SLICE
Key Moments in
Singapore’s History
By Farhan Shah
Ya Men or Dragon’s Tooth Strait,
With National Day just BEFORE 1819
which is widely believed to be Keppel
around the corner, we Prior to the arrival of Sir Stamford
Harbour. This makes for a great
thought it would be fun Raffles on 29 January 1819, Singapore conversation starter!
was known by several other names
to revisit some of the key and was actually noted in many
1613
moments in Singapore’s records as a thriving trade port.
The Portuguese burned down a
history. There might be
settlement at the Singapore River, at
some that you’ve never AD90 – AD168
that time one of the most important
“My name is Ptolemy and I am a
known about! Greco-Roman astronomer. During
trading areas in the region, and thus,
my time, I identified a place
called Sabana, exactly where
Singapore lies currently, and
noted that it was a foreign
trading port that linked that
region with India and the
Mediterranean.”
3rd century
A Chinese written record
dated in the third century
once described the island of
Pu Luo Zhong (蒲羅中) which
can be transliterated to mean
“island at the end”, or its
Malay equivalent –
Pulau Ujong.
1300
Prince of Srivijaya
Sri Tri Buana, who
we know as Sang
Nila Utama, landed
on the island after
a shipwreck! As
the stories go, the
prince supposedly
saw a lion, or as
the Malays call it
singa, and hence
decided to name the
place Singapura. However, further
investigations have discovered that
there were unlikely any lions on
our island at that time. The animal
that Sang Nila Utama saw was
most probably a tiger, or harimau.
Harimaupura doesn’t have the same
ring to it though, does it?
1320
The Mongols sent an envoy to obtain
elephants from a location called Long
12
Family & Life • Jul 2014
the island slowly sank into obscurity…
before a chap named Sir Stamford
Raffles came along.
AFTER 1819
While Sir Stamford Raffles was the
one to have founded the trading port,
it was his right-hand man, Major
William Farquhar, who did most of the
heavy lifting and administrative work.
To make things harder for Farquhar,
Raffles did not want to fund the port
because he didn’t want his superiors
to view the island as a liability.
Nevertheless, despite the difficult
circumstances, Singapore rapidly
grew, becoming a spectacular success
in the region.
Unfortunately, despite Farquhar’s
amazing efforts, he was dismissed
when Raffles returned in 1822.
This was because he disapproved
of Farquhar selling licences for
gambling and opium, which he saw as
social evils, but which Farquhar saw
as necessary to generate revenue for
the government.
5 June 1823
Raffles started Raffles Institution with
a grant from his employer, the British
East India Company. The school was
founded to provide education for the
sons of the Company’s employees and
local leaders governing the colony.
It was only in 1844 that the school
started enrolling girls. It was the first
academic institution to do so.
1830
Singapore actually came under the
Presidency of Bengal in India for a
period of time until 1867, when she
became a separate Crown colony,
directly under the office of London.
15 July 1845
The Straits Times was established by
an Armenian named Catchick Moses.
Initially conceptualised by Moses’s
friend, Martyrose Apcar, The Straits
Times and Singapore Journal of
Commerce (its original name) was an
eight-page weekly and priced at $1.75
per month. The paper’s first editor
was Englishman Robert Carr Woods,
who would eventually go on to start
Singapore’s first law firm in 1861
– Woods & Davidson – with James
Guthrie Davidson. The law firm was
renamed Rodyk & Davidson in 1877
after Woods passed away and Bernard
Rodyk joined the organisation.
15 February 1915
A regiment of British Muslim Indian
soldiers mutinied in an event that
went down in history as the 1915
Singapore Mutiny due to rumours
circulating that they would be sent
to Europe or Turkey to fight against
their Muslim comrades. The mutiny
occurred during the Chinese New
Year period, which meant that most
of the Chinese army volunteers
were on leave, leaving Singapore
almost defenceless. The British
were caught unprepared and the
mutineers wreaked havoc for two
days before reinforcements arrived
from the French, the Russians and
the Japanese.