One Hundred Years' History Of The Chinese In Singapore: The Annotated Edition. Ong Siang Song
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.
CHAPTER V
THE FOURTH DECADE (1849-59)
TOWARDS the close of 1849, there returned to Singapore Song Hoot Kiam and Lee Kim Lin, two out of the three Straits Chinese youths who had been taken to England by Dr Legge to finish their education. Song Hoot Kiam1 was born in Malacca in 1830. He was the second of three sons of Song Eng Chong, who was also born in Malacca, in 1799, and who died at the age of 76 years (in 1875) in Singapore. At the age of 11, Hoot Kiam was placed as a boarder in the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca, which had then the Rev James Legge (afterwards Professor of Chinese, Oxford University) as Principal, and remained there two years until Mr Legge left for Hongkong.2 The family then came to this Settlement where Hoot Kiam was brought in contact with the Rev A Stronach, who had known Mr Legge intimately, and who, after having ascertained that both Kim Lin and Hoot Kiam were anxious to continue their studies under Mr Legge, arranged for the lads to proceed to Hongkong at Mr Legge’s expense. For the next few months after their arrival there, they were placed in the Anglo-Chinese college situated in the Chung-wan district to learn the Cantonese dialect.
Dr Legge and his three Chinese pupils
Song Hoot Kiam
Writing to his brother in Scotland on the 18th November 1845 on the eve of his departure on furlough, Dr Legge says:
You know I am bringing home three Chinese boys with me. They must just go to school as other boys. [77] The principal object is that they get hold of the English, so as to be able to read it with intelligence and to speak it.3
After a six-month voyage on a sailing vessel, the Duke of Portland, Dr Legge’s party arrived in London, and the three lads were sent on to Huntly, in Banffshire, Scotland, and entered at the Duchess of Gordon’s School. There they remained till the spring of 1848, attending the services at the Rev Thomas Hill’s Congregational Church, where the Legge family worshipped, and where in November 1847 they received baptism in the presence of Dr Legge.