Weld, Frederick
(1823–1891), British colonial administrator. Sir Frederick Aloysius Weld was born in 1823 in England and immigrated to New Zealand in 1843, joining his cousins as a sheep farmer. Entering politics in 1848 when he joined the Wellington Settlers' Constitutional Association, he was elected in 1853 from Wairau to the House of Representatives. In 1860–1861, he served as minister for native affairs and in 1864–1865 as premier. In 1867, he returned to England, but in December 1868, he was appointed governor of Western Australia (1869–1874), after which he became governor of Tasmania (1875–1879). In 1880, he went to Singapore, where he was governor of the Straits Settlements from 1880 until his retirement in 1887. During his term of office his stated ambition was to extend British control as far as possible over the peninsula south of Siam (Thailand). His successful expansionist policy was carried out by a group of ambitious young men, the most notable of whom was Sir Frank Swettenham (1851–1946). Weld's dispatch on education in 1882 initiated the growth of a Malay vernacular educational system in the Protected Malay States. In 1883, he coined the term "British Malaya" as a geographical and political expression for the peninsular states. Weld died in England on 20 July 1891.
Further Reading
Stevenson, Rex. (1975) Cultivators and Administrators: British Educational Policy towards the Malays 1875–1906. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Oxford University Press.
Turnbull, C. Mary. (1989) A History of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Watson Andaya, Barbara, and Leonard Y. Andaya. (1982) A History of Malaysia. Basingstoke, U.K., and London: Macmillan Education.
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