Richard James Wilkinson

Richard James Wilkinson (1867 – 5 December 1941) was a British Colonial administrator, scholar of Malay, and historian.^[1] The son of a British Consul in Greece, Richard James Wilkinson, was born in 1867 in Salonika (Thessaloniki), Greece.^[2][3] He was an undergraduate of Trinity College, Cambridge.^[2][3] He was multilingual and had a command of French, German, Greek, Italian and Spanish, and later, Malay and Hokkien which he qualified in, in 1889, while a cadet after joining the Straits Settlements Civil Service.^[2][3] He was an important contributor to the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Asiatic Society (JMBRAS).^[4] On 7 November 1900 Wilkinson presented a collection of Malay manuscripts and printed books to the University of Cambridge Library.^[5] He was appointed CMG in 1912.

Career

Straits Settlements Civil Service

Wilkinson arrived in the Colony (Singapore) in 1889 and the Government Gazette of 6th December that year noted that "Messrs. Littleton Edward Pipe Wolferstan and Richard James Wilkinson (who reported their arrival in the Colony on the 3rd instant) have also been appointed Cadets [in the Straits Settlements Civil Service].^[6] In December 1895, Wilkinson, who was then a District Officer in the Malay States and by then considered well-versed in the native language, joined the Foreign Office.^[7] He then rejoined Colonial Civil Service and was the Acting Superintendent of Education at Penang, after which, by the end of March 1897, he became Police Magistrate at Singapore.^[8] By January 1899, Wilkinson was serving as the Acting Inspector of Schools.^[9] In April 1907, his book, Malay Beliefs was released.^[10] His "An Abridged Malay-English Dictionary (Romanised) was released in August 1908. At that time he was serving as Assistant to the Resident of Perak.^[11] In 1911 he was Colonial Secretary for the Straits Settlements and an Official member of the Legislative Council.^[12] In 1912 he was appointed to the Commission of the Peace (Singapore).^[13]

Officer Administrating the S.S. Government

He was appointed the Officer Administering the Government, and Vice Admiral, in June 1914 upon the departure of Governor Sir Arthur Young on leave,^[14] and served in those roles until the Governor's return later that year.^[15] One of his first acts was to issue, in August, a proclamation informing the citizens of the Straits Settlements that war had "broken out between His Majesty King George V and The Emperor of Austria-Hungary and between their respective subjects."^[16]

Wilkinson's short term as head of the Straits Government was not an easy one, and one of the biggest challenges he had to face was the difficult state of the finances of the Federated Malay States.

There was a cash deficit of $30,000,000, although its assets exceeded its liabilities. The bulk of the assets were in the form of securities purchased that could not readily be disposed of. In short, the Federation faced a liquidity or cashflow problem. Projects that had been heavily spent on included the railway line running through the Peninsula to Siam [Thailand, today], and the construction of the battleship, HMS Malaya. The application by the High Commissioner to the Secretary of State for the Colonies had not yielded any immediate results: the Secretary of State had advised deferring the loan to 1915 owing to the state of the money market in Europe at that time. And, with war having broken out, it was not likely for the Federation to be able to secure a loan in 1915 either.

The press noted that Wilkinson was "a man of exceptional financial capacity, and at the critical moment in Malaya, after the declaration of war," had "revealed a grasp of administrative finance, and even of the intricacies of banking, commerce, and exchange which astound men whose whole lives are given to such things."^[17]

Taking the responsibility on his own shoulders, Wilkinson saved Malaya from, as the papers put it, "one of the worst disasters in its history." Wilkinson resolved that the Straits Settlements Government would buy F.M.S. tin at a fixed price, which stabilised the market, and Malaya's finances, at a time when the metal market in London closed down owing to the war. The smelting companies by then had acknowledged that there was a limit to their ability to purchase ore, when there did not appear to be any market to sell to. The Straits Government also decided to make advances to companies against stock, or other securities, averting the fear and anxiety being experienced then. He had employed the resources of the Straits Settlements to preserve the industrial equilibrium of the Federated Malay States. The papers described his position at that time as "one of extraordinary delicacy and difficulty for an acting Governor," and noted that if he had not taken on the responsibility of stabilising Malayan industry, "there would have been greater disaster than most folk care to acknowledge." F.M.S. had over extended itself, committing to many large projects including the H.M.S. Malaya and the railway line up north, and a bridge connecting Johore and Singapore, and then discovering it could not pay for these. Wilkinson had made their problem, his problem, and fixed it.^[18]

Despite all of that, he managed to have published by December that year, a collection of Malay pantun (poetry) that he had worked on together with Richard Olaf Winstedt.^[19]

Departure from Singapore

Wilkinson was most loved by the Mohammedan community of Singapore who feted him for days as he was readying to depart Singapore to take up his new role as Governor of Sierra Leone in January 1916. A dinner was thrown by the Moslem Association [Singapore] on 15th of December 1915, at the Victoria Memorial Hall. The guest list read represented almost everyone who mattered in S.S. and F.M.S. administration and commerce. Syed Omar Alsagoff received the guests after which Ali Khan Surati read the English text of the Association's address to Mr. Wilkinson while M. A. Patail read the Malay version. The address, in a decorated silver cylinder mounted on an ebony plinth, was then presented to Wilkinson by Alsagoff.^[20] Alsagoff then threw him a garden party at Alsagoff's home at Bukit Tunggal, Thompson Road. The band of the Sultan of Johore had been lent for this occasion. Entertainment included performances of Ronggeng, Mak Yong, Silat, Wayang Kulit, and Indian dance, singing and juggling. Almost a thousand people were present on the grounds. Syed Mohamed Alsagoff read the address in English. It was also read in Malay after which it was presented in a silver casket. By that time Wilkinson had already received several addresses from the Indian Muslim community and those of other nationalities in Singapore.^{[21][22][23][24][25]}

Career Summary

1896 — 1897: Acting Director of Education, Penang

1897 — 1898: Police Magistrate, Singapore

1898 — 1900: Acting Inspector General of Schools in the Straits Settlements, Singapore

1902 — 1903: Transferred to the Dindings, Perak

1903 — 1906: Acting Inspector of Schools for the Federated Malay States

1906 — 1910: Secretary General to the British Resident (Ernest Woodford Birch) in Perak

1910 — 1911: British Resident at Negeri Sembilan

1911 — 1914: Colonial Secretary, Straits Settlements

1914 — 1914 Officer Administering the Government of the Straits Settlements

1914 — 1916: Colonial Secretary, Straits Settlements

1916 – 1922: Governor Sierra Leone from 9 March 1916 – 4 May 1922^[26][27]

Cleaning up the pimp problem in Singapore

31 March 1914: As the Straits Settlements Colonial Secretary at Singapore, Richard James Wilkinson called on the Japanese Consul in Singapore, Fujii Minoru to inform him that the government was banishing from the colonies, 37 nationals identified as pimps.^[28]

Legacy

Institutions

He initiated the establishment of the Malay Training College in Malacca in 1900 which was eventually succeeded in 1922 by the Sultan Idris Training College (SITC) at Tanjung Malim, Perak.^[29][30]

In 1905 he founded the Malay Residential School, later known as the Malay College at Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) ^[31]

Books authored, edited and compiled

• A vocabulary of central Sakai (dialect of the aboriginal communities in the Gopeng Valley), Printed by J. Brown at the Federated Malay States Govt. Press, 1915
• Malay grammar, Published by The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1913, with Sir Richard Olof Winstedt (1878–1966)
• The Achehnese, Published by EJ Brill, 1906 with CS Hurgronje and AWS O'Sullivan
• Malay beliefs, Published by Luzac & Co, 1906
• A history of the peninsular Malays, with chapters on Perak & Selangor, Published by Kelly & Walsj 1920
• An English-Malay dictionary: roman characters, 1932 Republished by Kelly & Walsh, 1939, with RO Winstedt
• An Abridged Malay-English Dictionary (romanised), Published by the FMS Government Press, 1908
• Notes on the Negri Sembilan, Published by the FMS Government Press, 1911
• A history of Perak, Republished by the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1974, with RO Winstedt and SWE Maxwell
• The incidents of Malay life, Printed by J. Russell at the FMS Govt. Press, 1908
• Malay literature, Published by the FMS Government Press, 1907
• Life and Customs, Part 1: The Incidents of Malay Life (1908)
• Papers on Malay Subjects, Part I-V
• Papers on Malay Subjects: Law, Part 1-2: Introductory Sketch and the Ninety-Nine Laws of Perak, 1907–1908
• The education of Asiatics, 1901
• Pantun Melayu, with RO Winsted, 1914
• Kesah pĕlayaran Abdullah (Voyages of Munshi Abdullah), 1907
• Code for grant-in-aid scholls and departmental instruction to inspecting officers, 1905
• Malay literature part III: Malay proverbs on Malay chatacter, 1907

See also

• Federated Malay States
• List of colonial heads of Sierra Leone
• Chung Keng Quee
• Arthur Nonus Birch
• Ngah Ibrahim
• Etymology of Kapiśa
• History of Kapisa

Further reading

1. 7 letters from Richard James Wilkinson to Oscar Browning
2. A century of British orientalists 1902–2001 By Clifford Edmund Bosworth, British Academy
3. One hundred years' history of the Chinese in Singapore, University Malaya Press, 1967
4. Richard James Wilkinson Bio, National Library of Singapore
5. Richard James Wilkinson by Sutherland, Duncan, National Library Board Singapore, 30-Jun-2010

References