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The British in Singapore and Malaya

by Alex Glendinning

visitors since February 10 1997

Introduction
European trading in the Far East began with the Portuguese in the 15th Century and they were the first to establish a base in Malaya, then compromising many warring fragmented states. They took Malacca by force in 1511, after a previous expedition in 1509 came to grief. There they settled until the Dutch, with the help of neighbouring Johor, took control in 1641.

The British presence began in the Eighteenth Century, when the East India Company started to extend their influence beyond India, seeking a route to China. In 1771, the Sultan of Kedah gave them an opportunity, asking for help in defending his territory. By 1786 he was desperate enough to offer useful land, the island of Penang, and it finally came fully under the Company's control in 1800, along with a strip of the mainland. Sir Francis Light was made superintendent, Penang became Prince of Wales Island and the mainland territory Province Wellesley. Free trade was established and the area thrived. The British also took Malacca from the Dutch in 1795, whose monopolistic view of trading rights had made them increasingly unpopular.

The Foundation of Singapore
In 1818 Sir Stamford Raffles (an East India Company employee and Lieutenant Governor of Java) identified Singapore island as excellently placed to create another free port and end the remaining Dutch control of the area. After negotiations with the rulers of Johor, a commercial base was established in 1819 and grew to eclipse both Penang and Malacca. By 1824 Singapore had been ceded perpetually to the Company and these British controlled areas had become known as the Straits Settlements. In 1867 the Settlement became a British Crown Colony (administered from London and not India) and by 1876 three other Malayan states had a British Resident or advisor, the fourth in 1888. The Sultans were allowed to remain and were duly respected, empowered to act as figureheads and religious leaders, but the British effectively ran everything else. In 1896 Perak, Pahang, Negri Sembilan and Selangor were formed into the Federated Malay States. The Unfederated States of Kelantan, Kedah, Perilis and Terengganu accepted British advisors in 1904 and Johor followed in 1914, a few years after Sultan Abu Bakar (who had held the British at arm's length throughout his reign) died and was succeeded by his son Sultan Ibrahim.

The free ports were just the beginning, Malaya prospered due to tin mining and the establishment of rubber planting and many Chinese and Indian immigrants flocked to the peninsula, the former to compete with the British in trade and the latter to provide them with a labour force and later also to compete.

Unknown British Couple and Baby
(Lee Brothers Studio c. 1910 - courtesy of Singapore National Archives)

Pioneers, Consolidators and 'Polishers'
The British came to the area in three waves - the pioneers who opened up the country and established the first trading areas, the civil service of residents, administrators, police and so on. Those who came after them were consolidators - law-givers; teachers; planters; mining engineers; builders of roads, railways, bridges and municipal buildings (my grandfather among them in 1902); many of the second wave were civilians. In the introduction to Charles Allen's Tales from the South China Seas the third wave are described as the 'polishers', making as efficient as possible the groundwork begun by their predecessors. My father could be described as a polisher, beginning his career in Malaya in 1928 as a junior salesman with the established general merchants William Jacks. What all three waves had in common was their insistence that their children be sent to England for their education (although there were a few schools in Singapore for those who could not afford to send their children away) and the fact that most of them returned home to retire - to 'go native' was unthinkable.

The British tuans seemed invulnerable, until the Japanese invasion of 1941. Cut off from effective support by the war in Europe, Malaya was overrun by the end of the year and Singapore fell in February 1942.

The Japanese Occupation 1942-45
All of Malaya and Singapore's British Civilian residents were swept up in the Japanese advance.

Changi Gaol was the original location of all civilian internees, male and female. Later, when the infamous Death Railway in Thailand was completed, the military POWs were brought back to Singapore and, in May 1944, the civilians were moved to Sime Road Camp.

For life in the Civilian Internment Camps in Singapore, read T.P.M. Lewis Changi - the Lost Years, which partly takes the form of a diary, with a history of events and a useful index; and Canon John Hayter's Priest in Prison, which also sheds much light on the conditions experienced by the internees.

The internees themselves kept a register of all those in Changi Gaol. In alphabetical order, it records each individual's name, age, marital status, occupation, the addresses of spouses and next of kin, date of arrival and, in the remarks column where relevant, cause and date of death. The original is now in the Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ, who were kind enough to furnish me with my father's entry as follows.

(No.) 737 GLENDINNING, Fred (age)39 S(ingle) Merchant - General Int(erne)d 17.2.02 (the year 2602 to the Japanese - 1942 to the European) F. Glendinning, Broadmead,Warricks Bench Rd, Guildford, Surrey, England (next of kin)

The Changi register was kept until December 31 1942, so any internees brought to the camp after that date will not be listed. It begins with the men by nationality, then the women by nationality and ends with weekly or monthly corrections to the original entries, when no more space was available in the remarks column.

War Memorials
Kranji War Memorial, commemorating those who lost their lives in the area during the war with Japan, is located in the north of Singapore Island, within sight of Johor. There are two types of memorials there, for those who have a known grave and are buried beneath their marker, and for those will no known grave, who are commemorated on the walls of the memorial itself. The cemetery is very well kept, the grass neatly cut, and every grave has at least one flowering plant on it. In the entrance, a Book of Remembrance lists the location of every grave in the cemetery, for those making their first visit.

Changi Gaol in 1995

Former POWs and Internees are no longer allowed to go inside Changi Gaol, still in use today. A Museum has been created in the grounds, including a Memorial Chapel, a re-creation of the many atap-roofed, open fronted chapels that sprung up inside the prison and Sime Road Camp. There is no trace of the latter now, apart from a Memorial plaque, and the area is part golf course and part residential, serving some of Singapore's 2 million inhabitants.

The following table of dates summarises the main events of importance:
1786 Penang ceded to the East India Company by the Sultan of Kedah.
1819 Singapore founded on land leased from the rulers of Johor.
1824 Malacca becomes British and Singapore ceded to the East India Company in perpetuity.
1826 Three amalgamated as the Straits Settlements (SS).
1867 SS become a British Crown Colony.
1870 Tin mining increases in importance and first experiments begin with rubber trees.
1896 Foundation of the Federated Malay States (FMS) of Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang.
1900 Rubber plantations begin to take over the country.

Planter with Rubber Trees

1904 Kelantan, Kedah, Perilis and Terengganu (the Unfederated Malay States or UMS) accept British Advisors.
1914 The last state without a British Advisor, Johor, joins the UMS and accepts one.
1941 Japanese invasion of Malaya.
1942-45 Singapore occupied by Japanese.
1948-60 The 'Emergency' declared, as a Communist Resistance Movement sweeps the country.
1957 Federation of Malaya achieves independence.
1959 Singapore also becomes independent.
1963 Malaysia born (Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo).
1965 Singapore withdraws and becomes an independent city-state.

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