Sir Stamford Raffles

By peace | August 19, 2008

Birthday of Sir Stamford Raffles: All the websites state that the date of birth was 6th July, but in this book, his birthday is 5th July. I believe this is the real date. Even the book which I bought from Popular, wrote that he was born on 6th July 1781, but marked with asterisk, saying “some books state that Raffles was born on 5 July 1781″.

This book belong, borrowed from Woodlands Regional Library, writes a detailed life of Sir Stamford Raffles…

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Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) was one of Britain’s greatest administrators and statesmen in South-East Asia, who had a deep understanding and knowledge of the affairs and history of this region. Alongside being regarded as the founder of Singapore, he was also posted to Penang and Malacca on the Malay Peninsula, Bencoolen on Sumatra, and Java, where he wrote his History of Java, a work which is still considered as a vital source for the study of the island’s history.

This book, originally published in 1897, provides a balanced account of Raffles’s life and the time and territory where he carried out his most important work. Much of the book actually uses Raffles’s own words, culled from his letters and dispatches, which form the thread of the story.

This reprint is complemented with a preface by Dr John Bastin, and several new illustrations.

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I did not read the whole book… (very bored with history) but I pay attention to some minor details like his baptism, wife, nature of his death, and some brief summary.

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Stamford Raffles was born on the 5th July 1781, on board the ship Ann, off the harbour of Port Morant in the island of Jamaica.

Pg 387 of the Book:

Sir Stamford was buried in Hendon Parish Church, but owing to differences with the vicar, a member of a slave-owing family, no monument was erected at the time, and the actual site of the grave has not been ascertained….

The exact position of the grave of this illustratious man remains unknown, and there was no memorial even to show that his body lies in Hendon Church, until the Rev R. B. Raffles, in 1887, associating with his own the practical counsels of his brother, erected out of his slender means a brass tablet on the wall of the church, with the following inscription:

In Memory of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, F.R.S., LL.D.
Statesman, Administrator, and Naturalist,
Founder of the Colony and City of Singapore, 29th January 1819;
Born 5th July 1781, Died at Highwood, Middlesex, 5th July 1826
and buried near this Tablet.
Erected in 1887 by members of the Family.

This tablet, the statue in Westminster Abbey, the statue at Singapore, Chantrey’s bust in the Raffles Institution in that city of his own creation, and the duplicate of it in the Zoological Gardens — are among the public and private memorials to his greatness. They were more than enough; for, if none of them existed, the name of Stamford Raffles could still never be removed from the list of England’s great statesmen.

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