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Raffles , Sir Thomas
Stamford (1781-1826), British colonial
administrator, was born on July 6, 1781, on board
the ship at sea of the island of Jamaica. The
ship was commanded by his father Benjamin
Raffles, a captain in the East West Indies trade.
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| Raffles, mostly
self-educated, entered the service of the East
India Company at the age of 14. He was sent to
Penang ( now in Malaysia ) as assistant secretary
to the governor of the island in 1805. |
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In 1811, he prepared the way for British invasion
of the island of Java ( now part of Indonesia)
during the war between Great Britain and France,
then a Dutch possession. |
Raffles remained in Java as Lieutenant Governor
after a successful campaign against Dutch and
French forces. He introduced reformed
liberalising the harsh dutch colonial system. |
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After he returned to Great Britain when the
island was returned to the Dutch in 1816, he
published his work The History of Java (1817). |
At the same year he was knighted and appointed
Lieutenant Governor of Bencoolen, Sumatra (now
Bengkulu, Indonesia). He established a settlement
on the island of Singapore to extend British
influence in Southeast Asia and later developed
an administration here. |
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Raffles is remembered for his suppression of the
slave trade and his humane treatment of peoples
subject to the severe and austere rules of the
colonial system. |
He died in Barvet, England, on July 5, 1826.
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