• Great Singapore Traction Company Strike

      Strikes and other forms of labour unrest were common in 1950s Singapore. The year 1955 saw 57 cases of labour unrest involving bus company workers, including the Hock Lee bus workers’ strike and riot. That same year, bus workers of the Singapore Traction Company ...

    • 1955 Singapore Harbour Board Staff Association Strike

      On 30 April 1955, about 1,300 port workers employed by the Singapore Harbour Board Staff Association (SHBSA) went on strike for better wages and working conditions. The strikers included tally clerks, stenographers, storekeepers and accountants. The strike ended ...

    • Goodyear Orient Company (Private) Limited

      Goodyear Orient Company (Private) Limited (GOCPL) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company (GTRC), one of the largest tyre companies in the world. It was established in Singapore in 1917 to ensure continual access to rubber plantations and ...

    • Straits Steamship Company

      The Straits Steamship Company (SSC) was formed as The Straits Navigation Company in Singapore on 20 January 1890. It was the brainchild of Dutchman Theodore Cornelius Bogaardt, who was one of the company’s seven directors. Before the establishment of SSC, European ...

    • Leung Kai Fook Medical Company

      Leung Kai Fook Medical Company (Pte) Ltd is the maker of Axe Brand Universal Oil (also known as Axe Brand Medicated Oil), a popular brand of medicated oil recognised by its logo, which features an arm holding an axe. Axe Brand Medicated Oil is colourless, and contains ...

    • The Great Singapore Workout

      Launched by then prime minister Goh Chok Tong at the National Stadium on 3 October 1993, the Great Singapore Workout is a fitness routine that formed part of the month-long National Healthy Lifestyle Programme. The workout is a specially designed low-impact aerobic ...

    • The Straits Trading Company Limited

      The Straits Trading Company Limited (STC) was incorporated as a tin-smelting company on 8 November 1887. Its smelter on Pulau Brani was famed for its production of “Straits Tin”, which by the 1900s had become internationally recognised as the purest quality of ...

    • Boustead and Company

      Boustead and Co., which was set up by Edward Boustead, one of Singapore’s earliest merchants, is almost as old as modern Singapore itself. Established as a small trading house less than 10 years after the founding of Singapore by Stamford Raffles, the company expanded ...

    • Hock Lee bus strike and riot

      Dismissed workers of the Hock Lee Amalgamated Bus Company went on strike from 25 April 1955. Joined by supporters and Chinese middle school students, these strikers picketed the bus depot and disrupted bus services. Police were called in to disperse the crowds ...

    • Great World Amusement Park

      Great World Amusement Park was one of the three “Worlds” that lighted up Singapore’s nightlife in the 1950s and 1960s. Although it closed in 1964, cinemas, cabaret and restaurants continued operations at the park until 1978. Today, the site is occupied by Great ...

    • British withdrawal from Singapore

      On 18 July 1967, Britain announced its plans to withdraw its troops from Singapore by the mid-1970s. Six months later, the deadline was brought forward to 1971. The sudden pull-out of British forces presented serious problems to Singapore’s defence and economic ...

    • Battle of Singapore

      The Battle of Singapore was fought from 8 to 15 February 1942 between Allied (mainly British Commonwealth) and Japanese forces. The first Japanese troops landed in Singapore via the northwestern coastline on 8 February 1942. After a week of intense fighting, the ...

    • Collapse of Barings

      Founded in 1762, Barings was the oldest merchant bank in Britain before its collapse in 1995. The 233-year-old bank was brought down single-handedly by its employee, Nicholas William Leeson, better known as Nick Leeson, a derivatives trader. After landing the bank ...

    • Gillman Barracks

      Gillman Barracks is located at Lock Road off Alexandra Road. It used to house the British army, and subsequently various units of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) such as the School of Combat Engineers and the SAF 3rd Transport Battalion. After the army vacated ...

    • Lady Mary Wood

      Lady Mary Wood was a 49-metre long paddle wheel steamer launched in 1841 and registered in 1842. It is said to be named after the wife of Charles Wood, who was England’s secretary to the Admiralty. The steamer had a gross tonnage of 556 and horsepower of 250. ...

    • The sanitation system in Singapore

      Singapore is served by a modern sanitation system in which all used water is collected through a network of sewers and channelled to water reclamation plants. But this was not always so. In the 1800s, the sewage collection and disposal system in Singapore relied ...

    • Queen's Scholarship

      The Queen’s Scholarship was an annual education scheme introduced by the colonial government in 1885 to enable promising students in Singapore and Malaya to enrol at a British university. It was the colony’s most prestigious academic prize until it was replaced ...

    • Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society

      The Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was founded in November 1877 to research and document information relating to the Malay Peninsula and archipelago. It was formed by a group of colonial administrators in Singapore, and started with 150 members. Its ...

    • Tanglin Barracks

      The Tanglin Barracks was built by George Chancellor Collyer in 1861 for European troops. The barracks served the British garrison infantry battalion until the fall of Singapore in 1942. After the war, it was home to the General Headquarters of the Far East Land ...

    • Selarang Barracks

      Selarang Barracks was built between 1936 and 1938 to house an infantry battalion. During the Japanese Occupation (1942–45), it was used by the Japanese Imperial Army to hold Australian and British prisoners-of-war (POWs). It is also the site of the infamous Selarang ...

       

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