Raffles, Thomas Stamford
(1781–1826), British colonial official in Malaya. Thomas Stamford Raffles, the son of an English sea captain, was born in Jamaica in 1781. In 1795 he went to work for the British East India Company. In 1805 he went to Penang (part of present-day Malaysia); he was made lieutenant-governor of Java in 1811 after the British defeated the Dutch and French there. He published a History of Java in 1817, the same year he was knighted and became lieutenant-governor of Benkulen (presentday Bengkulu, on the southwest coast of Sumatra).
Although he viewed Malay society as corrupt and backward, he also appreciated much of the culture and his career was marked by major reforms in colonial administration. He ended slavery, established schools, tried to distribute some wealth to the Malays, and sought to weaken the power of Malay rulers. He also did much to strengthen English and weaken Dutch influence in the region. He is credited with making British policy in its Asian colonies more humanitarian, but was criticized for often acting without official approval. He is perhaps best known for founding Singapore (1819), one of the acts he took without receiving permission from superiors. Always interested in zoology, Raffles also founded the London Zoo in 1826.
Further Reading
Barley, Nigel. (1992) The Duke of Puddle Dock: Travels in the Footsteps of Stamford Raffles. New York: Henry Holt.
Hahn, Emily. ([1946] 1968) Raffles of Singapore, a Biography. Reprint ed. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: University of Malaysia Press.
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