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Commemorating Raffles: The creation of an imperial icon in colonial Singapore

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2020

Timothy P. Barnard
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Abstract

While Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles led the expedition that founded colonial Singapore in 1819 and conceptualised many of the early institutions that developed the trade port, it was the depiction and commemoration of his time in the region that made him an icon of imperial mythology. This was part of a process in which admiration of his name and exploits were exalted, ultimately representing a core element in the Victorian mentality, the need to create heroes to glorify the British Empire. This article will survey and analyse how the commemoration of Raffles in the first 75 years of colonial rule, through the commissioning of statues and the attachment of his name to establishments and institutions, solidified and justified a British presence in the region and larger imperial history, which continues to echo in the modern nation-state of Singapore and its history.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , December 2019 , pp. 579 - 598
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore, 2020

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References

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7 This is in contrast with the most common approach, such as that of Nadia Wright, who discusses how Raffles’ biography was created, but not its application. Nadia Wright, ‘Sir Stamford Raffles — a manufactured hero?’, in Is this the Asian century? Papers presented at the 17th Biennial Conference of the ASAA, Melbourne, 2008, ed. A.M. Vicziany and Robert Cribb; http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/mai/files/2012/07/nadiawright.pdf (accessed 17 Jan 2018).

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9 Much of this work was done alongside Thomas Raffles, a cousin, who was an abolitionist minister. His Widow (Lady Sophia Raffles), Memoir of the Life and Public Services of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, F.R.S. &c., particularly in the Government of Java, 1811–1816, and of Bencoolen and its dependencies, 1817–1824; with details of the commerce and resources of the Eastern Archipelago, and selections from his correspondence (London: John Murray, 1835), p. viii; Bastin and Weizenegger, The family of Sir Stamford Raffles, p. 139.

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11 Coutu, Persuasion and propaganda, p. 4. Raffles had been refused burial inside his local parish church (or, according to some accounts, his family refused to bury him in a church connected to someone involved in the slave trade), and his body was interred in the churchyard. The actual location of the grave was uncertain for decades. Demetrius Charles Boulger, The life of Sir Stamford Raffles (London: Horace Marshall and Son, 1897), pp. 386–7.

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14 Sophia also paid £1,700 at this time to have The history of Java reprinted. Bastin and Weizenegger, The family of Sir Stamford Raffles, p. 139; Alex Potts, Sir Francis Chantrey, 1781–1841: Sculptor of the great (London: National Portrait Gallery, 1980); Mildred Archer and John Bastin, The Raffles Drawings in the India Office Library, London (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1978), pp. 10–14; Alex Potts, ‘Sculptor to an age: The public and private image in Chantrey's portrait busts’, in Binfield, Sir Francis Chantrey, p. 53.

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16 Potts, ‘Sculptor to an age’, p. 56; Potts, Sir Francis Chantrey; Archer and Bastin, The Raffles Drawings, p. 12.

17 Archer and Bastin, The Raffles Drawings, pp. 10–12.

18 Anonymous, ‘Thursday morning, 24th March, 1859’, The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser [hereafter, SFP], 24 Mar. 1859, p. 3; Archer and Bastin, The Raffles Drawings, pp. 12–13; Anonymous, ‘Singapore, Thursday, 8th Apr., 1858’, SFP, 8 Apr. 1858, p. 3.

19 Wright, William Farquhar and Singapore, p. 13.

20 Raffles had even stated at the time of the founding of the Singapore Institution that commerce was ‘the principle on which our connexions with the Eastern States are formed’. Thomas Stamford Raffles, Formation of the Singapore Institution: A.D. 1823 (Malacca: Mission Press, 1823), p. 7.

21 Raffles, Formation of the Singapore Institution, p. 7.

22 John Crawfurd, in particular, set this tone when he argued that, ‘the chief benefit of instruction in Asiatic languages was to reconcile the natives to European education and accustom them to regular habits of subordination and study’. Charles Burton Buckley, An anecdotal history of old times in Singapore: From the foundation of the settlement under the Honourable East India Company on February 6th, 1819 to the transfer to the Colonial Office as part of the colonial possessions of the Crown on April 1st, 1867 (Singapore: Fraser and Neave, 1902), p. 127.

23 Buckley, An anecdotal history of old times in Singapore, p. 127.

24 X, ‘Raffles’ Institution’, SFP, 11 Feb. 1836, p. 1; Anonymous, ‘Singapore, 28th April, 1836’, SFP, 28 Apr. 1836, Anonymous, ‘The Singapore Institution’, SFP, 1 Sept. 1836, p. 2; Buckley, An anecdotal history of old times in Singapore, p. 129.

25 At this time there was also another mention of the Singapore Free School as ‘Raffles Institution’. It also was known as the Institution Free School during this period. Anonymous, ‘The Singapore Institution Free Schools’, SFP, 26 Mar. 1846, p. 3; Anonymous, ‘The Library’, SFP, 20 Feb. 1845, p. 3; Anonymous, ‘Local’, The Straits Times (hereafter, ST), 22 Jul. 1845, p. 11; Archer and Bastin, The Raffles Drawings, pp. 18–19; Anonymous, ‘Monthly report of the Singapore Institution Free Schools furnished by the Secretary’, SFP, 14 Nov. 1844, p. 3.

26 Anonymous, ‘Municipal Council’, ST, 8 Apr. 1865, p. 1; Anonymous, ‘Municipal Council’, ST, 15 Jul. 1865, p. 1.

27 Buckley, An anecdotal history of old times in Singapore, p. 754.

28 His Widow, Memoir of the life and public services of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, pp. 544–8.

29 J.T. Thomson, Some glimpses into life in the Far East (London: Richardson and Company, 1864), pp. 270–71; Timothy P. Barnard and Mark Emmanuel, ‘Tigers of colonial Singapore’, in Nature contained: Environmental histories of Singapore, ed. Timothy P. Barnard (Singapore: NUS Press, 2014), p. 68.

30 An Old Resident (W.H. Read), Play and politics: Recollections of Malaya (London: Wells Gardner, Darton and Co., 1901), p. 7; Buckley, An anecdotal history of old times in Singapore, pp. 754–5.

31 Within the United Kingdom much of this came to the fore following the passage of the Corn Laws in 1846. Ronald H. Findlay and Kevin H. O'Rourke, ‘Commodity market integration, 1500–2000’, in Globalization in historical perspective, ed. Michael D. Bordo, Alan M. Taylor and Jeffrey G. Williamson (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), pp. 35–7; Tze Shiung Ng, ‘The ideological origins of the founding of Singapore’, in Liberalism and the British Empire in Southeast Asia, ed. Gareth Knapman, Anthony Milner and Mary Quilty (Abingdon: Routledge, 2019), pp. 68–95.

32 His Widow, Memoir of the life and public services of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, p. vi.

33 Anthony Reid, The contest for North Sumatra: Atjeh, the Netherlands, and Britain, 1858–1898 (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1969), pp. 10–12, 35–41, 228; Timothy P. Barnard, Multiple centres of authority: Society and environment in Siak and Eastern Sumatra, 1674–1828 (Leiden: KITLV Press, 2003), pp. 170–73.

34 Timothy P. Barnard, Nature's colony: Empire, nation and environment in the Singapore Botanic Gardens (Singapore: NUS Press, 2016), pp. 21–2; Buckley, An anecdotal history of old times in Singapore, pp. 754–80.

35 Anonymous, ‘The establishment of a Literary and Scientific Association at Singapore’, ST, 30 Sep. 1846, p. 3.

36 Anonymous, ‘Untitled’, ST, and Singapore Journal of Commerce, 25 Nov. 1851, p. 5.

37 Anonymous, ‘The administration of Governor Butterworth, C.B.’, ST, and Singapore Journal of Commerce, 3 Apr. 1855, p. 4.

38 Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir, ‘The Hikayat Abdullah’, tr. A.H. Hill, Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 28, 3 (1955): 72–3.

39 Amin Sweeney, ‘Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir: A man of bananas and thorns’, Indonesia and the Malay World 34, 100 (2006): 223–45.

40 Anonymous, ‘Untitled’, ST, 26 Mar. 1850, p. 4.

41 Anonymous, ‘Singapore: Wednesday, 20th Dec. 1848’, ST, 20 Dec. 1848, p. 2.

42 The creation of a monument to Raffles, however, was delayed, as some in the community believed that it was unnecessary, as ‘there is, it is true, already a monument at this station which serves to keep up the remembrance of Sir Stamford Raffles’ administration, we mean the Singapore Institution’. The supporters of this stance argued that his real contributions had been in the ‘religious and scientific bodies in Europe … like Newton’, as Raffles was ‘an ornament of human kind’, whose ‘transcendent merit soared so high above national prejudice, envy and detraction, that it has been acknowledged without a dissenting voice’. Anonymous, ‘Proposed monument to Sir Stamford Raffles, at Singapore’, ST, 3 Jan. 1849, p. 3.

43 Anonymous, ‘Untitled’, ST, 5 Feb. 1850, p. 4; Anonymous, ‘Untitled’, ST, 26 Feb. 1850, p. 4.

44 It also meant that Singaporean officials rid themselves from ‘a vast deal of annoyance and red tape’, Anonymous, ‘Untitled’, ST, 16 Sep. 1851, p. 4; Anonymous, ‘Singapore Friday, 22nd February, 1850’, SFP, 22 Feb. 1850, p. 3.

45 Anonymous, ‘Public meeting to commemorate the visit of the Governor General’, ST, 26 Feb. 1850, p. 5.

46 Anonymous, ‘Untitled’, ST, 26 Mar. 1850, p. 4.

47 Anonymous, ‘Singapore, Friday, Aug. 23rd 1850’, SFP, 23 Aug. 1950, p. 4; Anonymous, ‘Raffles scholarships’, ST, 22 Oct. 1850, p. 5; Anonymous, ‘Untitled’, ST, 27 Aug. 1850, p. 4.

48 Anonymous, ‘The Singapore Institution’, ST, 2 Dec. 1851, p. 4.

49 The Coney was ‘a small island at the entrance to the Straits of Malacca, about fifteen miles [24 km] distant from Singapore’. Anonymous, ‘Mr Blundell, and the Singapore Light House Act’, SFP, 2 Jul 1852, p. 5; Anonymous, ‘Singapore, Friday, 10th February, 1854’, SFP, 10 Feb. 1854, p. 2; Anonymous, ‘Untitled’, ST, 23 May 1854, p. 4; Anonymous, ‘Singapore, Friday, 26th May, 1854’, SFP, 26 May 1854, p. 3.

50 Episcopalian, ‘Correspondence’, SFP, 8 Nov. 1855, p. 7; Anonymous, ‘Singapore, Thursday, 8th Novr., 1855’, SFP, 8 Nov. 1855, p. 7.

51 The designation had been used for several years, appearing as early as 1855. Anonymous, ‘Singapore, Thursday, 8th Novr., 1855’, SFP, 8 Nov. 1855, p. 7; Anonymous, ‘Municipal Commissioners’, SFP, 12 Aug. 1858, p. 4.

52 Anonymous, ‘Singapore, Thursday, 8th April, 1858’, SFP, 8 Apr. 1858, p. 3; Anonymous, ‘Singapore Governorship’, SFP, 22 Sep. 1864, p. 4; Anonymous, ‘Untitled’, ST, 27 Nov. 1865, p. 2; Anonymous, ‘Thursday morning, 12th April, 1866’, SFP, 12 Apr. 1866, p. 2; Buckley, An anecdotal history of old times in Singapore, p. 139.

53 There are many that can be cited. One of the best summaries of how the authorities understood the role that the Raffles Institution would play can be found in National Archives (Great Britain) Colonial Office File [hereafter, CO]273/179/3941: Higher Education in the Colony.

54 Buckley, An anecdotal history of old times in Singapore, p. 138.

55 The name was changed to Raffles Museum and Library in 1907. Timothy P. Barnard, Imperial creatures: Humans and other animals in colonial Singapore, 1819–1942 (Singapore: NUS Press, 2019), pp. 89–95; Kevin Y.L. Tan, Of whales and dinosaurs: The story of the Singapore Natural History Museum (Singapore: NUS Press, 2015), pp. 1–14; Timothy P. Barnard, ‘The Raffles Museum and the fate of natural history in Singapore’, in Nature contained, p. 186; Gilbert E. Brooke, ‘The science of Singapore’, in One hundred years of Singapore, being some account of the capital of the Straits Settlements from its foundation by Sir Stamford Raffles on the 6th February 1819 to the 6th February 1919, vol. I, ed. Walter Makepeace, Gilbert E. Brooke and Roland St. J. Braddell (London: John Murray, 1921), pp. 548–9.

56 Within this context, the hotel was the perfect imperial space, which Maurizio Peleggi argues, ‘comforted the fledging identity of Westerners displaced in the colonies by providing a space for socialization that returned them momentarily to the familiar space of “home”’; Maurizio Peleggi, ‘The social and material life of colonial hotels: Comfort zones as contact zones in British Colombo and Singapore, ca. 1870–1930’, Journal of Social History 46, 1 (2012): 126; Tan, Of whales and dinosaurs, pp. 35–8.

57 Frederick Weld, ‘The Straits Settlements and British Malaya’, ST Weekly Issue, 16 Jul. 1884, p. 9.

58 Anonymous, ‘Our puzzle’, ST, 18 Oct. 1884, p. 43; Anonymous, ‘Answers to our puzzle’, SFP, 8 Nov. 1884, p. 3; Anonymous, ‘Untitled’, ST, 8 Nov. 1884, p. 101; Delta, ‘Correspondence’, SFP, 6 Dec. 1884, p. 7.

59 Woolner was born in 1825, the son of a postal official in Suffolk. In the early 1840s he entered the Royal Academy Schools, where he embraced the ideology of the Pre-Raphaelites, resulting in many of his subjects — both as sculptures and portraits — being literary and historical figures. Through close connections he developed with Alfred Lloyd Tennyson, following a commission to produce images of the poet, Woolner gained a reputation for producing work of high quality, particularly after medallions and busts he created of Tennyson began to circulate among Victorian intellectuals. Leonée Ormond, Tennyson and Thomas Woolner (Lincoln: Tennyson Society, 1981), pp. 3, 7–15.

60 CO273/135/16248: Statue of Sir S. Raffles; Amy Woolner, Thomas Woolner, R.A.: Sculptor and poet: His life in letters (London: Chapman and Hall, 1917), p. 326.

61 Anonymous, ‘Notes’, SFP, 17 Jul. 1886, p. 33; Anonymous, ‘Naval intelligence’, ST Weekly Issue, 29 Jul. 1886, p. 3; Woolner, Thomas Woolner, R.A., p. 326.

62 Anonymous, ‘Notes from the kampong’, SFP, 6 Nov. 1886, p. 8; Anonymous, ‘Untitled’, ST Weekly Issue, 21 Feb. 1887, p. 3; Anonymous, ‘Local and general’, ST Weekly Issue, 22 Jun. 1887, p. 2.

63 Woolner was informed that ‘the unveiling ceremony was very imposing’ and ‘the natives expressed their admiration of the work, but regretted the figure had no hat under the burning sun of the Straits Settlements.’ Anonymous, ‘The Jubilee celebration’, ST Weekly Issue, 18 May 1887, p. 4; Anonymous, ‘The Jubilee’, ST Weekly Issue, 6 July 1887, p. 7; Woolner, Thomas Woolner, R.A., p. 326.

64 Boulger, D.C., The life of Sir Stamford Raffles (London: Horace Marshall and Son, 1897)Google Scholar.

65 William Cross, ‘Stamford Raffles — the man’, in One hundred years of Singapore, p. 68; Wright, ‘Sir Stamford Raffles — a manufactured hero’, p. 1.

66 It was removed during the Japanese Occupation, only to return in July 1946. Gilbert E. Brooke, ‘The Centenary Day and its celebration’, in One hundred years of Singapore, pp. 573–4; Ong Choo Suat, ‘Our heritage’, New Nation, 3 Dec. 1971, p. 9.

67 The only exception to this is the museum, which became the National Museum in the late 1960s. Raffles’ name remained attached to the natural history collection, however, until a foundation donated so much money in the early 2010s that it was changed to honour its new benefactor. Barnard, ‘The Raffles Museum’; Anonymous, ‘Statue of Raffles smeared with paint’, 9 Aug. 1970, p. 11; Ong, ‘Our heritage.’

68 The power of this symbol was such that the government commissioned a plastercast copy of the statue, and placed it along the Singapore River behind the Parliament House in 1972. Anonymous, ‘“Do not forget your past” call by Dr. Yeoh’, ST, 4 Feb. 1972, p. 28; Lee Kuan Yew, ‘Singapore is indebted to Winsemius: SM’, ST, 10 Dec. 1996, p. 32; Guan, Kwa Chong, ‘Writing Singapore's history: From city-state to global city’, in S. Rajaratnam on Singapore: From ideas to reality, ed. Chong, Kwa Guan (Singapore: World Scientific, 2006), pp. 176–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.