Raffles, Sir Thomas Stamford

views updated

Raffles, Sir Thomas Stamford (1781–1826). Raffles was born off the coast of Jamaica on board his father's merchantman. He joined the East India Company in 1795 and was appointed to Penang where he rapidly rose to be secretary to the council. In 1810 he was made agent to the Malay states to prepare an invasion of Java, then under the control of the Batavian Republic. He governed Java between 1811 and 1816, instituting far-reaching economic reforms. When the island was restored to the Dutch, he returned to England and was made a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1818 he became lieutenant-governor of Fort Marlborough (Sumatra). Fearing Dutch influence over the region, he persuaded the company to found a settlement at Singapore. He raised the flag there on 2 June 1819 and, by the time of his final return to England in 1824, had established it as an important port.

David Anthony Washbrook

More From encyclopedia.com