author
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
1781–1826
Best remembered for founding Singapore in 1819, this energetic British administrator also wrote about Java and helped shape Britain’s growing presence in Southeast Asia. His life mixed empire-building, scholarship, and a restless drive to reform the places he governed.
1 Audiobook
The History of Java, v. 1-2
by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
About the author
Born in 1781, he joined the East India Company as a teenager and rose quickly through its ranks. He became deeply involved in British rule in Southeast Asia, serving in Penang, then as lieutenant-governor of Java during the British occupation, and later as lieutenant-governor of Bencoolen on Sumatra.
He is most closely linked with the founding of Singapore as a British trading post in 1819, a move that had lasting consequences for the region. Alongside his administrative work, he took a strong interest in language, history, and the natural world, and his book The History of Java helped introduce European readers to Javanese culture and society.
Raffles was celebrated in Britain as an able colonial reformer and empire-builder, though his legacy is also tied to the expansion of British colonial power. He died in England in 1826, one day before his 45th birthday, but his name has remained closely associated with Singapore and with the history of Britain's presence in Southeast Asia.