Tan Kim Seng Fountain

The 5th and final place that I will be bring you to will be the Tan Kim Seng fountain. The reason for this choice is because this is one of the monuments that commemorate one of the major contributors to Singapore's history. Tan Kim Seng was born during the year 1805 in Malacca. He made a fortune as a trader and then migrated to Singapore. He started his own company in Singapore, Kim Seng and Company in 1840 and soon made a huge fortune. Mr. Tan's public acts of charity included donating to a certain Chinese Free School, helping the Tan Tock Seng hospital, improving public waterworks systems around Singapore during the 1800s.

One of Mr. Tan's most well known donations was a total sum of $13,000 during 1857 towards building Singapore's first public waterworks system to supply cleaner fresh water to the Singaporeans. However, that donation was eventually in vain as the Government Engineer squandered away all his money in hopes of making water run up hill through water pipes. The Municipal Commission ordered the fountain to be built to thanks Mr.Tan's for his donation.

Later in 1882, the British Colonial goverenment honoured him by installing his fountain at Fullerton Square before moving it to battery park in 1905 followed by its third move to Esplanade Park where it stands to today in 1925.

Lim Bo Seng Memorial

The fourth place I am going to bring you to, is a memorial for one of Singapore's many war heroes that lived throughout world war II. It is the memorial of Major General Lim Bo Seng. Lim Bo Seng was one of the contributors to Singapore's history as during World War II, he played a major part in the war by recuiting and training hundreds of secret agents during the war. He later left for Sumatra to set up a Sino-British guerrilla task force, Force 136 in mid 1942. During the year 1943, he sent a group of Force 136 agents to Malaya in hopes of setting up a spy network for Malaya and Singapore. Lim Bo Seng oversaw two operations, Operation Zipper and Operation Gustavus. Operation Gustavus failed without any achievements although Operation Zipper had a certain amount of success as they manged to smuggle a few messages through to their base in Ipoh although it did not have major success.

Lim Bo Seng was later captured on 27 March 1944. He refused to reveal any information about Force 136 despite facing extreme torture. Later in the prison, Lim Bo Seng fell ill with dysentery and later passed away on June 29, 1944.

After the war, his wife was informed of his passing and together with her eldest son, brought home the remains of Lim Bo Seng back to Singapore. A funeral service was then held on 13 January 1946 to mourn his death. He died as a hero and is essential to Singapore's history which I why I am bring you to his memorial.

Cavenagh Bridge

The 3rd site I will be bringing you to will be the Cavenagh Bridge. This bridge, was built originally to commemorate the visitation of the duke of Edinburgh to Singapore. Later on, the name of the bridge was changed to “Cavenagh Bridge” in honour of Major General William Orfeur Cavenagh, who was the last India-appointed Governor Of The Straits Settlement. His time in office lasted from 1859 to 1867. The Cavenagh Bridge currently links the commercial district to the civic district in Singapore. The bridge was originally built and made in Glasgow, Scotland before it was shipped to Singapore to be re-assembled. The bridge was designed by Public Work's department's John Turnbull Thomson and was built at the cost of $80,000. During the 1990s, the bridge was changed from the original draw-bridge that allowed boats to come through into a pedestrian bridge. Soon after its transformation to a pedestrian bridge, street lights were added. In front of the bridge, lies what now could be described as a trademark. The police sign posted in front of both sides of the bridge still stands even though it was posted in the 1910s. The bridge is now a very convenient way for office personnel to cross from side to side.

Bronze Statues Along Singapore River

The second site that I am bring you to will be the Bronze statues along the Singapore River. These stautes, although they may be just statues, are rather important to the Singapore History as they show the jobs of the past and the different type of workers Singapore had in the past, those paving the way to make it possible to have present-day Singapore. The jobs featured here are coolies,malay hawkers,malay shopkeepers and indian money lenders. The coolies are hired and are paid to do their jobs for example, carrying sacks of rice,helping to carry the items that they need to build.
This is important because without them, the businesses would not have been able to been carried out as they bring the goods for the businesses to run. All these statues have had a part to play in Singapore's history as they were all essential to ancient Singapore. They helped to run the economy. The reason why the statues are located along the Singapore river is because that was where most trade and stalls were located in ancient Singapore.
This is also located near the Raffles Landing Site as that was where most trading places was set up at that time due to the fact that since Raffles landed in Singapore, the trading places were always set up there.

Raffles Landing Site

The reason why I am bringing you to the Raffles Landing Site first is because I feel that this is the best place to start the tour as it shows what is thought to be the landing site of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore. It is located in the Downtown heartland of Singapore, in the middle of the central business district. This is also the second statue of Sir Stamford Raffles as the original statue of Sir Raffles, made in bronze, was melted during the Japanese occupation of Singapore.

The current statue was unveiled by Governer Sir Arthur Henderson Young in 1972 as the new statue of Sir Stamford Raffles after the bronze statue was placed in the musuem but reinstated in its present position only to be replaced by the present statue of Sir Raffles made of pollymarble. The statue is now made of pollymarble which originated from plaster cast. It now stands where Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles was thought to have landed in Singapore and gazed at the ground and thought it was a good place to set up a trading port for the British on the day he landed in Singapore, 29th January 1819.

All Sir Raffles saw was a small fishing village but he managed to develope Singapore into what it is now. This is the reason why I am going to bring you to the site!

Group Members!

Joseph Soh (38)

Russell Oon (34)

Sean Iau Yang (36)

John Low (30)

Don Chia (25)