The dead do tell tales

Posted by noelbynature under Buildings and Monuments, Heritage Sites and Trails, National History
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Thomas Leonowens, Francis Light, Quintin Dick Thompson all aren’t familiar names to Singapore’s history, but they each have a small connection to our island nation via another island state up north. While walking through a cemetary in Penang, Jerome discovers their graves and shows us how they are connected to Singapore.

Thomas Leonowens has a direct link to the titular Anna in Anna and the King; and the king has a very special connection to Singapore. Jerome explains:

Thomas Leonowens the husband of a certain Anna Leonowens (Anna is the subject of the story), who as a young hotel keeper in Penang was struck down with Apoplexy in 1859, and is buried in the cemetery. That Anna would have later taken up the position at the Siamese Royal Court if her husband had still been alive, we do not know, but we can speculate that it was in these circumstances that she did take the position up three years later, which provided us with the delightful tale of Anna and the King, and perhaps opened the doors to the travels of one of Anna’s pupils, Chulalongkorn, the eldest son of Monkut, who ascended the Siamese throne upon his father’s death. Chulalongkorn had on one of his trips presented the statue of the bronze elephant as a gift to Singapore, which was the first foreign place in which Chulalongkorn had set foot on in his vast travels.

What about Francis Light and Quintin Dick Thompson? Penangnites would know that Light was the founder of the English settlement in Penang, similar to how Raffles was the founder of Singapore. As for Thompson, he has a more personal connection to Raffles himself, and you can find out more in Penang’s link to the Bronze Elephant in Singapore.

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