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- Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
- Also known as
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Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
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primary name: Raffles, Thomas Stamford
- Details
- individual; collector; official; British; Male
- Life dates
- 1781-1826
- Biography
- Establised a British trading port in Singapore. Born on board ship near Jamaica. Baptized Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles. Entered East India Company as a clerk, 1795. Appointed Assistant-Secretary to Governor of Penang, 1805. Visited Malacca, 1807-8. Appointed Lieutenant-Governor following British invasion of Java, 1811. Instituted land reform, making the East India Company the landlord of most small farmers, 1812. Death of his first wife, Olivia (m. 1805) in 1814. Dismissed from office, 1815. Returned to England, 1816. Published 'The history of Java', 1817. Received knighthood, 1817. Married Sophia, Lady Raffles (q.v.) in 1817. Arrived Bengkulu, Sumatra, 1818. Founded Singapore as a British port, 1819. Returned to England, 1824. Founded the Royal Zoological Society in London, 1826. The Raffles Collection came to the British Museum in 1859 and 1939. Uncle of Rev. William Charles Raffles Flint (q.v.).
- Bibliography
- Victoria Glendinning, 'Raffles and the Golden Opportunity', 2013
Douglas Barrett, BMQ XVIII 1953, pp.106-9
Nigel Barley (ed), 'The Golden Sword. Stamford Raffles and the East', 1999.