that of Force 136, for he had a hand in setting it up and bringing it to fruition. The British regrouped after their disastrous capitulation and plans were afoot to regain their lost territories. However, they have no enough intelligence on the Japanese troops in Malaya and this could only be remedied if they had a good intelligence network on the ground. For this reason, Lim Bo Seng was persuaded by the British to help set up a clandestine spy network in Malaya. With Lim's help, the British joined forces with Nationalist China to recruit and train the Force 136 members, which comprised mainly of overseas Malayan Chinese. From China, these men were sent to the Far East Military School in Poona, India where they were taught shooting and surviving skill, jungle and guerilla warfare and intelligence gathering techniques.
Upon graduation, they were sent to Malaya in batches, in the beginning by submarine. The first team, Gustavus I, departed for Malaya on 11th May 1943 and landed in Tanjong Hantu on the 24th. The first base was set up at Bukit Segari. Subsequent batches were landed along the west coast of Malaya. Later on in the war, Force 136 members were parachuted into various Malayan states. As the war dragged on and it became apparent that Japan was losing the war, more and more British officers and Force 136 members were parachuted in, along with weapons and supplies. However, before Operation Zipper (the planned British invasion of Malaya) was launched, the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Soon after the surrender, Force 136 was disbanded, but not before its members had been feted as liberation heroes who had put their lives on the line of freedom.Life as a Force 136 veteranTan Chong Tee and Lim Bo Seng. At the time of the Second Sino-Japanese war, Lim, a loyal Chinese patriot, took part in fund-raising on Japanese resistant forces and boycott activities of Japanese goods planned by the Nanyang Federation. On February 11, exactly before the fall of Singapore to the Japanese, Lim left his family for the last time to the care of his wife and fled from Singapore to Sumatra with other Chinese community leaders. Before he went to India, where he took over and trained hundreds of secret agents through thorough missions from the military and intelligence point of view in India and China. Around this time, together with Captain John Davis, they set up the Sino-British guerilla group Force 136 in mid-1942. One of his best friends and students, Tan Chong Tee, participated actively in anti-Japanese activities until his capture on 26 March 1944. Operation Gustavus
Soon after he organized everything in China and India, Lim sent the first batch of Force 136 agents to Malaya to set up an espionage network to gather the military intelligence about the Japanese. This updated the Force 136 against the Japanese. One of the Chinese provision shops in Ipoh, Jian Yik Jan who was an Allied espionage base. According to historical sources, messages were smuggled in empty tubes of toothpaste, salted fish and also in their own diaries. Lim passed himself through checkpoints as a businessman, using the alias Tan Choon Lim to avoid identification by the Japanese.However; there were many traitors that led to the downfall of Lim Bo Seng and Force 136. An unknown communist guerilla was captured in January 1944, who told the existence of an Allied spy network operating on Pangkor Island. The Japanese later began a full-scale counter-espionage operation on the island. By late March, more than 200 Japanese soldiers were swarming all over Pangkor. Tan Chong Tee encouraged Lim to leave Ipoh in view of the situation, but he diagreed to flee until he had heard from Wu Chye Sin, another agent who had gone to Singapore to look for funds. On March 24th, the Kempeitai arrested a fisherman working for Force 136, Chua Koon Eng, at Teluk Murrek on the Perak coast. Chua was merely a fisherman working on Pangkor when a member of Force 136, Li Han Kwang, approached him, asking permission to use his boat to help them with their spy network. He told the secret police everything, from the spy network and members of Force 136, without even being interrogated. The Japanese then used Chua as bait to lure Li. Under torture, Li confirmed Chua's story. Then the Japanese were hoping to make Li work for them, and began to treat him quite good. He was held at the Kempeitai headquarters in Ipoh. Li was still determined to run away, and on the pretext of taking a bath, he jumped from the second floor bathroom. He then got into a taxi, telling the driver that he was an anti-Japanese guerilla making his escape. The driver responded magnificently as he was an Allied sympathizer, and rushed to Bidor. But he was not able to escape to hold back the Japanese. Within a few hours of Li's escape, the Japanese had raided the network's headquarters, capturing Tan, and later Lim Bo Seng. The entire network was destroyed by March 31. John Davis and Richard Broome were blissfully not aware that their spies had fallen like dominoes until the escapee Li staggered into their camp on March 29. The destruction of the network was a huge blow to the British. It destroyed their plans to develop spy networks in Malaya and hopes of an early invasion by military force. It was not re-established until early 1945. After going through the situation, Broome found out that Chua Koon Eng was the man to blame. He noted that Chua was released early by the Japanese and that his business in Pangkor thrived under Japanese rule. He was privy to the whole network of agents and he knew where the hideouts were located. He also noted that Chua had not been screened when he was roped in to help with the rendezvous arrangements. He was never seeing again when the Allied forces returned to Malaya and Singapore.
Tortured to Death, Lim Bo Seng Memorial in Singapore, on March 26, 1944, Tan Chong Tee was captured by the Japanese. Upon hearing this news, Lim initially wanted to escape straight away, but was convinced to wait till the next morning. This proved to be a deadly mistake, because the Japanese had blocked all the roads out of Gopeng immediately after Tan has been captured. Marshall Onishi Satoru, the man who captured Lim, suspected that Tan was trying to convince Lim to escape. Lim was caught and taken to the Kempeitai headquarters for interrogation. Strong as he was, Lim battled through all sorts of physical and mental torture and duress daily but he never uttered a single word about pain and refused to give up information about Force 136. Instead, he protested against the ill-treatment of his comrades in the prison. However, Lim soon became ill with dysentery and was bedridden by the end of May 1944. In his final letter, Lim bade farewell to his wife: Don't grieve for me, but take pride in my sacrifice. Devote yourself to the bringing up of the children. As his condition worsened, Lim was taken to a small terraced prison-house a little away from the main prison building. In the last days of his life, Lim was not given food, water or medicine; although he received some porridge, but his condition was so bad that he could not even swallow the porridge. Many of his fellow prisoners cried to the Japanese soldiers to give him some medicine. The Japanese, however, did respond to their pleas. In the early hours of June 29, 1944, Lim's groans gradually faded away until there was complete silence. Lim was later buried at the age of 35 behind the Batu Gajah prison compound in an unmarked spot. However, after the death of Lim Bo Seng, many of the Japanese authorities softened their stance a little. The prisoners, for a period of time had better food. Simple medical treatment and daily exercises in the prison compound were provided for the prisoners. After the Japan had surrendered, Lim's wife, Choo Neo, was told of her husband's death by the priest of St Andrew's School. Choo Neo later traveled with her eldest son to bring her husband's remains home. A funeral ceremony was held on January 13, 1946 in front of City Hall to mourn the death of Lim. In his eulogy, Colonel Richard Broome said of Lim: He died so that Singapore and Malaya might be the home of free people who could once again enjoy peace, prosperity and happiness.
The coffin containing his remains was brought to a hill in MacRitchie Reservoir for burial with full military honours.
Done by : Nurul Nazurah , Claire Chiam , Sharaladevi
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