Thomas Raffles

Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles Kt., LL.D., FRS (6, July, 1781 - 5, July, 1826) was a British colonial administrator, author, botanist, conservationist, philanthropist, statesman and zoologist. During his career, Raffles served as first Governor of the Presidency of Java, first Governor-General of the Residency of Bengkulu & second Resident of the City-State of Singapore. He was the architect and founder of the city-state of Singapore.

Raffles' administration annexed the Bangka, Nias, Java & Singapore isles to the British Empire sanctioned by the authority of the royal charter of the British East India Company, deployed forces to the isle of Java during the War of the First Coalition and the Anglo-Javanese War in service of King George III, enshrined the Penal Code of Singapore, established a public elementary, secondary and tertiary education programme, imposed taxes on alcohol, gambling and opium, instituted a system of racial segregation, oversaw the construction of residencies, roads and military garrisons and prohibited the slave trade.

Raffles personally authored the Penal Code of the City-State of Singapore, designated the cities of Bengkulu and Singapore as free economic zones, designed the infrastructural layout of the City-State of Singapore, establishing grid-pattern roads, market centers, public seaports and racially segregated neighbourhoods, founded the London Zoo, a public zoo for the exhibition and research of exotic species, the Singapore Institute, an ivy-league school offering elementary through tertiary education programmes and the London Zoological Society and implemented a land tenure system for agricultural production in Java and Singapore.

Trivia

 * Raffles was bilingual and fluent in English and Malay.