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CHAPTER IV

The Third Decade (1839-49)

IN his Diary for July 1839 Sir James Brooke¹ (afterwards Rajah of Sarawak) gives his impressions of the Chinese in Singapore:

Emigrants from the Celestial Empire greatly exceed the natives of all other countries put together, and form the chief mass of labourers and shopkeepers. I know not whether most to admire the Chinese for their many virtues or to despise them for their glaring defects and vices. Their industry exceeds that of any other people on the face of the earth, they are laborious, patient and cheerful; but on the other hand they are corrupt, supple and exacting, yielding to their superiors and tyrannical to those who fall into their power. The most interesting class of Chinese are the squatters in the jungle around the high hill of Bukit Timah. Their habitations may be distinguished like clear specks amidst the woods, and from each a wreath of smoke arises, the inmates being constantly engaged in the boiling of gambier. We may estimate at nearly 2,000 these people who, straying from the fold of civilisation, become wild and lawless on its very confines.

The nature of the country renders control difficult, if not impossible, so that they may be said to live beyond the reach of all law, and frequently resort to acts of violence and robbery. They are, however, habitually prudent and frugal, and if permitted would in the day of their prosperity lay by a sufficiency to meet any reverse of fortune, and so might gradually emerge from the jungle and commence labour in the town, but this [46] desirable object is defeated by their own countrymen, who, making advances of money on their arrival and monopolising the supplying of their common wants at an enormous profit, load them with an irredeemable debt and render them a nuisance instead of a benefit to the colony.²

In 1840 two Chinese firms, Chong-san Seng-chai & Co and Kim Seng & Co, both having offices at Boat Quay, figured as members of the Singapore Chamber of Commerce. Other Chinese firms already established at this date were Hooding & Co, Teang-why & Co, Tan Tock Seng³ and Whampoa.

Tan Kim Seng, the founder of the well-known firm of Kim Seng & Co, was born in 1805 in Malacca, which was also the birthplace of his father. Coming to Singapore, he embarked in business as a trader and by his perseverance, intelligence and integrity he rose steadily in the world and left a large fortune to his descendants. He was made a JP in 1850 on the death of Tan Tock Seng, and was highly respected by the whole community, and his advice on Chinese questions was frequently sought by the Government. He was a public benefactor on a large scale, and numerous are the gifts which bear his name and serve to keep his memory green. He constructed the Kim Seng Bridge over the river close to the Stadt House in Malacca; he built and endowed the Chinese Free School known as ‘Chui Eng Si E’ in Amoy Street, Singapore, and dedicated to the public the thoroughfare known as Kim Seng Road, leading from River Valley Road to Havelock Road. He was the President of the principal Chinese Temple in Malacca and leader of the Chinese community in Singapore and Malacca. A warm supporter of Tan Tock Seng Hospital, he used to send annually at Chinese New Year a ration of pork and a few cents for each of the inmates. In 1850 he was a member of the committee appointed to arrange for sending exhibits to the Great Exhibition of 1851 at the Crystal Palace, London.

Tan Kim Seng

Upon the completion of Kim Seng & Co’s new godowns [47] in Battery Road (for many years occupied by Stiven & Co and recently sold), Mr Kim Seng entertained the European community and his native friends to a ball and supper. The offices which occupy the upper floor of the godowns were the scene of the entertainment, the front room overlooking the river being fitted up as a dancing saloon. At the supper Mr Kim Seng’s health was proposed by Mr Thomas Church⁴ in appropriate terms and drunk with the greatest enthusiasm by his guests. For the comfort of his native friends, some of the side rooms were laid out with tables of refreshments suited to their various tastes.

This Ball, which took place on February 21, 1852, furnished materials for an amusing contribution to Household Words of June 19, 1852: Kim Sing, a merchant well known as an Antonio on the Rialto of Singapore, conceived a few weeks ago the intrepid design of giving the first Chinese Ball ever beheld in this part of the world. Having recently erected a spacious godown or suite of chambers and warehouses, he resolved to convert one of these into a magnificent banquet hall and dancing room. …

Chinese Free School (Ghi-ok) in Amoy Street

Numerous invitations were issued to gentlemen and ladies of all tribes, who were requested to be present in their respective costumes on the appointed evening at the godown of Kim Sing. …

I had of course about me (as everybody else had) the usual prejudice of my own race, and, therefore, on being presented to the master of the house, with his pig-tail, sharp features and Mongolian eyes, it was with much difficulty that I kept my mirth under polite restraint. … The ball room was not smaller than the body of a good-sized English church, with a row of pillars on each side, under the galleries, behind which the spectators thronged. … The cluster of faces peering out from under the pillars was now and then lighted up with laughter as strangely-united couples whirled past A young lady from Calcutta, dressed after the most elab-orate fashion of the city of palaces, got fearfully entangled in a Schottische with a Chinese [48] mandarin, whose large, jet-black tail descended considerably below his waist. As he hopped and frisked, the tail flew about in the most dangerous manner. No doubt could be entertained, however, that the gentleman had been taking lessons for a fortnight or three weeks, because he really went through the business of the dance very respectably. At length, as ill luck would have it, one of his red slippers came off. A burst of laughter, which it was impossible to restrain, shook the fat sides of the host at this disaster, while the unhappy How Guim Foo quitted his partner and rushed, with his long tail like a comet, to regain his shoe – for to be shoeless is to be disgraced in Celestial eyes.

At another time, and in another part of the room, the tails of two of the Chinese, as they passed one another, back to back, hooked together, perhaps by the strings which tied them. While the gentlemen butted forward with their heads, after the manner of rams, to dissolve their involuntary partnership, the chosen partners ran into each other’s arms and whirled on in the waltz without them.

Becoming by degrees a little tired, I slipped behind the pillars for rest. Here I observed neat little tables in front of luxurious sofas, on which several Celestials reclined at their full length, smoking opium. They appeared to be in a delicious state of dreaminess, imagining themselves, perhaps, in the vicinity of the Lake of Lilies, with orange and tea trees blossoming around them. Near these were two or three Hindoos smoking the hookah; in the neighbourhood a solitary Turk who bore in his countenance an expression of infinite disdain for the infidels of all colours whom he saw around him.… To describe fitly the supper which followed, I ought to have studied for three years under some Parisian gastronome. It was a chaos of dainties, each more tempting than the other. All the fruits of the Indian Archipelago, of India, China and the West – some in their natural state, others exquisitely preserved – were piled around us. There were bird’s-nest soups, puppy ragouts, pillaus of kangaroos’ tails, fish of all kinds, and pastry in profusion. And then for the wines – all the wines that France, Germany and Hungary [49] could produce sparkled on the board, and the most anxious care was taken that everyone should be supplied with what he most desired. While we were regaling ourselves, delicious strains of music, issuing from I know not where, stole into the apartment. This I thought much better than a noisy band, destroying or bewildering one’s appetite, from a gallery immediately overhead ⁵

On the 18th November 1857 Mr Kim Seng offered the Government a sum of $13,000, a princely sum in those days, for the purpose of bringing a better supply of water into the town. He stipulated that the whole of that sum should be devoted to the purpose specified and that the works, when completed, should be taken charge of by the Government or the Municipality, and always maintained in an efficient state.

‘His offer is hereby accepted’, wrote Mr Blundell⁶, the Governor in January 1859, ‘with warm acknowledgments, and the assurance that the conditions imposed by him shall be strictly carried out’. The sanction of the Governor-General in Council to the work being undertaken having been obtained, plans and estimates were prepared, but matters dawdled on, and the first water-works were not finished till 1877 and opened in 1878. In 1882 the Municipality erected the large fountain close to Johnston’s Pier with the inscription: This Fountain is erected by the Municipal Commissioners in Commemoration of Mr Tan Kim Seng’s Donation Towards the Cost of the Singapore Water-works – a matter of fourteen years after the death of the donor, for Mr Tan Kim Seng had died on the 14th March 1864 at Malacca at the age of 59 years. Mr Tan Kim Seng maintained his popularity with the European community until the end of his life. One of the recorded events of the year 1861 was a Ball given during the race week in May, in the Masonic Lodge on the Esplanade, by Mr Kim Seng to all the [50] Europeans. It must have been of him that Mr Cameron⁷ has this note in his book:⁸

A Chinaman who had come to Singapore, a poor man about thirty years ago, died in March 1864, worth close upon two million dollars. He had grown up to be an extensive merchant, planter and tin miner, had adopted the settlement as his home and had left behind him many memorials of his public spirit and charity.⁹

In April 1840 was published the first account of a Chinese procession in the town, held in honour of a goddess or the statue of one which had been imported from China.

The procession extended nearly a third of a mile, to the usual accompaniment of gongs, and gaudy banners of every colour, form and dimension The chief feature of the procession was the little girls from five to eight years of age, carried aloft in groups on gaily ornamented platforms, and dressed in every variety of Tartar and Chinese costumes. The little creatures were supported in their places by iron rods, which were concealed under their clothes, and their infant charms were shown off to the greatest advantage by the rich and peculiar dresses in which they were arrayed, every care being taken to shield them with umbrellas from the sun’s rays The divinity herself was conveyed in a very elegant canopy chair, or palanquin, of yellow silk and crape, and was surrounded by a bodyguard of Celestials, wearing tunics of the same colour. We have not been able to ascertain the various attributes of the goddess, but it seems she is highly venerated: and a very elegant temple, according to Chinese taste, has been built in the town for her reception. She is called by the Chinese Thien-siang-sing-bo (or Ma-cho-po), being the deity commonly termed the Mother of the Heavenly Sages. She is supposed to be the especial protectress of those who navigate the deep: at least, it is to her shrine as the [51] Goddess of the Sea that the Chinese sailors pay the most fervent adoration, there being an altar dedicated to her in every junk that goes to sea. The procession is regarded as a formal announcement to the Chinese of her advent in this Settlement, and the exhibition, with the feasting attendant thereon, is stated to cost more than $6,000.¹⁰

This is evidently the Chinese temple described by Major Low in his Journal (1840-1) as a temple –

… lately erected, of elaborate workmanship and very curious in its way. The granite pillars and much of the stone ornamental work have been brought from China, and the latter is exceedingly grotesque. The interior and the cornices are adorned with elaborate carving in wood. Outside are painted tiles and edging of flowers, fruits, etc, formed out of variegated pottery which is broken to pieces and then cut with scissors.¹¹

The firm of Whampoa & Co was already well known in 1840 as provisioner and shipchandler to HM Navy, in Telok Ayer Street. Whampoa senior came to Singapore in its earliest days and kept a shop to supply the shipping and town with beef, bread and vegetables, and the business prospered. After his death, his son Hoo Ah Kay Whampoa carried on and extended the business and became a prominent figure in the life of the Settlement for many years. Mr Gilbert Angus¹² and Mr Whampoa junior were at one time partners in business. The firm was enterprising and attempted to supply the requirements of the community in the matter of ice by establishing in 1854 an ice-house and stocking it with ice from America, but as the consumption was only from 400 to 500 lb a day, and a sale of 1,000 lb was necessary to meet the cost and expenses, this branch of the firm’s activities was discontinued. The firm’s bakery was for many years the most extensive in the Colony. It was situated in Havelock Road in the buildings now occupied by the Bintang Oil Mills. [52] It may be of interest to many to know that the bakery is still working successfully and is now located in Club Street. Mr Tchan Chun Fook¹³ was for some twenty-five years its genial manager.

Mr Hoo Ah Kay was born in Whampoa near Canton about 1816 and came to Singapore in 1830 to assist his father in business. His knowledge of English undoubtedly gave him a distinct advantage over other Chinese merchants and he rapidly acquired a position as one of the leading business men of the day. He was ready to take his share in every good work, and we find him as Hon Treasurer on the first Committee of Management of Tan Tock Seng Hospital in 1844. Buckley¹⁴ mentions it as a curious fact that in 1855, at the request of the Ladies’ Committee, Whampoa arranged to provision the Girls’ School at an average charge of $4 a month for each child.

‘Whampoa’ Hoo Ah Kay

The Free Press of 11th February 1847 contains the following account of a dinner to Mr Hoo Ah Kay:

It having been ascertained that Whampoa, the younger, whose name is known far and wide in these eastern parts and is familiar to not a few even in distant Europe, was about to leave this by the next steamer on a visit to his native country, a few of his friends, amongst the European mercantile community chiefly, resolved to show their respect and esteem for him by entertaining him at dinner. The dinner accordingly came off on Monday evening at the London Hotel, when about twenty sat down: CS Carnie¹⁵, Esq, in the chair, and WS Duncan¹⁶, Esq, croupier. The health of their guests having been given, Whampoa returned thanks in a most neat and feeling manner in English: and on the health of Tan Kim Seng, one of our most respected Chinese merchants who was also present, being drunk, Kim Seng replied in a clever and humorous speech in Malay which delighted all present.¹⁷

Hoo Ah Kay first had a plantation where the Tanglin Barracks are now, and long before Public Gardens were thought of he had bought a neglected garden miles [53] out of town on the Serangoon Road. There he built a bungalow, and the extensive grounds were at one time both an orange plantation, a fruit orchard and a Chinese garden laid out by horticulturists from Canton, and famous for its miniature rockeries, artificial ponds, aquariums and curious dwarf bamboos and plants trained and trimmed into resemblance of animals. There was displayed a wealth of horticultural products which were really admirable and unique. Plants from all available sources were collected and arranged with exquisite taste. Chrysanthemums, dahlias, lilies and a host of the choicest flowers of South China contributed a brilliancy and picturesqueness that added an indescribable elegance to the sombre foliage of the luxuriant tropical plants all around.

The well-planned paths were bordered with all varieties of brightly coloured flowering shrubs – the magnificent ixora, the numerous varieties of finely scented magnolia, the delicate blooms of many species of hibiscus and other plants too numerous to mention, contrasting with the beautiful flowers that emerged so gracefully from the ponds and streams. Water lilies of every colour decked the stagnant waters like stars shining forth in a dark night: while the white and pink blooms of the lotus surmounted in graceful elegance the majestic flowers of the Victoria Regia with their enormous circular leaves. There was also a choice selection of animals in the menagerie as well as a good collection of birds in the aviary.

For more than a quarter of a century Whampoa’s Gardens, in Cantonese ‘Nam-sang-Fa-un’, were a place of resort for Chinese, young and old, at the Chinese New Year season, as popular as the Raffles Museum is to-day at that season. Great throngs of men, women and children flocked there throughout the day, enjoying the fresh air and the beautiful works of nature and art. Something like a country fair would spring up and the whole countryside presented a scene of picturesque animation, with the fine dresses of the grown-up people [54] and the lovely silks of the children. Hawkers with their stalls and booths, the merry-go-round, the joywheel and other little roadside shows, patronised by the holiday-makers, set up their little establishments in the vicinity. In such gatherings the democratic instincts of the Chinese would be seen, for all classes without distinction would mix freely and show mutual courtesy and respect: the children of the big towkays joining those of the kranis in all their plays and amusements.

It was quite a common thing for naval officers to spend a night at Whampoa’s bungalow. Admiral Keppel¹⁸ mentions him several times in his work.¹⁹ Thus in 1848 he writes:

Our worthy old purser, Simmons, departed this life while staying at Whampoa’s country house.

Whampoa was a fine specimen of his country, and had for many years been contractor for fresh beef and naval stores. His generosity and honesty had long made him a favourite.

He had a country house and of course a garden: also a circular pond in which was a magnificent lotus, the Victoria Regia, a present from the Regent of Siam, who sent it to him by WH Read. The huge lily grew splendidly and bore leaves over 11 feet in diameter.

When in bloom, Whampoa gave sumptuous entertainments to naval officers: although our host, he would not sit with us, but sat in a chair slightly withdrawn from the table.

At midnight, by the light of a full moon, we would visit this beautiful flower, which faced the moon and moved with it until below the horizon. Amongst other pets he had an orang-utan who preferred a bottle of cognac to water.

Dear old Whampoa’s eldest son was sent to England for education, and while there became a Presbyterian. When I was in Singapore years after, the young man returned, and had the assurance to reappear before his father, fresh and well, but minus a tail, and consequently was banished to Canton until it regrew and he consented to worship the gods of his fathers.²⁰ [55]

In his diary for 1857 Admiral Keppel had this entry:²¹

Oct 1 — Arrived in Singapore. Governor being absent at Penang put up at Whampoa’s, and how comfortable the good fellow made me.

Oct 4 — Afternoon agreeably passed at Angus’ small bungalow, where Whampoa, ‘Thomas’, Briggs and Harrison dined.

The large brick house in the old garden was built in later years, and the large dining-room at the back was completed just in time for Whampoa to give a big dinner to Admiral Keppel when he was here again in 1867 as Commander-in-Chief. After Whampoa’s death, the property was sold to Mr Seah Liang Seah , who named it Bendemeer, and since then it has ceased to be one of the few show places of Singapore.

Admiral Keppel made one more reference to Whampoa in his book, in which there is a good picture of the subject of our sketch. In 1869, when passing through Singapore, the Admiral was entertained to a big dinner at Government House. Whampoa was there. ‘He gave me a pair of cassowaries to add to the museum on board Rodney, also some pigs to establish a breed at Bishopstoke.’

In recognition of his many services to the Government, he was appointed in 1869 a member of the Legislative Council, and a few years later an extraordinary member of the Executive Council – a position which had not previously, nor has since, been held by a Chinese. Mr Gulland²² tells us that to prevent himself going to sleep during the prosaic deliberations of that august body, Whampoa used to keep on anointing his nostrils with Chinese peppermint. In 1876 he was made a CMG, and died on the 27th March 1880 at the age of 64 years. His remains were taken to China and he was buried on Danes Island, opposite Canton. An amusing incident is related by Mr Gulland thus:

One day a party of gentlemen were at Johore [56] spending the day with the late Sultan. About five o’clock His Highness and a number of his followers saw them to the landing stage, a wooden structure which gave way with the weight, and we all dropped about six feet into the water which fortunately was only up to about the waists of most of us. No one was hurt, but Whampoa had to be fished out, and once more on dry land the old gentleman took out of his pocket a cheap crystal-backed Waterbury watch. Through the glass you could see the watch was more than half full of salt water, which the old gentleman discharged through the tiny hole: after doing so he gave the watch a good shake which set it going again. Our fine expensive watches had all to go to the watchmaker’s before they would move. Roughness has its advantages sometimes.

Whampoa held simultaneously the position of consul in Singapore for Russia, China and Japan. As consul for Russia, he possessed a consular uniform and sword, which he only wore once, because he looked so ‘ugly’ from his curious appearance in it, and was laughed at so much. Towards the latter part of his life, in company with some European merchants, he embarked in speculative business which got him into trouble, without his fault, but he weathered the storm, with his fortune, however, very much reduced. He was an upright, kind-hearted, modest and simple man, a friend to everyone in the place. Mr Buckley tells us that Whampoa could sing only one Chinese song (if he could be persuaded to sing), that it was very laughable, and that he was as much amused and laughed as heartily as anyone else. Of his three sons, the eldest, Hoo Ah Yip – educated in England as mentioned in Admiral Keppel’s book – managed the firm of Whampoa & Co for a short time only when he died; his second son, Hoo Keng Choong, is also dead, and his youngest son, Mr Hoo Keng Tuck, who was for many years employed in the legal firm of Joaquim Brothers²³ (now Allen & Gledhill), is now in charge of the old firm of Whampoa & Co, [57] General Merchants and Importers of the highest class of Chinese curios and china wares. Of a retiring disposition, Mr Hoo Keng Tuck is one of the few well-educated Straits Chinese who realise that exertions on behalf of the public earn only the ill-will of some influential parties and the thanks of nobody. Like a philosopher, or rather the hermit crab, he lives in complete retirement, looking out occasionally from his coign of vantage upon his luckless compatriots who are struggling to make this world a better place to live in for themselves and their children, pretty much as a Martian might watch the social activities of the earth’s inhabitants.

In 1842 and 1843 there occurred a long series of gang robberies by armed Chinese, owing to the inefficient state of the police department: and on the 10th February 1843, at a public meeting of the inhabitants, several resolutions were passed, the 7th and 8th being as follows:

Hoo Ah Yip

Hoo Keng Choong

Hoo Keng Tuck

That it is an understood fact that many of the Chinese shopkeepers and traders in the town, particularly the native-born subjects of China, pay regular sums to the Hueys or Brotherhoods (organised associations of Chinese often for unlawful purposes) as protection money for their own property, or as a contribution in the nature of blackmail, and that it rarely or never happens that the Chinese are themselves sufferers from the depredations complained of.

That it is highly expedient a law should be passed having for its object the suppression of these brotherhoods so far as the same may be effected or influenced by legal enactments, and in particular that it should be made penal for any person or persons to pay or receive any sum of money as protection money of the nature specified in the preceding resolution.

As usual, no immediate steps were taken, and the lawless bands continued to terrorise the people. In the course of one week, in March, four Klings were [58] murdered in a boat at Tanah Merah; the powder magazine of Tock Seng on Kallang River²⁴ was broken open by a large gang of Chinese robbers and large quantities of powder carried off; a quantity of coal stored at Tanjong Rhu was set on fire by an incendiary; while a gang of armed Chinese landed from a boat at New Harbour and attacked several houses, but were driven off by the Temenggong and his followers.

The Straits Chinese Church in Prinsep Street was built in 1843 by the Rev Benjamin Peach Keasberry, who came to Singapore in 1837 as a missionary of the American Board of Missions and joined the London Missionary Society, which had other representatives at that time there, and continued to work with that Society till 1847. Having learnt Malay from Abdullah Munshi²⁵, Mr Keasberry started a small school at Rochore and carried on preaching in Malay in an attap building in North Bridge Road nearly opposite where the Chinese Gospel House is now. He would not give up his work in Singapore when in 1847 the London Missionary Society instructed all their men to proceed to China, and became a self-supporting missionary, occupying himself with his school, his preaching, and the printing establishment (now Fraser & Neave, Ltd) by which he maintained the school, until his death, which occurred suddenly while preaching in the ‘Greja Keasberry’ on 6th September 1875 at the age of 64.

The opening sermon in this church (then known as the Malay Chapel) was preached by the Rev Samuel Dyer²⁶ of Penang, and the service on the following Sunday was taken by the Rev Dr Legge²⁷, both passing through on their way to China. For a number of years the girls of Miss Cooke’s²⁸ Chinese Girls’ School regularly worshipped in this chapel. In 1885, after the congregation of Straits Chinese Christians had been for ten years under the ministrations of the Rev William Young, who had to leave for England owing to failing health, the Rev JAB Cook²⁹ of the English Presbyterian Chinese Mission took over the care of the congregation. [59]

For close on forty years Straits Chinese gentlemen have been associated with the missionaries as voluntary preachers in this church. In addition, most valuable service has been rendered to the missionaries by several Christian workers among the English residents, of whom the most prominent and devoted was the late Mr Charles Phillips, Superintendent of the Sailors’ Home for thirty-two years. Mr Phillips not only took his place as one of the regular preachers in the Malay language at the morning service and in English at the evening service, but translated a large number of English hymns into Malay for the use of the Straits Chinese congregation. He took a deep interest in the work of the Chinese Christian Association from the time of its inception in 1889 until his death in 1904. He was a man greatly beloved by the Straits Chinese, and Prinsep Street Church became a fitting repository for a mural tablet to his memory, which was unveiled by his oldest friend, Mr CB Buckley.³⁰ Among other voluntary preachers who have passed away were Messrs Song Hoot Kiam,³¹ Tan Kong Wee³² and Na Tien Piet.³³ The jubilee of the Chapel was held on the 7th February 1893, when the memory of Mr Keasberry was associated with it, and although eighteen years had elapsed since his death, the service was crowded with those who had known him in Singapore and wished to do honour to one who had been among the pioneers in mission and educational work in Malaya. In 1902 the Rev W Murray³⁴ arrived in Singapore as a missionary of the EPC Mission to take charge of this church and of mission work among the Straits Chinese, and he has been here ever since engaged in steady, earnest and valuable work in their midst.

At this time (1843) Singapore was more than ever before infested with tigers. It was reported that not a day passed without one man being killed: not only Chinese engaged in planting in the country were attacked, but people on the New Harbour Road, or not far from Sepoy Lines, or on Mr Balestier’s³⁵ sugar [60] plantation on Balestier Plain fell victims to these wild beasts. So serious was the situation that a deputation of Chinese planters waited upon the Resident Councillor for more drastic measures on the part of Government to deal with this scourge. The dread caused by the increased destruction of coolies employed in gambier and pepper gardens had become so intense that a number of plantations had to be abandoned. The Chinese in town, who formerly made advances to the cultivators and used to visit the plantations occasionally to collect their interest or instalments, no longer dared to venture into the jungle: and the value of these plantations very naturally began to depreciate. In one instance, a plantation which had cost the owner $300 was sold for $25 in consequence of the fact that the ravages from tigers had been so great there that the plantation had acquired a bad reputation and no labourers could be induced to live upon it. The Government reward of $50 for every tiger brought to the police station, whether alive or dead, was increased to $100 and later to $150. Tiger-hunting expeditions were organised, and Mr WH Read³⁶ tells an amusing story of a tiger killed in 1843 in a pit not far from the present Botanical Gardens.

To earn the Government reward, Chinese, working in parties and sometimes singly, would dig pits or set traps, or arrange heavy beams of timber suspended from tree to tree over the tracks of these tigers, connected on the ground with springs. Often the tables were turned, and tigers killed the men when they went to see if their traps were successful. The Free Press of November 1843 has this paragraph:

On Tuesday evening, a Chinaman, while engaged in constructing a tiger pit at the back of Mr Balestier’s sugar plantation, was pounced upon by a tiger, who, after killing him and sucking the blood, walked into the jungle, leaving the body behind. We suppose the [61] tiger, knowing the object of the Chinaman’s labours, took the opportunity of giving a striking manifestation of his profound disapproval of all such latent and unfair methods of taking an enemy at disadvantage.

Major McNair³⁷ tells us that in 1859, when he was Superintendent of convicts, the number of tigers on the island and the number of people killed by them were still increasing, and after discussing the matter with Governor Cavenagh³⁸, it was arranged for certain of the Indian convicts who were good ‘shikarries’³⁹ to patrol Bukit Timah, Changi and Chua Chu Kang districts, and these parties were successful in killing half a dozen or so in the course of the year.

The tiger scourge was frequently referred to in the columns of the Free Press of those days and was made the subject of a humorous paragraph in the London Punch of 27th October 1855, while the Friend of India, a Calcutta paper, suggested that so many deaths were scarcely likely to be caused by tigers, and that it was possible the Chinese secret societies might imitate tigers’ wounds on murdered persons!

In 1844 was commenced the Tan Tock Seng Hospital ‘for the sick of all nations’, the oldest and one of the most useful of Straits Chinese institutions. It replaced an earlier Chinese hospital or Poor House which had been built from the proceeds of the Government Pork Farm (which had been imposed for that special purpose), but the Poor House was never used as such because the Convict lines were not then ready and the building became instead the Convict Gaol. For the accommodation of the diseased and the poor, an attap building was put up, contrary to the expectations of the Chinese community, and for this and other reasons it was avoided by the very people for whom it had been meant.

There were comparatively few wealthy Chinese in the ‘Forties, but these few were public-spirited and keen to spend some of their hard-earned fortune for the [62] welfare of the general community. And so while the Press in 1844 complained that ‘a number of diseased Chinese, lepers and others frequent almost every street in town, presenting a spectacle rarely to be met with, even in towns under a pagan government, and disgraceful in a civilised and Christian country, especially one under the government of Englishmen’, it published also the good news that a Chinese merchant, Cham Chan Seng, then recently dead, had bequeathed $2,000 to the hospital and that another Chinese merchant had presented $5,000 towards the same object.

A public meeting was held on the 3rd February 1844 with Mr Tan Tock Seng in the chair, and several resolutions passed, the first being proposed by EJ Gilman and seconded by Tan Kim Seng and carried unanimously in the following terms:

That it appears to the meeting that the Government of Bengal is under a misconception in supposing that the proposed erection of a Pauper Hospital for the reception of the Chinese is to ‘please the European and quasi-European’ portion of the inhabitants, and that the Chinese are indifferent on the subject: that on the contrary it is the opinion of this meeting that the Chinese are, as a body, most anxious that the same should be carried into effect.

Mr Buckley truly says that:

… the Government had been slow to recognise the necessity for providing a hospital, and as the first introduction of anything like one was due to private enterprise, it was not thought to be astonishing that it was left to generous-minded individuals to do what they could to alleviate the necessities of the sick poor.

On the 25th May 1844, the foundation stone of the new Pauper Hospital at Pearl’s Hill was laid over a brass plate bearing the following inscription: [63]

THE FOUNDATION STONE

OF

THE CHINESE PAUPER HOSPITAL

SINGAPORE

WAS LAID ON THE XXVTH MAY, MDCCCXLIV

DURING THE GOVERNMENT OF

THE HON’BLE COLONEL WJ BUTTERWORTH, C.B.

GOVERNOR OF PRINCE OF WALES’ ISLAND, SINGAPORE

AND MALACCA

THE HON’BLE T. CHURCH, ESQR.

BEING RESIDENT COUNCILLOR AT SINGAPORE.

THE FUNDS FOR THE ERECTION OF THIS BUILDING WERE FURNISHED BY THE HUMANE LIBERALITY OF

TAN TOCK SENG, ESQR., J.P.

CHINESE MERCHANT IN SINGAPORE.

The foundation stone of the European Seamen’s Hospital was also laid at the same time on the same hill, and the two buildings, designed by the Government Surveyor, Mr JT Thomson⁴⁰, were said to be handsome edifices, adding much to the appearance of the town.

Tan Tock Seng’s Hospital was placed in the hands of a Committee of Management, with Hoo Ah Kay Whampoa as Treasurer, and Seah Eu Chin⁴¹ looking after the food supply. The Government provided only medicines and medical attendance. The dieting was met by contributions and subscriptions from all classes of society.

In 1852, the accommodation in the Hospital having been inadequate for some time past, some of the principal Chinese residents interviewed the Governor, and after a discussion as to ways and means, Tan Kim Ching,⁴² the eldest son of the founder, offered to defray the whole cost of the additions, while his generous example was followed by other Chinese merchants increasing their monthly subscriptions. In 1854 the additions were completed, and the following inscription was engraved on stone and fixed at the hospital gate: [64]

THIS HOSPITAL FOR THE

DISEASED OF ALL COUNTRIES

WAS BUILT A.D.1844

AT THE COST OF

SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS

WHOLLY DEFRAYED BY

TAN TOCK SENG.

THE WINGS WERE ADDED

AND LARGE IMPROVEMENTS EFFECTED

AT THE COST OF

THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS

WHOLLY DEFRAYED BY

TAN KIM CHING,

SON OF THE FOUNDER.

During the Indian Mutiny (1857) the buildings at Pearl’s Hill were taken over for military purposes, and together with the European Seamen’s Hospital were converted into the present Ordnance and Commissariat Offices. The Tan Tock Seng Hospital was removed to the swampy ground on Balestier Plain, the premises being put up by the Government. The sick were accommodated in three blocks of brick buildings forming three sides of a square, while the fourth side, facing Serangoon Road, was for administrative requirements. It was not long before these buildings proved insufficient, and although the locality was condemned, ward after ward was put up as times were better and the revenue increased, and Mr Tan Beng Swee⁴³ built a tile roofed ward at his own expense. Under the careful management of Dr Rowell⁴⁴, PCMO, Tan Tock Seng Hospital became well organised, the whole place being a model of a poor-house and infirmary combined, and it was said that in 1884 it had become as much a contrast to what it had been in 1862 as a palace is to a pigsty.

In the 1867 Directory it was stated that the female [65] ward was built at the expense of Lee Seo Neo,⁴⁵ the widow of the founder.

In 1880 an Ordinance was passed incorporating the institution and appointing a Committee of Management consisting of the Colonial Secretary, the Principal Civil Medical Officer, the Inspector-General of Police, the Assistant Colonial Secretary and the Protector of Chinese (all ex officio), Mr CB Buckley and five representatives of the Chinese subscribers, including, as stipulated by the Ordinance, one of the male heirs of the founder. In the old days the Hospital was generously supported by the Chinese, with one notable exception. In 1857 Syed Ali bin Mohamed al Junied⁴⁶, a wealthy Arab merchant, presented it with a piece of land containing about five acres, now known as ‘Syed Ali’s land’ in Victoria Street, Queen Street and Arab Street, and from this land, leased out in lots for the term of ninety-nine years, is derived a yearly rental of $1,200.

In 1909 the present buildings at Moulmein Road were completed at a cost of nearly half a million dollars. Government bore the expense of the site and erections, with the aid of the generous gift by Towkay Loke Yew⁴⁷ of $50,000 and of a bequest by Mr Wee Boon Teck⁴⁸ of $4,000 and the accumulated interest from these two sums. Five wards have been named after Loke Yew, one after Wee Boon Teck and one after Tan Beng Swee. Sir John Anderson⁴⁹, the then Governor, wisely decided that the Hospital should continue to bear the name of the founder Tan Tock Seng.

Mr Arthur Knight⁵⁰, in his historical sketch of the above Hospital,⁵¹ records that after the completion of the present buildings attention was drawn to the large number of Chinese inmates – nearly forty – who were incurably blind, most of whom were otherwise in good health, but who were occupying space which should be available for the sick. A separate ward for the blind was, by the sanction of HE the Governor, erected on a site adjoining the new buildings and named after [66] Mr Ong Kim Wee JP⁵² of Malacca, who had given a donation of $12,000 for that purpose.

Born in 1798 in Malacca, Tan Tock Seng came to Singapore shortly after its foundation, with no capital but industry and thrift. He started as a vegetable, fruit and fowl seller, going into the country to buy and selling the same in town. Having saved a little money, he opened a shop on the river-side. Afterwards he joined in some speculations with Mr JH Whitehead of Shaw, Whitehead & Co⁵³ and it was chiefly by this means that he made most of his money. Mr Horrocks Whitehead died in September 1846 at the age of 36, and his tombstone, at the Old Cemetery on Fort Canning, was erected ‘as a token of affection on the part of a Chinese friend, Tan Tock Seng’.

He was made a JP by Governor Butterworth, being the first Asiatic to receive such an appointment, and was very often occupied in settling disputes among his countrymen. His charities were very extensive and constant, and he was accustomed to bear the expense of burying poor Chinese. He died in 1850, at the age of 52 years, leaving a widow, Lee Seo Neo, three sons, Tan Kim Ching, Tan Teck Guan⁵⁴ and Tan Swee Lim, and three daughters, one of whom married Lee Cheng Tee, at one time the chief partner in the firm of Cheng-tee Wattseng & Co, shipowners. Three of Mr Cheng Tee’s sons are living, Lee Pek Hoon⁵⁵ (assistant manager, Straits Steamship Co), Lee Pek Swee (in Java) and Lee Pek Hock,⁵⁶ a very valuable agent of the Government Food Control Department during the rice crisis.

The name of Lee Seo Neo has already been mentioned in connection with the female ward at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital. The Directory for 1873 gives her name as proprietress of a large coconut estate in Gaylang, known as Sri Gaylang, Ayer Molek.

The number of Straits-born Chinese at this time was a negligible quantity, but there was a steady stream of young men finding their way from Malacca to this [67] Settlement who practically settled down here altogether. One such individual was Cheong Ann Jan,⁵⁷ who was born in 1818 and came to Singapore in 1844. He entered the service of the firm of Hamilton, Padday & Co which afterwards became Hamilton, Gray & Co in Battery Road, and he rose to the position of storekeeper in the firm which he served until his death in March 1881. Of his five sons, Cheong Swee Kiat was compradore of the Mercantile Bank at the time of his death in 1891. Another son, Cheong Swee Whatt, became compradore of the Banque de l’Indo-Chine and died in 1907. His wide business experience was of great value to his two sons, Cheong Choon Kim⁵⁸ and Cheong Choon Beng,⁵⁹ in the early days of the firm of Yap Whatt & Co, which was established in 1893 as Commission Agents and Import and Export Merchants.

Cheong Swee Whatt

Cheong Ann Jan’s only daughter married Tan Hoon Soon and was the mother of Tan Gin Hock, who was for many years managing partner of the firm of Hoon Keat & Co, general provision merchants in Raffles Place.

In the early part of 1844 Ho Chong Lay, a young man, about 22 years of age, arrived from Amoy. After serving a three-years’ apprenticeship, he started on his own account as a general produce merchant under the chop Teng Hin, owning several junks and sailing vessels which made voyages to Siam and Saigon (the latter port then being under the governorship of a Chinese mandarin). His business proved successful and he began investing his profits in lands and houses in Singapore, where he died in 1861 at the age of 40. A son, Ho Yang Peng, was born in 1859 in Singapore, and after completing his education at Raffles Institution, he went to Amboyna (Moluccas) to wind up the business of a produce merchant left by an elder brother who had died there. In April 1886 Mr Ho Yang Peng joined the General Post Office and was the Chinese sub-postmaster for about twenty-one years. There were then some seventy shopkeepers (Hokien and Teochew) acting as [68] remittance agents and about 4,000 itinerant collectors who made it their business to make trips at regular intervals to their own villages in China, carrying with them the savings of the working people here to their parents or families dwelling in the same villages. In the course of a year, something like a million dollars represented the total remittances by this means from Singapore. Mr Yang Peng advised the Cantonese, Hakka and Hylam tribes to arrange for shopkeepers to undertake this business, and now there are about 250 shops acting as remittance agents, while the itinerant collector has become a thing of the past. In 1902 Mr Yang Peng became a trustee and succeeded Mr Wee Theam Tew⁶⁰ as President of the Board of Trustees of the Gan Eng Seng Free School,⁶¹ retiring in 1910. He bought in 1903 Mr Robert Little’s⁶² coconut estate (450 acres) at Siglap and developed it by planting rubber during the boom, spending a large sum of money on such development. This estate was afterwards sold at a considerable loss. Before joining the Post Office, Mr Ho Yang Peng had secured the monopoly as Farmer of all the then markets, Telok Ayer (Old Market), Ellenborough, Rochore and Clyde Terrace, and, later on, of Orchard Road market, and he continued to enjoy the rights of the monopoly until 1909, when the Farm was abolished and the Municipality assumed direct control over all markets.

On 18th September 1844 the following notification was issued by Government:

Authentic intelligence having been received that a naturalised British subject, but of Chinese origin, had incurred some risk of seizure and persecution by the Chinese authorities in consequence of his appearing at one of the Ports in China lately thrown open to British shipping as supercargo of a British vessel – and as cases of the same kind are likely to occur from the growing trade in British ships between the Ports of China and the Straits Settlements, it is hereby notified, with a view to protect persons so situated, that the Resident [69] Councillors in Penang, Singapore and Malacca will be prepared to furnish a certificate when required, intimating that they are naturalised British subjects. This document will be lodged with the British Consul at the first Port the vessel may touch in China.⁶³

The attitude of the Straits Government at that date towards Chinese naturalised British subjects visiting the country of their birth forms a strange and striking contrast to its attitude within recent years towards Chinese natural-born British subjects visiting the country of their forefathers! The Government of those days did not recognise the claim of the Chinese authorities to exercise jurisdiction over their own nationals who had expatriated themselves, while the Government of our day issues a half-hearted form of passport to Straits-born Chinese going to China, in cases where their fathers were born on Chinese soil. The requirements made by the Chinese authorities that Straitsborn Chinese applying for a passport to visit China must produce two well-known persons to declare the nationality and state the age of the applicant has often worked great hardship: and is an arrangement which the British Government should never have agreed to. Unlike the Dutch ‘peranakans’, the Straits-born Chinese have during the last twenty-five years been trained to realise the relationship in which they, as a community, stand to the British Throne and Empire. The proofs of loyalty and patriotism and the service in numerous forms to the British Empire given by that community during the Great War should justify the British Imperial Government in putting an end to diplomatic uncertainty and claiming the right to protect, by the issue of unqualified British passports, every Chinese born in the Colony, because he is a natural-born British subject, whether travelling to China or elsewhere. The local Government would then not be hampered by the observance of any special procedure of an irksome or embarrassing nature when applications for passports to China are made, and could issue such [70] passports with the same facilities and ease as are enjoyed by British subjects of all other races.

Among the grants of freehold land issued in 1845 in the district of Claymore, there were two grants numbered 1 and 25 to See Boon Tiong, who, on his retirement to Malacca in 1848, sold this property which forms part of the ‘Waverley Estate’ near the Tanglin end of Orchard Road. See Boon Tiong was born in Malacca about 1807 and came to Singapore in 1825, where he started in business, and carried it on for twenty-three years. He was for many years an intimate friend of Mr AL Johnston⁶⁴ and Mr James Fraser.⁶⁵ In Malacca he was engaged in business as a merchant and started tapioca planting at Linggi. He was one of the first Chinese merchants in Malacca who were honoured by being made a JP. That was in the year 1860. He used to sit with the Resident Councillor of Malacca in Quarter Sessions when the Resident Councillor was local judge. He continued to invest his savings in house property in the town of Singapore, and such property realised good prices at auction in 1911. He died in Malacca on 1st November 1888 at the advanced age of 81, leaving grandsons, one of whom is Mr See Tiang Lim, at one time a member of the Opium and Spirit Farms and a partner in Tiang Lim Brothers, chop Kim Moh, and now a retired gentleman of means.

The first serious trouble with the Chinese secret societies occurred in 1846. The decay of the Tsing [Qing] dynasty had led to constant rebellions; and the political refugees in the nineteenth century came in great numbers, especially after the Tai-ping insurrection, to this part of the world. One of the direct consequences of this was the introduction into Malaya of the Triad Society and its endless variety of sister institutions. The name Triad was given because the Society based its doctrines on the trinity of the Combined Powers, Human, Terrestrial and Celestial. The popular Chinese name is ‘Thien-tihui’ – cosmic association – the name indicating that [71] the Society advocates principles that are deducible from Nature and that are in harmony with cosmic laws. It is in fact a kind of freemasonry with weird and mysterious rites of initiation, with an oath of sworn brotherhood and with an organisation which recalls that of the Jesuits. Fundamentally, its primary object was to overthrow the Manchus, which object in reality it has achieved: since the revolution of 1910-11 found its inspiration from men associated with the original movement. But the Triads became very powerful and very troublesome to the Chinese people and to the government of every country in which the societies prevailed. The influence of the anti-dynastic movement was very widespread. Certain funeral observances had a hidden meaning, intended to suggest to the children of the dead the duty of recovering the national heritage from the Manchus. As soon as a Chinese died, his friends clothed him in the ancient style of dress worn in the Ming dynasty. The eldest male representative was made to mount a chair or stool, and the undertaker – the master of the rites – announced that the dead would not stand on the earth belonging to the Tsing [Qing]. A straw hat was put on the head of the representative, the undertaker declaring that the dead would not be under the same heaven. The different suits of clothes intended for the corpse were worn inside out by the representative, one over the other, and then they were removed together and put on the dead body. This custom prevailed all over Malaya, and was rigidly observed as a perpetual reminder to the people of their duty to shake off the Manchu yoke.

Mr Pickering⁶⁶, in his paper on the subject of Chinese Secret Societies, says:

A Chinese embroidered catafalque enclosing a coffin

However degraded the Society may have become in its present hands, there is great reason to believe that originally, in the long past, it was a system of freemasonry, and that its object was to benefit mankind [72] by spreading a spirit of brotherhood and by teaching the duties of man to God and his neighbour. The motto of the Thien-ti-hui, whether acted upon or not, is ‘Obey Heaven and work righteousness’, and the association which could adopt this principle as its fundamental rule must have been composed of individuals raised far above the ideas of mere political adventurers.

…

… The professed objects of the League have been in the Straits to a certain extent lost sight of. But at the same time it must be recollected that some years ago the leader of the ‘Sie-to’ or ‘Small knife’ rebellion at Amoy, was a Straits-born Chinese, and that there are doubtless now in the Straits several old Tai-ping rebels. The class of Chinese who flock to those colonies is certainly not composed of men who, either by position or education, can be expected to cherish very deeply the higher principles inculcated by the teaching of the Society: and as there are no patriotic aims to be attained under our gentle and liberal Government, the only objects for which they can strive are those lower interests which are only too dear to the average Chinese mind, such as intrigue, assistance in petty feuds, combination to extort money and to interfere with the course of justice.⁶⁷

The death of the chief of one of the secret societies was the occasion of the trouble above referred to. Application to the magistrate to grant permission to bury the body in a particular burial ground (which rendered it necessary for the funeral procession to pass through the town) was granted on the condition that such procession would take the direct line of route to the burial ground and that the number of followers did not exceed one hundred. The heads of the Hoey agreed to this arrangement, but the members would not, and assembled to the number of several thousands in front of the temple at Rochore. The body of the deceased was placed in the middle of the street, and the crowd declared their intention to pass through the town, staying in such streets as they thought proper, to [73] perform ceremonies. The police attempted to stop them, and the superintendent, Captain Cuppage⁶⁸, and Mr Dunman⁶⁹ were ill-treated by them. An express was then dispatched for the troops, and these were placed at the head of the principal thoroughfares, and lined the roadway, so that the procession was compelled to observe the conditions originally issued by the police.

The Free Press of February 1847 mentions the case of a Chinese who died from hydrophobia in the hospital, after having been bitten four months before by a mad dog, and as several such cases occurred at this time, the magistrates issued an order for the destruction of stray dogs on the first three days of each month (except Sundays).

The first account of the Chinese community in Singapore written by one of themselves appeared in Vol I of Logan’s Journal (1847).⁷⁰ It was composed in Chinese by Seah Eu Chin⁷¹ and dealt with the annual remittances made to China by all classes of the immigrant [sic].

While the merchant sends his hundreds of dollars, the poor coolie sends his units or tens. The amount remitted each year varies considerably. … In some years the aggregate amount reaches as high perhaps as $70,000, while in other years it may fall as low as thirty or forty thousand dollars.⁷²

In the following year appeared another paper from the same pen giving a general sketch of the numbers, tribes and occupations of the Chinese in Singapore:

The different trades and professions are schoolmasters, writers, cashiers, shopkeepers, apothecaries, coffin makers, grocers, goldsmiths, silversmiths, tinsmiths, dyers, tailors, barbers, shoemakers, basket makers, fishermen, sawyers, boat builders, cabinet makers, architects, masons, lime and brick burners, sailors, ferrymen, sago manufacturers, distillers of spirits, cultivators and manufacturers of gambier and of sugar, cultivators of pepper and nutmegs, vendors of cakes and [74] fruits, porters, play-actors, fortune-tellers, idle vagabonds – who have no work and of whom there are not a few – beggars, and, nightly, there are those villains, the thieves.⁷³

The estimate given by Mr Eu Chin of the Chinese population was 40,000. This is incorrect, since the police census for 1849 showed only 24,700. The Chinese inhabitants were classified by Mr Eu Chin into six distinct groups as follows:⁷⁴

1.Chinese from Hokien province: these come from the departments of Chiang-chiu, Chan-chiu and Engchun.

2.Malacca-born Chinese.

3.Chinese from the department of Tio-chiu, which is under the jurisdiction of Canton province.

4.Chinese from Canton – these men are here commonly called Macao Chinese.

5.Khek Chinese – these are men who come from the two provinces of Hokien and Canton.

6.Chinese from Hainan, which is also subject to the jurisdiction of Canton.

He thus writes of the labouring class:

They are mostly very poor. Originally, they come with the intention of returning to their native land after a sojourn of three or four years, but, out of ten, only one or two individuals are able to return after that time, and when they do retire, they do not take with them much wealth. … There are some who are able to go back after five or six years, and others after seven, eight or ten years. There are a great number who remain here upwards of ten and twenty years: and yet, unable to return, ultimately die and repose their ashes in this Settlement. Alas for those who originally intended to return to their native country after three years, and yet, after the lapse of more than nineteen years have not been able to fulfil their wish, but what is the reason of it? It is because they became addicted to the prevailing vice of opium smoking. After a continuous residence here they learn the habit [75] which afterwards becomes fixed. Many of the Chinese labourers, after having earned a little money, waste it upon opium or expend it in gambling. After a series of years they save nothing, and every day it becomes more and more difficult for them to return to their country.⁷⁵

1Popularly known as the first White Rajah of Sarawak, James Brooke (1803– 1868) was a true colonialist. Born and raised in India, he was more at home in the Far East than he ever was in England. Attempts to educate him in England were unsuccessful and after a brief stint there, during which he ran away from school, he returned to India to join the British East India Company. He arrived in Kuching in 1838 during the Iban and Bidayuh revolt against the Sultan. Brooke helped to quell the rebellion and the Sultan gratefully bestowed upon him the position of Rajah of Sarawak. Brooke then set about quashing the piracy that plagued the region. Though hugely successful, he had to face a formal inquisition on charges that he used excessive force against the natives. The charges were dismissed and he continued to rule Sarawak until his death, with several of his descendants succeeding him as Rajah. See Bob Recce, The White Rajahs of Sarawak: A Borneo Dynasty (Singapore: Archipelago Press, 2004).

2See Sir James Brooke, Narrative of Events in Borneo and Celebes, Down to the Occupation of Labuan: From the Journals of James Brooke (London: John Murray, 1848) at 9–10.

3Tan Tock Seng (1798–1850) was one of Singapore’s earliest pioneers and success stories. Born in Malacca to humble Hokkien-Peranakan parentage, he moved to Singapore in 1819 to sell fruit, vegetables and poultry on Boat Quay. His business did well and he went on to acquire land, property and plantations. He is best remembered for his contribution to the hospital that bears his name. Tan Tock Seng Hospital served the poor Chinese community, with Tan often personally paying the expenses of patients there. His wife, and later one of his sons, continued to support the hospital after his death. See, Kamala Devi Dhoraisingham & Dhoraisingham S Samuel, Tan Tock Seng: Pioneer – His Life, Times, Contributions & Legacy (Kota Kinabalu: Natural History Publications (Borneo), 2003).

4Thomas Church (1798–1860) served throughout the Straits Settlements’ administrations. He was Deputy Resident Councillor in Penang in the early 1830s, becoming full Resident Councillor in 1834, and in the 1840s became Assistant Resident Councillor in Malacca. He then moved to Singapore in 1842 as Resident Councillor, a post he held for almost 20 years. He was known as a conscientious public servant who genuinely cared for the welfare and advancement of the people. See Walter Makepeace, Gilbert Edward Brooke and Roland St John Braddell (eds), One Hundred Years of Singapore, Vol 1 (London: John Murray, 1921), at 86.

5James Augustus St John, ‘A Chinaman’s Ball’ (1852) 5 Household Word 331.

6Edmund Augustus Blundell was born in England in 1804. His career in Southeast Asia began in Burma, where he was Commissioner of Tenasserim from 1833 to 1843. He then became Resident Councillor of Malacca and later Penang, before assuming the position of Governor of the Straits Settlements from 1855 to 1859. He married an English lady, but it is believed his heart remained in Burma, where he had 11 children with a long-standing mistress. He died in England in 1868. See Justin Corfield, Historical Dictionary of Singapore (Lanham, Toronto & Plymouth: The Scarecrow Press, 2011), at 39; see also, Walter Makepeace, Gilbert Edward Brooke and Roland St John Braddell (eds), One Hundred Years of Singapore, Vol 1 (London: John Murray, 1921), at 87.

7One of the earlier editors of The Straits Times, John Cameron (1835–1881) lived in Singapore for about 30 years, during which he was a prominent and popular resident. He moved to Singapore in 1861, and with some friends, bought over The Straits Times. He became editor, growing interested in Malayan history and society. Soon he began writing his own book, Our Tropical Possessions in Malayan India, which was published in 1865. Active in Singapore society, he was proprietor of trading firm John Cameron & Co, sat on a committee to establish the Raffles Library and Museum (precursor of the National Museum), was Honorary Secretary of the Singapore Sporting Club and otherwise aided in the expansion and development of the Straits Settlements. See Walter Makepeace, Gilbert Edward Brooke and Roland St. John Braddell (eds), One Hundred Years of Singapore, Vols 1 (London: John Murray, 1921), at 92–94.

8[Song: Our Tropical Possessions in Malayan India (1865)].

9John Cameron, Our Tropical Possessions in Malayan India (London: Smith, Elder & Co, 1865), at 139, footnote.

10CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 345–346.

11We are unable to ascertain the source of this quote.

12Born in the Shetland Islands, Scotland, Gilbert Angus (1815-1887) moved to Bencoolen, Java, with his parents before arriving in Singapore in the 1840s. Initially a bookkeeper with the firm Shaw, Whitehead & Co, he soon left to go into business with Whampoa. Both parties prospered, and Angus went on to own nutmeg plantations and numerous other pieces of land in Singapore, including the hills of Tanglin. He also acted as a Municipal Commissioner. He died in his home on Armenian Street on 24 March 1887, leaving a large family. See CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 658; and See Walter Makepeace, Gilbert Edward Brooke and Roland St. John Braddell (eds), One Hundred Years of Singapore, Vol 1 (London: John Murray, 1921), at 368.

13Tchan Chun Fook was born in Penang, the son of Tchan Yow Chuen, the first Straits-born Chinese to explore the interior of the Malaya forests. He came to Singapore to live with his uncle, Whampoa Hoo Ah Kay at the age of 10 and studied at Raffles Institution. When Whampoa died, he and his cousin, Hoo Ah Yip, were appointed managers of Whampoa’s business. He left the business after 40 years to start his own business. A charitable man, he was appointed to the Chinese Advisory Board in 1890. See Arnold Wright & HA Cartwright (eds), Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya (London: Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Company, 1908), at 636.

14Best known as the publisher of the Singapore Free Press and author of An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore, Charles Burton Buckley (1844–1912) was a much-loved, high-profile resident of the settlement. He was born on 30 January 1844, the son of the Reverend John Wall Buckley. He was educated at Winchester College and came to Singapore on the recommendation of William Henry Read. He arrived in Singapore in 1864 and joined the firm of AL Johnston & Co where he remained for 11 years before reading law privately. He practised with Edward and William Nanson till 1904 when he retired from the firm of Rodyk and Davidson. In 1884, he acquired the dormant Singapore Free Press. This publication had ceased operations some years earlier, but under Buckley’s hand it was resurrected. In a few years, it grew to become a daily newspaper with a popular history column, the contents of which contributed greatly to Buckley’s seminal book, published in 1902. He retained ties with Johore, acting as advisor to the Sultan up till his death. See Walter Makepeace, Gilbert Edward Brooke and Roland St. John Braddell (eds), One Hundred Years of Singapore, Vol 2 (London: John Murray, 1921), at 453–457; and Joshua Chia Yeong Jia, ‘Charles Burton Buckley’ at Singapore Infopedia; http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1145_2006-08-29.html (accessed 30 Oct 2015).

15The man after whom Cairnhill is named, Charles Carnie (1810–1873) was a successful merchant. He built the first residence in Cairnhill in 1840. The house sat on a sprawling 64-acre plantation, which in 1848 boasted 4,370 nutmeg trees. He also formed the firm Martin, Dyce & Co and traded in Manila and Batavia. An adventurous and plucky man, he had a penchant for hunting tigers. See Sharon Siddique, Nutmeg and a Touch of Spice: The Story of Cairnhill Road (Singapore: Sembawang Properties, 2000).

16A Scottish merchant, Walter Scott Duncan (1803–1857) came to Singapore in 1823 and joined the firm Johnston & Co as a clerk. He stayed for just a year before leaving for Rhio, an Indonesian province, to tend to the firm’s business there. He later returned to Singapore, setting up a ship chandler’s business and buying a plantation in Siglap, next to that of Dr Robert Little’s, near the seventh mile on Changi Road, which he called Mount Thule. There he lived till his death in 1857. See CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 155.

17Singapore Free Press, 11 Feb 1847, at 2.

18Admiral Henry Keppel (1809–1904) never lived in Singapore but visited several times in the 1840s as Captain of HMS Meander on missions to counter piracy. By then he had already advanced significantly in the Royal Navy, having joined in 1822. From being captain, he continued to work his way steadily up the ranks, eventually becoming Admiral of the Fleet in 1877. He served in Africa, China and Crimea, and was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in honour of his achievements. See Henry Keppel, A Sailor’s Life under Four Sovereigns, 3 Vols (London: Macmillan & Co, 1889).

19[Song: A Sailor’s Life Under Four Sovereigns].

20Sir Henry Keppel, A Sailor’s Life under Four Sovereigns, Vol 2 (London: MacMillan & Co, 1899), at 80.

21Ibid, Vol 3, at 14–15.

22A member of the Legislative Council, William Guiseppe Gulland (1842–1906) was well-known in society. He came to Singapore in the early 1860s, joining the firm of Paterson, Simon & Co. Starting as a clerk, he worked his way up and eventually became a partner of the firm. See Walter Makepeace, Gilbert Edward Brooke and Roland St John Braddell (eds), One Hundred Years of Singapore, Vol 1 (London: John Murray, 1921), at 152 & 585. Gulland was also passionate about Chinese porcelain; he amassed a large collection numbering hundred of pieces, which he bequeathed to the Victoria & Albert Museum. He even wrote a book on Chinese porcelain. See ‘William Giuseppi Gulland’ at <http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/w/william-giuseppi-gulland/> (accessed 20 Jul 2015).

23Joaquim Brothers was a thriving law firm. At the end of the 19th century, one of its partners Parsick Joaquim died, and with his demise the partnership was dissolved. One of its new lawyers, Roland Allen, took over to keep the firm going and was joined by John Joseph Gledhill, a former assistant at the firm. Together they revived the firm as Allen & Gledhill in 1902, which is now one of Singapore’s leading law firms. See Julian Davison, Allen & Gledhill Centenary (Singapore: Allen & Gledhill, 2002).

24According to Song, this gunpowder magazine was already in existence in 1864 and originally owned by Chan Koo Chan – who married Tan Tock Seng’s sister – and was then known as Alexandra Magazine. It later moved to Tanah Merah Kechil. See Chapter 6 of this volume. On 31 July 1869, Tan Seng Poh and Lee Cheng Tee became owners of the magazine and gave a public luncheon at its grand opening in Tanah Merah. See Chapter 7 of this volume.

25See Chapter 2, n 4.

26A British Protestant missionary, Samuel Dyer (1804–1843) had a fervent desire to spread the gospel which brought him to China, Penang, Malacca and Singapore. He came to the Straits in 1827, aged only 16. He and his wife, Maria Dyer, devoted their lives to working with Chinese communities, learning the language, translating the Bible into Chinese and even creating a steel typeface for printing in Chinese that worked better than traditional woodblocks. They arrived in Singapore in 1842. Here he conducted religious services and preached widely, while she opened a boarding school for Chinese girls in their own home, which later become St Margaret’s Primary School. He stayed only a year before travelling to Hong Kong, where he took ill with a fever and died on 24 November 1843. See generally, Evan Davies, Memoir of the Rev Samuel Dyer, Sixteen Years Missionary to the Chinese (London: John Snow, 1846).

27James Legge (1815–1897) was a sinologist and a Congregationalist. In 1839 he went to China as a missionary but broke journey at Malacca where he took charge of the Anglo-Chinese College there. Legge later moved with the College to Hong Kong, where he lived for the next 30 years. There he translated many important works and served as a pastor and newspaper editor. In 1867 he returned to Scotland and two years later embarked on a major trip to China. Returning to England in 1873, he moved to Oxford where he was made a Fellow of Corpus Christi College and became the university’s first professor of Chinese. See Helen Edith Legge, James Legge, Missionary and Scholar (London: Religious Tract Society, 1905).

28Some ten years after Maria Dyer (see n 26 above) left Singapore following the death of her husband in 1843, Sophia Cooke arrived from England. She took over the boarding school for Chinese girls that Dyer had been running out of her home on North Bridge Road. Cooke threw herself into her new role with enthusiasm, learning the Malay language. For the next 42 years she devoted herself to the education and development of the girls in her school, which became known lovingly as Miss Cooke’s School, before finally becoming St Margaret’s Primary School. See EA Walker, Sophia Cooke: Forty-Two Years’ Work in Singapore by EA Walker (London: Elliot Stock, 1899).

29Reverend JAB Cook purchased the church’s building from the London Missionary Society, using funds from Singaporean merchants living in London. The church was renamed Prinsep Street Church and put under the administration of the English Presbyterian Church, from which Rev Cook hailed. See CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore 1819–1867 (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 640.

30See Straits Times, 28 Apr 1905, at 5; and ‘The late Mr C Philips: A Tablet Unveiled’ Straits Times, 2 May 1905, at 8.

31A student of James Legge, Song Hoot Kiam (1830–1900) studied at the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca and then followed Legge to Hong Kong where he continued his studies. From there he went to England, and shortly after his return met and married his first wife. His strong voice made him a natural preacher at Reverend Keasberry’s Prinsep Street chapel, at which he also led the singing. When his first wife passed away, he married Phan Fung Lean. Song Ong Siang is the eldest child from that marriage. Song Hoot Kiam is discussed in detail in Chapter 5 of this volume.

32The son of a gambier and pepper trader, Tan Kong Wee (1842–1888) was close to Song Hoot Kiam. Under Song’s influence, Tan joined Reverend Keasberry’s chapel against the wishes of his family. He also married Song’s eldest daughter and had two sons. He worked as a cashier at the law firm Drew & Napier to support his family. The job earned him a comfortable living, allowing him to retire two years before his death. See JAB Cook, ‘A Christian Baba’ (1889) 20 Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal 225–226.

33A Chinese Peranakan from Bencoolen, Na Tien Piet was born in 1836 in Bencoolen. He spent his earlier years trading spices between Sumatra and Singapore before settling down in Singapore in 1872, where he lived for 24 years. He was a literary scholar and published a Malay poem, Shaer Almarhoem Beginda Sultan Abubakar di Negri Johore in 1896 under the pseudonym Kalam Langit or Celestial Pen, being a translation of his name in Malay. See Lee Geok Boi, Pages from Yesteryear: A Look at the Printed Works of Singapore 1819–1959 (Singapore: Singapore Heritage Society, 1989), at 17.

34Reverend William Murray retired in February 1936, and a farewell meeting was held in his honour at the Tomlinson Hall at the Singapore Presbyterian Church on Orchard Road. See ‘Retirement of Rev William Murray’ Straits Times, 7 Feb 1936, at 13.

35An American who lived most of his life abroad, Joseph Balestier (1788–1858) was born in France and later moved to Southeast Asia where he became a planter and a merchant. He owned a 1,000-acre sugarcane and cotton plantation in Singapore as well as a plant manufacturing sugar and rum. He also served as the first United States consul in Riau and Singapore, as well as its Envoy and Diplomatic Agent for Southeast Asia. Balestier district, where his plantation stood, is named after him. See Victor R Savage and Brenda SA Yeoh, Singapore Street Names: A Study of Toponymics (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2013), at 27–28; and Richard Hale, The Balestiers: The First American Residents of Singapore (Singapore: Marshall-Cavendish, 2016).

36[Song: Play and Politics (1901), p 158]. See WHM Read, Play and Politics: Recollections of Malaya by an Old Resident (London: W Gardner, Darton, 1901), at 158. Like many Scotsmen in his era who moved to Singapore, William Henry Macleod Read (1819–1909) came here with Johnston & Co, the largest trading firm here at the time. He lived here from 1841 to 1887, during which time he contributed greatly to Singapore society. A strong mediator, he was appointed Special Constable and was often called on to settle conflicts between the Hokkien and Cantonese communities. He was a volunteer with the Singapore Rifle Corps, Consul for the Netherlands, member of the Legislative Council and Head of the Chamber of Commerce. A good sportsman, he won the first Singapore Derby and went on to set up the Singapore Turf Club; he also organised Singapore’s first regatta. He belonged to the Freemasons and led the Grand Lodge of the Eastern Archipelago, during which time a new hall was built here. One of his final contributions to Singapore was to lay a cylinder of the bridge over the Singapore River that bears his name today. See generally, CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore 1819–1867 (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902) where Read’s contributions and exploits are peppered throughout the book.

37[Song: Prisoners their own Warders]. See Major JRA McNair, Prisoners Their Own Warders (Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co, 1899). Joseph Frederick Aldophus McNair (1828–1910) was a colonial officer who had an illustrious career in India and the Straits Settlements. He held various positions in India, where he learned Hindi, and then in Malacca, Penang, Singapore and Perak. His knowledge of Hindi stood him in good stead, and in Singapore allowed him to work closely with Indian convicts as the Superintendent of Convicts. He was also Executive Engineer and head of Public Works. He resourcefully engaged the convicts under his charge to work on many municipal construction projects, constructing roads and buildings like St Andrew’s Cathedral and the Istana. See Walter Makepeace, Gilbert Edward Brooke and Roland St John Braddell (eds), One Hundred Years of Singapore, Vol 1 (London: J. Murray, 1921), at 97.

38In 1826, Singapore became part of the Straits Settlements along with Malacca and Penang, marking its growth from its founding in 1819. The Governor of the Straits Settlements reported to the Governor-General of Calcutta, India, in whose hands power really lay. Under this arrangement, William Orfeur Cavenagh (1820–1891) was appointed Governor by the Indian office. He had already served in India as an officer in the army of the East India Company, and was no stranger to the Indian administration. For eight years he governed Singapore, from 1859 to 1867, at which point control of the settlement passed from India to London. The next governor of Singapore reported not to Calcutta but to the Colonial Office in London, marking Singapore’s promotion to a Crown Colony. See JM Gullick, ‘Cavenagh, Sir (William) Orfeur (1820–1891)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/98336; see also Justin Corfield, Historical Dictionary of Singapore (Plymouth: Scarecrow Press, 2011), at 50.

39Hindi for ‘sportsman’ or ‘guide’. The term shikaree or shekarry is used in three ways. In this case, it refer to a ‘native expert, who either brings in game on his own account, or accompanies European sportsmen as guide and aid’. See Henry Yule & AC Burnell, Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive, William Crooke (ed) (London: John Murray, 1903), at 827.

40Singapore owes much of its early infrastructure to civil engineer John Turnbull Thomson (1821–1884). Employed by the East India Company, he arrived in Malaya in 1838 and in the 1840s became Government Surveyor and Superintendent of Roads and Public Works in Singapore. His many accomplishments included important surveys such as the water survey that led to the establishment of MacRitchie Reservoir. He also oversaw the design and construction of a great number of roads and buildings such as Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Hajjah Fatimah Mosque, the Dalhousie Obelisk and, his biggest achievement, the Horsburgh Lighthouse. He returned in 1853 to England for a few years before moving to New Zealand, where he lived for the rest of his life. See Victor R Savage and Brenda SA Yeoh, Singapore Street Names: A Study of Toponymics (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2013), at 384–385.

41See Chapter 3, n 54.

42The eldest of Tan Tock Seng’s sons, Tan Kim Ching (1829–1892) was an extremely wealthy and influential businessman. His business interests extended to Siam, Vietnam, Malaya and China, and he was Consul for Japan, Russia and Siam and also a member of the Siamese court. His extensive connections in Siam made him an important go-between for the colonial administration in Singapore and their Siamese counterparts. He was also the first Asian member of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, and when his father passed away, he became kapitan of the Straits Chinese community. See CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore 1819–1867 (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 411 & 530.

43Tan Beng Swee (1828–1884) was the son of another well-known Malacca-born merchant and philanthropist, Tan Kim Seng. He also supported some of his father’s other interests – Kim Seng Chinese Free School on Amoy Street, which Beng Swee went on to open in Malacca, and the firm Kim Seng & Co, where he was partner. With Tan Kim Ching, he set up Po Chek Kio temple and turned it into the headquarters for the Tan clan. He had strong ties to Malacca. He was President of the Chinese Temple there, and when he died he was brought to Malacca to be buried. See Walter Makepeace, Gilbert Edward Brooke and Roland St John Braddell (eds), One Hundred Years of Singapore, Vol 1 (London: John Murray, 1921), at 496, and Arnold Wright & HA Cartwright (eds), Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya (London: Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Company, 1908), at 631.

44Colonial Surgeon Dr Thomas Irvine Rowell (1840–1932) oversaw the massive relocation and reorganisation of Tan Tock Seng Hospital when it moved from Pearl’s Hill to Balestier Plain. He was also Registrar for Births and Deaths 1881, and President of the Municipality in 1888. Rowell was born in Aberdeen in 1840 and studied medicine in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Paris and Vienna before coming to Singapore in 1868 as Acting Colonial Surgeon. He retired in 1890 at the age of 50 when his health broke down. See ‘Death at Age of Ninety-Two’ Straits Times, 20 Jul 1932, at 11; Walter Makepeace, Gilbert Edward Brooke and Roland St John Braddell (eds), One Hundred Years of Singapore, Vol 1 (London: John Murray, 1921), at 498, 502–503, & 518; see also Victor R Savage and Brenda SA Yeoh, Singapore Street Names: A Study of Toponymics (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2013), at 328.

45The wife of Tan Tock Seng, Lee Seo Neo (1807–1877) played an active part in Tan Tock Seng Hospital. It is thought that she also owned a sizable coconut plantation in Geylang. See Kamala Devi Dhoraisingham & Dhoraisingham S Samuel, Tan Tock Seng: Pioneer – His Life, Times, Contributions & Legacy (Kota Kinabalu: Natural History Publications (Borneo), 2003).

46Aljunied Road is named after this scion of the wealthy Arab family, Syed Ali bin Mohamed Aljunied. Syed Ali had moved from Palembang to Singapore with his father, Syed Omar Aljunied. The Aljunieds maintained a family residence in Balestier for over a hundred years. See Victor R Savage and Brenda SA Yeoh, Singapore Street Names: A Study of Toponymics (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2013), at 14–15.

47Chinese businessman Loke Yew (1845–1917) was both tenacious and generous. Arriving in Singapore at the tender age of 11, he managed to save $99 in four years and opened his own shop. From there he went up the Peninsula to Larut where he went into mining, initially losing large sums of money. However, he persevered and ended up with a massive fortune. He was charitable; besides donating $50,000 to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, he also gave $50,000 to Raffles Hospital and another $50,000 to the government to either improve the conditions for patients quarantined on St John’s Island or to build a new paupers’ hospital. See Arnold Wright & HA Cartwright (eds), Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya (London: Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Company, 1908), at 893–895; see also Michael Godley, The Mandarin-Capitalists from Nanyang: Overseas Chinese Enterprise in the Modernisation of China 1893–1911 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), at 12–14.

48See ‘New Tan Tock Seng Hospital’ Straits Times, 19 Mar 1909, at 7.

49Sir John Anderson (1858–1918) was Governor of the Straits Settlements from 1904-1911. In 1916, he became Governor of Ceylon and passed away from illness in the midst of his term. See Arnold Wright & HA Cartwright (eds), Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya (London: Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Company, 1908), at 123–124.

50Arthur Knight (1833–1916) lived in Singapore for 50 years, participating actively in society. He held the positions of Assistant Auditor General, Assistant Colonial Secretary, Vice President of the Singapore Philharmonic Society and was Secretary of Tan Tock Seng Hospital for 30 years. See Walter Makepeace, Gilbert Edward Brooke and Roland St John Braddell (eds), One Hundred Years of Singapore, Vol 1 (London: John Murray, 1921), at 551–553.

51[Song: Journal, Str. Branch R.A.S. (No. 64)] See Arthur Knight, ‘Tan Tock Seng’s Hospital, Singapore’ (1913) 64 Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 72–75.

52Known as the millionaire of Malacca, Ong Kim Wee (1851–1913) was a rubber magnate. He was born in Malacca, the son of Ong Keng Hoon, a successful planter and rice merchant. Educated at the Malacca Free School, he joined his father’s business at an early age and took over from him when the latter died in 1904. He owned two extensive estates, one of 6,200 acres at Merlimau, and another of 5,000 acres near Port Dickson, planted with rubber and tapioca. Ong married a daughter of Chua Tiang Kiam. Generous with his wealth, he contributed to scholarship funds for St Francis’ School in Malacca, and Anglo-Chinese School and St Joseph’s Institution in Singapore. In 1897, he was made Justice of the Peace, and six years later, became a member of the Malacca Municipal Council. See Arnold Wright & HA Cartwright (eds), Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya (London: Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Company, 1908), at 843.

53The firm was originally called Graham Mackenzie & Co. When Colin Mackenzie left the firm on 31 December 1834, the name was changed to Shaw Whitehead & Co with John Horrocks Whitehead as partner. At the time of his death, the other partners of the firm were James Stephen in Singapore and Michie Forbes Davidson in England. See CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 234.

54For more on Tan Teck Guan, see Chapter 7 of this volume.

55A son of Lee Cheng Tee, Lee Pek Hoon (1866–1934) was educated at St Joseph’s Institution, spoke several dialects and Japanese. He started work at the firm of Harris, Goodwin & Co, and in 1888 left to work in China for 10 years as agent for Bun Hin & Co to sell steamers in Hong Kong and Amoy. In 1898, he returned to Singapore and joined the Straits Steamship Co. He was also an avid rider, he owned race horses and belonged to the Chinese Riding Party in the 1900s. He married a daughter of Tan Kung Hoe of Malacca. See Arnold Wright & HA Cartwright (eds), Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya (London: Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Company, 1908), at 577.

56Besides being an agent of the Government Food Control, Lee Pek Hock (dates unknown) also represented Gum & Co, a trading firm. He received an OBE in 1923 that was revoked because he was convicted of bribing a police superintendent. See London Gazette, 30 Aug 1929, at 5638.

57Cheong Ann Jan (1818–1881) also owned 47 lots of freehold building allotments and a compound house, totalling ‘5 acres one rood and 31 poles’, situated at Bukit Timah Road. The estate was auctioned off on 30 January 1920, after his son Cheong Swee Kiat’s death. See ‘Property Sale’ Singapore Free Press 30 Jan 1920, at 12.

58The business that Cheong Choon Kim (d 1905) established in d’Almeida Street with his brother, Yap Whatt & Co, was the first Straits-born Chinese firm engaged in commission and the import and export trade in Singapore. In 1902 Cheong visited China and opened an office in Shanghai, but died of a stroke in 1905. His was the first Straits-born Chinese to commence a commission import and export trade in Singapore. See Arnold Wright & HA Cartwright (eds), Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya (London: Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Company, 1908), at 717–718.

59The co-owner of Yap Whatt & Co, Cheong Choon Beng (d 1913) travelled to England in 1902 for the coronation of Edward VII, where he stayed in Alexandra Palace. Like his brother, he also died of a stroke. Ibid, at 718.

60Educated at Raffles Institution, Wee Theam Tew (1866–1918) was a lawyer. He also represented Rochore ward on the municipal board and acted as secretary to the military governor of Beijing. See Arnold Wright & HA Cartwright (eds), Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya (London: Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Company, 1908), at 634.

61The Gan Eng Seng School was one of the few schools in Singapore established and supported by an individual instead of an organisation. Its founder Gan Eng Seng (1844–1899) was known for his philanthropy, also contributing hugely to Thong Chai Medical Hall and Tan Tock Seng Hospital. On Gan Eng Seng, see Chapter 9 of this volume.

62Dr Gilbert E Brooke offered the following sketch of Robert Little:

Dr Robert Little, MD, FRCS (Edin), was the son of an Edinburgh lawyer, and grandson of the minister at Applegarth, in Scotland. His two younger brothers, John Martin Little and Matthew Little, were resident in Singapore for many years, and were founders of Messrs Little, Cursetjee and Co, now John Little and Co. Dr Little lived at the Singapore Dispensary for a few years, but afterwards bought some property in River Valley Road, and occupied Bonnygrass House for over thirty-five years, which must be a record for continuous European domicile. His first wife was a daughter of Mrs Whittle, who kept a school in North Bridge Road in 1837. Dr Little was a man of courtly manners and personal charm. He had a striking personality, and was very neat, and had few idiosyncrasies, unless the habit of always wearing gloves out-of-doors can be included in that category. The extent of his interests and activities can be judged by the following notes extracted at random from various sources. In 1844 we find him as a moving spirit in the establishment of a library. Four years later he became Singapore’s first Coroner. In January 1851 he opened a private hospital for seamen, charging them only fifty cents a day. A little later he was assisting to collect a Presbyterian congregation; and in another couple of years (1st January 1858) he was gazetted as Surgeon to the Singapore Volunteer Rifles. When the Colony was transferred to the Colonial Office in 1867, he was one of the first Unofficial Members of Council. He finally retired about 1882, and settled at Blackheath, where he died on the 11th June 1888.

See Gilbert E Brooke, ‘Medical Work and Institutions’ in Walter Makepeace, Gilbert Edward Brooke and Roland St John Braddell (eds), One Hundred Years of Singapore, Vol 1 (London: John Murray, 1921) 487–519, at 501.

63See CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 421.

64Scotsman Alexander Laurie Johnston (d 1850) was one of the earliest settlers in Singapore, having arrived here in 1820. Favoured by Sir Stamford Raffles, he became the first Magistrate, and Justice of the Peace and one of the earliest trustees of Singapore Institution, the precursor to Raffles Institution. His firm AL Johnston & Co was the first European business here, acting as agents for ships, handling passengers and cargo, and auctioneering goods. He lived in Singapore for 22 years before returning to England in 1841 and then retiring in Scotland. See article on Alexander Laurie Johnston by Vernon Cornelius-Takahama in Singapore Infopedia: http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_535_2004-12-27.html (accessed 15 Oct 2015).

65James Milner Fraser was an architect. He also founded the Boys’ Brigade in Singapore, setting up the first company at Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church in 1930 with 12 boys. Enrolment increased gradually to 40 boys by the time the Brigade’s headquarters in London officially recognised the company. Bible lessons, drill, concerts, wayfaring signalling, first aid, swimming, fencing, tumbling and other forms of physical recreation formed the core of their activities. See generally, Underneath the Banner: The History of the Boys’ Brigade in Singapore (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2013).

66[Song: Journal of the Straits Branch, RAS No 1]. See WA Pickering, ‘Chinese Secret Societies, Part I’ (1878) 1 Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 63–84. A rare European who could speak Mandarin and Chinese dialects, William Pickering (1840-1907) was the first Chinese Protectorate in Singapore.

He acted as a mediator in the Chinese community, dealing in particular with the triads. He learned the Chinese languages during a 10-year stint in Hong Kong’s Chinese Maritime Customs Service, coming to Singapore in 1871 and became Protectorate in 1877. Effective at dealing with intra-Chinese conflict, he initiated peace talks between two businessmen openly warring over tin fields in Larut, and when the Hokkien and Teochew communities came to the brink of a riot over the right to send money and letters back to China, he calmed the situation by taking to the streets with his bagpipes. However, such intervention earned him the animosity of some, and in 1877 someone sent by the Ghee Hock Society attacked him with an axe to his head. Pickering survived the attack but never fully recovered and retired as Protectorate in 1899. See Walter Makepeace, Gilbert Edward Brooke and Roland St John Braddell (eds), One Hundred Years of Singapore, Vol 1 (London: John Murray, 1921), at 277–280.

67WA Pickering, ‘Chinese Secret Societies, Part I’ (1878) 1 Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 63–84, at 65–66.

68William Cuppage (1807–1872) was Postmaster General in the 1840s, Superintendent of the Police and Assistant Resident. He had a nutmeg plantation on Emerald Hill. The plantation failed but he continued to live on Emerald Hill in two residences, Fern Cottage and Erin Lodge, until his death. He is buried on Fort Canning. See Victor R Savage and Brenda SA Yeoh, Singapore Street Names: A Study of Toponymics (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2013), at 96.

69Thomas Dunman (1814–1877) was the first Commissioner of Police in Singapore, having been appointed to the post in 1857. He improved the working conditions of policemen, increasing their pay, reducing their working hours and introducing training and a pension scheme. Morale grew and crime thus dropped. Respected by the leaders of the various communities, Dunman had the support of influential Malays and Indians who felt victimised by the China gangs that fearlessly roamed the island. With the help of these leaders and of others from different social classes, Dunman obtained insider information to carry out police operations. Dunman left the police force in 1871 and retired on his coconut plantation, Grove Estate, in Mountbatten. See Roland St John Braddell, ‘Crime: Its Punishment and Prevention’ in Walter Makepeace, Gilbert Edward Brooke and Roland St John Braddell (eds), One Hundred Years of Singapore, Vol 1 (London: John Murray, 1921) 244–289, at 246–249; and M Akbur Peer Policing Singapore in the 19th and 20th Centuries (Singapore: Singapore Police Force, 2002), at 18.

70Siah U Chin, ‘Annual Remittances by Chinese Immigrants in Singapore to Their Families in China’ (1847) 1 Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia 35–37.

71On Seah Eu Chin, see Chapter 2.

72Siah U Chin, ‘Annual Remittances by Chinese Immigrants in Singapore to Their Families in China’ (1847) 1 Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia 35, at 35–36.

73Siah U Chin, ‘The Chinese in Singapore: General Sketch of the Numbers, Tribes, and Avocations of the Chinese in Singapore’ (1848) 2 Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, 283–289, at 284.

74Ibid, at 283.

75Ibid, at 285.