https://www.

sg/sgbicentennial/stories/singapores-early-pioneers-tan-kah-kee-and-p-
govindasamy-pillai/
Tan Kah Kee (1874-1961)
Education advocate, philanthropist and businessman

Tan Kah Kee, nicknamed ‘Henry Ford of Malaya’, was a shrewd businessman who made his
fortune in pineapple and rubber, as well as in the tin canning business.

Tan was also an advocate of education and in a little over a decade, he founded various
schools, including Tao Nan School, Ai Tong School, Chock Hock Girls’ School, Nanyang Girls’
School and Nanyang Chinese High School. Nanyang Chinese High School was considered a
ground-breaking institute as it was Southeast Asia’s first school that offered higher learning. It
was also Singapore’s first Chinese secondary school that was open to all Chinese students, no
matter their backgrounds or dialects.
Not only did he help to raise funds for these schools, Tan also personally made generous
donations to them and other institutes such as Anglo-Chinese School and Raffles College.

Tan also advocated for harmony between dialect clans and better housing, and worked towards
eliminating opium abuse. The influential businessman pushed for these social reforms from his
leadership positions at the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Singapore Hokkien
Huay Kuan.

https://www.ganengsengsch.moe.edu.sg/about-us/history/gess-history/

In 1885, a school was founded in some shophouses in Tanjong Pagar by Mr Gan Eng Seng to
offer free education to the children of poor parents in the vicinity. It was called the Anglo-
Chinese Free School.
No school perhaps has had a more distinguished array of personalities connected with it than
Gan Eng Seng School. Before it became a government school, it had on its Board of Trustees
illustrious names as Tan Keong Saik, Ho Yang Peng, Wee Theam Tew, Lee Cheng Yan, Chan
Sze Jin, Wee Swee Teow, Song Ong Siang, and Dr. Lim Boon Keng.

When in 1889, the Government gave the school a site in Telok Ayer Street for a new building, it
was Mr Gan Eng Seng who put up the building. On 4 April 1893, the new building was officially
opened by the Governor, Sir Cecil Clementi Smith.

English and Chinese were taught at Gan Eng Seng School until the founder’s death when it
became a purely English School. Then, owing to financial difficulties, it no longer functioned as
a free school and for some time fees were charged.

In 1937, the Board of Trustees, owing to financial difficulties, was not in a position to carry out
major and urgent repairs to the school premises. Therefore, in the interest of the school, Gan
Eng Seng School became a Government school in 1938.

In 1939, the construction of the new Gan Eng Seng School Building at Anson Road could not
begin as the shadow of war soon halted developments of any kind. Alternative accommodation
was hard to find, but eventually the Education Department decided to house the school
temporarily in the Sepoy Lines Malay School in Park Road.

When the school re-opened on 8 September 1941, teachers and pupils settled down to their
normal duties, quite unaware of the impending clouds of World War II. On 5 December 1941,
the school broke up for the Christmas vacation, but was destined not to meet again until four
and a half years later. Soon after the outbreak of the war with Japan, the Sepoy Lines Malay
School was requisitioned.

When the Japanese Occupation ended in 1945, attempts to resuscitate the school immediately
were not successful. Many of the old members of the staff were assigned to other schools which
were fortunate enough to be able to re-open.

When Outram School building was derequisitioned, it was found possible to accommodate Gan
Eng Seng School in the afternoon session. On 13 May 1946, Gan Eng Seng School was finally
re-opened, and the teachers who had been sent to Outram School returned to their own School.

Finally, in May 1947, the school succeeded in getting the Japanese School building in Waterloo
Street where it functioned until it shifted to Anson Road in 1951.

In 1986, Gan Eng Seng School moved to a new site at Raeburn Park. The school’s founding
site at Telok Ayer Street was designated as a national historical site by the National Heritage
Board in 1997.

https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1803_2011-03-24.html#:~:text=First
%20established%20as%20the%20Anglo,and%20Alexandra%20Road%20in%202000.
Gan Eng Seng School is one of the oldest schools in Singapore and the first free school to be
founded and supported by a Chinese benefactor in the Straits Settlements.1 First established as
the Anglo-Chinese Free School in 1885 and later renamed Gan Eng Seng School after its
founder, the school relocated at least seven times before settling at its eighth and present site
between Henderson Road and Alexandra Road in 2000.2 It was well known as a feeder school
to Raffles Institution in its early days, and for introducing bilingual education in English and
Chinese in 1913.3

Early history
In 1885, Malacca-born businessman Gan Eng Seng founded the Anglo-Chinese Free School to
offer free Chinese and English4 primary education to poor boys living in the vicinity.5 The school
was set up in shophouses located along Telok Ayer Beach6 (later renamed Telok Ayer
Street following land reclamation works in the late 1800s7), and its expenses were all financed
by Gan. Impressed by Gan’s work, the colonial government provided a site on Telok Ayer Street
for a new school building. Gan financed the construction and furnishment of the new two-storey
building. It was officially declared opened by then Governor of the Straits Settlements Cecil
Clementi Smith on 4 April 1893. The school remained at this site until 1941.8

After Gan’s death in 1899, a Board of Trustees was established to take over the management of
the school. The board was made up of prominent members of the Peranakan (Strait Chinese)
community, including lawyers Wee Theam Tew and Song Ong Siang; entrepreneur Ho Yang
Peng; renowned philanthropist Lim Boon Keng; financier Lee Cheng Yan; and the owners of law
firm Chan and Swee Teow, S. J. Chan and Wee Swee Teow. Despite the board’s notable
standing, the school was not financially sustainable as a free school and began to charge
school fees on a monthly basis with effect from 1899.9

The colonial government took over the running of the school in 1938 when the board ran into
serious financial difficulties.10 Percival Frank Aroozoo, a teacher at Outram School, was
appointed headmaster of the school in the same year and had the heavy responsibility of
leading the school through its most traumatic period.11 By then, the school building was
deteriorating and deemed unsafe by the Public Works Department. The school was forced to
evacuate to the Sepoy Lines Malay School in Park Road and the nearby Pearl’s Hill School in
1941. Although there were plans for a new building in Anson Road, these failed to materialise
due to the Japanese Occupation from 1942 to 1945.12

Post-war developments
The school underwent major developments in the 1950s.13 It was reopened after the war and
temporarily housed in the premises of Outram Road School (known today as Outram Secondary
School), before relocating to the abandoned Japanese National School building at Waterloo
Street (now known as Stamford Arts Centre).14

The school established Singapore’s first Parent-Teacher Association in 1950 to promote

cooperation and better understanding between teachers and parents.15 A new two-storey
building at Anson Road was opened on 15 May 1951 by then Governor of Singapore Franklin
Gimson.16 Evening adult education classes were introduced in October the same year, providing
new education opportunities for illiterate adults. The school was converted into a secondary
school the following year.17

Between 1961 and 1991, the school also served as a pre-university centre. The intake of pre-
university girls for the sixth-form class signified the school’s gradual transformation into a co-
educational institution.18 The process of becoming co-educational was completed with the
admission of the first cohort of girls into secondary one in 1987, after the school’s relocation to
Raeburn Park Road. Due to its proximity to the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, the new
premises were soon found to be unsatisfactory as the students and teaching staff often had to
put up with noise and air pollution.19 A new campus located between Henderson Road and
Alexandra Road was completed in 2000 and has since served as the school’s premises.20

Significance
Among Gan Eng Seng School’s achievements was the implementation of bilingual learning in
Chinese and English, a move that predated the present bilingual policy in the education system.
Renowned as a feeder primary school to Raffles Institution between 1938 and 1951, the school
has produced eminent alumni such as former Minister for Communications and Information Yeo
Ning Hong,21 former principal of Singapore Polytechnic Khoo Kay Chai,22 and former
Accountant-General Chua Kim Yeow.23

Variant names
Anglo-Chinese Free School was referred to as Gan Eng Seng School in the 1927 Singapore
and Straits Directory, probably to distinguish it from the Anglo-Chinese School founded by
missionary William F. Oldham in 1886. While the sign at the school building facing Cecil
Street showed “Anglo-Chinese English School”, the old sign at the original building at Telok
Ayer Street read “Anglo-Chinese Free School”. The school was officially recognised as Gan Eng
Seng School after moving to Anson Road, and renamed Gan Eng Seng Secondary School upon
relocation to Raeburn Park Road. In January 1993, it reverted to its historical name, Gan Eng
Seng School.

https://www.ttsh.com.sg/About-TTSH/TTSH-Heritage/Your-Story-Our-History/Pages/
default.aspx#:~:text=TTSH%20was%20the%20first%20hospital,TTSH%20is%20a%20modern
%20hospital.
TTSH was the first hospital to be started by the community for the community. Back in 1844,
there were no proper medical facilities for the common people. Mr Tan Tock Seng out of
compassion and care gave the first donation that made this hospital possible.
Today, more than 175 years later, TTSH is a modern hospital.
https://www.ttsh.com.sg/About-TTSH/TTSH-Heritage/Pages/default.aspx
Mr Tan Tock Seng was born in Malacca in 1798. He was the third son of an immigrant father
from Fujian province in China and a Peranakan mother. As a young man full of entrepreneurial
drive, Tan Tock Seng ventured to Singapore to start a food supply business. He would buy
fruits, vegetables and fowl from the countryside and sell the fresh produce in the city.
Hardworking and thrifty, he saved up enough money to open a shop in Boat Quay and proved to
be a fine businessman. It was likely that he spoke English and he made his fortune when he
entered into some speculation with an English friend, Mr J.H. Whitehead.
Mr Tan owned large tracts of prime land and properties. In time, he became an influential
Chinese leader and was the first Asian to be made a Justice of Peace by the Governor. He was
skilful at settling feuds among the Chinese.
He was known for his generosity and compassion. He gave widely to charitable causes, for
example, the burial of destitute Chinese, as a proper funeral was important for the Chinese, rich
or poor. He was also one of the founders of Singapore's oldest temple, the Thian Hock Keng
Temple at Telok Ayer.

Founded in 1844 by philanthropist Tan Tock Seng, TTSH was first known as the Chinese
Pauper’s Hospital and was located in Pearl’s Hill. The hospital moved to its fourth and current
location at Novena in 2000. Today, TTSH remains committed to its legacy of compassion,
philanthropy and care and its duty as a people’s hospital.
In 1844, Mr Tan stepped forward to gift 7,000 Spanish Dollars to build the first hospital for the
poor. Back in those days, there were no proper medical facilities for the common people.
Located on Pearl's Hill and first called the Chinese Pauper Hospital, Mr Tan made a call for the
hospital to care not only the Chinese, but also the "sick poor of all nations".
Mr Tan died in 1850 at age 52. An obituary in the Singapore Free Press described him as one
of Singapore's "earliest settlers as well as most wealthy inhabitants." The paper also praised his
contribution as a Justice of Peace:
Much of his time was engrossed in acting as arbitrator in disputes between his countrymen, and
many a case which would otherwise have afforded a rich harvest to the lawyers, was through
his intervention and mediation nipped in the bud."
He left behind his widow Lee Seo Neo, who like him, was unstinting in her support of the
hospital and paid for a female ward.
Through the years, many of our people - doctors, nurses, allied health, administrators, support -
have helped the hospital to stay true to our Founder's calling. Today, we remain a people's
hospital, one that was started by the community, is strongly supported by the community and
always stands ready to care for the community.