Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (1781-1826), painted by George Francis Joseph (1764–1846) in 1817, the year he was knighted, and returned to the Far East to take up a position as Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen. Those who knew him mentioned his kindness and winning smile, but also a steely determination and a disinclination to suffer fools gladly. See Mr and Mrs Raffles.
Part 1 of 2
IN 1795, fourteen-year-old Thomas Stamford Raffles went out to clerk for the East India Company in their little enclaves at Penang and Bencoolen in the Dutch East Indies. His career flourished, thanks to his fluency in Malay and sincere love for the region. In 1808 he persuaded the British authorities to commit to Malacca, which they planned to abandon;* in 1811, during the Napoleonic Wars, he prevailed on them to annexe Java from the Dutch — a severe blow to the French, who had occupied the Netherlands. He served in Java as governor until 1814, when the Dutch were liberated and their island was handed back.*
His reward was a knighthood and appointment as Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen in 1817. Soon he was making history again. In gratitude for his aid in ousting a usurper and recovering his crown, on February 6, 1819, the Sultan of Johor granted Raffles a tiny fishing village called Singapore.* Within months roads were laid, Malay traders were prospering, and ports were thrown open to merchants of all nations without prejudice.
See Raffles and the Reprieve of Malacca. Penang and Malacca are in Malaysia today, on the west coast of the long, slim Malay peninsula. The island of Singapore, a sovereign republic and city state, lies just off the southern tip. Bencoolen is now Bengkulu on the island of Sumatra to the west, one of the Sunda Islands in western Indonesia. See Google Maps.
This abruptly ended Raffles’s dream of making Java the centre of a network of British free-trade connections throughout the Far East, and in particular the base for free trade with Japan. See A Highly Polished People.
Today, Singapore covers some 280 square miles, and has a population of 5.6 milion. In 2019 it was declared the world’s most competitive economy: see CNBC. In 2018, Singapore ranked No. 2 in the world for liberty: see Daniel J. Mitchell/FEE. This small sovereign state puts giant superpowers in the shade by maintaining Raffles’s vision.
Part Two
The civic district of Singapore. In the foreground are the former Supreme Court building with its distinctive dome, and the Pedang Cricket Ground; in the background are the skyscrapers of the Central Business District. Singapore, consistently one of the world’s most free and competitive economies, is a reminder that smaller sovereign nations (such as the United Kingdom) are better off out of ponderous superstates such as the European Union.
IN 1823, Raffles was forced to intervene after his Resident in Singapore, William Farquhar, allowed gambling and slavery to run riot; Raffles, who regularly corresponded with William Wilberforce, had been officially reprimanded for his anti-slavery measures in Java,* but as Lieutenant-Governor his word was now law. Farquhar was fired, and when John Crawfurd became Resident in 1824 the city was leading economic and social progress in the British Empire and the world.
Stamford and his wife Sophia retired to England that year in poor health.* A keen naturalist, Raffles helped found the Zoological Society of London and the London Zoo, but any political ambitions were dashed after Farquhar loudly accused him of corruption. Though exonerated, Raffles was required to reimburse the Company for over £22,000 in losses while in office. His health worsened, and he died on 5th July, 1826, the eve of his forty-fifth birthday. The local vicar, whose investments in Jamaica had suffered thanks to Raffles’s Abolitionist friends, refused him burial; but Sir Stamford Raffles already had an eloquent and enduring monument: Singapore.
As the British authorities fully intended to hand Java back to the Dutch, they believed they should not make major changes to its governance (in fact, when the Dutch recovered Java they left Raffles’s progressive policies in place). Raffles felt that the cause of Abolition in Africa and the Caribbean should not be allowed to obscure the need to tackle slavery in the Far East. “I will not say I envy the unfortunate African” wrote Raffles to Wilberforce in September 1819 “because he enjoys so much larger a portion of your thoughts and attention, but I cannot help adding that I wish they were, even for a short time, directed to the Malay, the Javan, the Sumatran, the Bornean, the Avanese, the Siamese, the Chinese, the Japanese, and the millions of others with whom I am in daily communication, and to whom the name of William Wilberforce, if not entirely unknown, is only coupled with that of Africa.”
Sophia was his second wife. His first wife, Olivia Mariamne Devenish, was the widow of a surgeon from Madras. She was ten years older than Stamford, and died, to Stamford’s lasting grief, in 1814, the year that his tenure in Java ended. See Mr and Mrs Raffles. Three years later he married Sophia Hull in England, the year that he was knighted and returned to Bencoolen as Lieutenant-Governor. After Stamford’s death, Sophia worked hard to vindicate his reputation, publishing his memoirs and correspondence.
