Raffles, Sir Stamford (1781– 1826) Founder of colonial Singapore. Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles was born at sea in the West Indies on 5 July (or 6 July, according to some sources) 1781, the son of Captain Benjamin Raffles and his wife Anne. Most of his career, however, was to be spent in the East Indies, where he was to serve as lieutenant- governor of Java and, later, Bencoolen. It was in the latter capacity that Raffles was responsible for founding the British East India Company’s settlement on Singapore island in February 1819, the achievement for which he is best remembered.

In 1795, at the age of 14, Raffles joined the East India Company’s service in London as a temporary clerk. Straitened family circumstances had cut short his formal education. He studied on his own, and in 1805 was promoted and posted to Penang, as assistant secretary to the government. In 1810, his proficiency in the Malay language and other skills led the governor- general Lord Minto to appoint him as agent with the Malay States, and in the following year as lieutenant- governor of Java, which the British had occupied to prevent it from falling under the control of Napoleonic France.

Raffles’ administration of Java involved a number of controversial decisions and reformist measures, and had ambivalent outcomes. His first wife Olivia died there in 1814, and Java was returned to the Dutch at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

On his return to England, Raffles wrote the monumental History of Java. Its publication, along with his achievements, earned him a knighthood in 1817. In that year he married Sophia Hull, with whom he sailed east to assume his appointment as lieutenant- governor of Bencoolen (present- day Bangkulu) in west Sumatra in 1818.

Reportedly concerned with the monopolistic tendencies of the Dutch authorities in maritime Southeast Asia, Raffles sought permission from Lord Hastings, governor- general of India, to conclude treaties with Malay rulers in the region, and particularly to establish a British base at the southern end of the Strait of Malacca. Accordingly, on 6 February 1819, Raffles concluded a treaty with Tengku Long (whom he recognized as Sultan Husain Shah) and Temenggong Abdul Rahman of the Riau- Johor empire. He thereby established a ‘factory’, a settlement and free- trade port on the island of Singapura (meaning ‘Lion City’ in Malay), which was administered jointly by the Malay and British authorities until 1824.

Before this event, Singapore had played only a marginal role in the Malay Archipelago; henceforth, through the efforts of Raffles, together with those of the first British Residents, William Farquhar and John Crawfurd, and pioneers of different races, the settlement grew into a modern emporium and port city. Raffles regarded the settlement as ‘a Child of my own’ and ‘my new Colony’, but he was an absentee father for more than three years. His first visit lasted for ten days (29 January to 7 February 1819), his second was for four weeks (May– June 1819), and he returned only in October 1822 for his third and final visit, which lasted until June 1823. While he gave instructions— including a town plan— to Farquhar, the first British Resident, he only supervised the settlement from Bencoolen.

In April 1823, during his final visit, Raffles laid the foundations of the Singapore Institution, conceived as a centre for study and research into the arts and sciences of the region. It was later renamed the Raffles Institution and operated as a boys’ school. The original vision was realized only with the establishment in 1928 of Raffles College.

In June 1823, after replacing Farquhar with Crawfurd as Resident, Raffles returned to Bencoolen. When he and his wife departed in February 1824 for Britain, their ship, Fame, caught fire and sank with practically all their possessions. They were rescued, and in April 1824, left Bencoolen on another ship, Mariner.

By then, as dictated by the Anglo- Dutch Treaty of 17 March 1824, the British government had ceded Bencoolen to the Dutch in return for Malacca, and the Dutch government recognized Singapore as being part of the British sphere of political influence. This paved the way for a treaty concluded by Crawfurd with the Malay rulers on 2 August 1824, by which Singapore became a British possession.

Raffles also had a great interest in zoology and botany, and is also remembered as the founder and first president of the Zoological Society of London. It was fitting that the first Raffles Museum was a natural history museum, and part of its collections has been preserved in The Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research in the National University of Singapore.

Raffles died of a fall (possibly brought on by a brain tumour) at his home, High Wood, in London on 5 July 1826. He was buried in Hendon Parish Church cemetery. His widow, Lady Sophia Raffles, helped to ensure his historical reputation with her biography of Raffles, Memoir of the Life and Public Services of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1830), and with a commissioned monument to his memory in Westminster Abbey. None of their children survived into adulthood.

Lady Sophia’s Memoir helped to develop a British hagiographic tradition, which celebrated Raffles as a pioneer and hero of the empire, and a social reformer connected with William Wilberforce, who was a neighbour of Raffles during the last year of his life. In contrast, several Dutch writers drew attention to certain episodes of Raffles’ governorship of Java, during which they claimed atrocities were committed, or at least an abuse of power. This hostile tradition has also been reflected in a few recent writings, but has not dispelled the generally favourable impression of Raffles as a visionary reformer who laid the foundations of modern Singapore. The name of Raffles has proliferated in the names of streets and institutions in the republic.

Photo credit: Timothy Auger