Papers from the Past

BIBLIOASIA OCT – DEC 2018 Vol. 14 / Issue 03 / NL Notes Ong Eng Chuan is a Senior Librarian with the National Library, Singapore. His responsibilities include managing the library’s Rare Materials Collection as well as the provision of reference and PA P E R S research services. In 2016, the National Library Board received FROM a donation of personal papers and documents from the family of Lee Kip Lee and Lee Kip Lin. Lee Kip Lee is a former president of The iPeranakan Association, where he still holds the position of honorary life president for his contributions to the association during (Facing page front) A notice on his 14-year tenure between 1996 and 2010. and Malaya. Lee Chim Tuan was also one of 29 April 1943 announcing the an- T H E PA S T His younger brother, the late Lee Kip Lin the founding-directors of The Malaya Tribune nual general meeting that was to take place on 2 May 1943 to (1925–2011) was equally well known as an newspaper, which started in Singapore in 1914. elect a new committee for the architect, university professor and author of But for the most part, he was better known as Goh Loo Club（吾庐俱乐部). Mem- several books on Singaporean architecture. the “right-hand man” of his father’s first cousin bers of the club were mainly of T he Lee Family Archives The Lee family papers include documents Lee Choon Guan (1868–1924), a prominent Hokkien ancestry and included 1 prominent community leaders and that the brothers inherited from their father businessman and the son of Malacca-born businessmen such as the Straits The personal papers of a noted Peranakan Lee Chim Huk (1889–1958) and uncle Lee Chim Lee Cheng Yan who, in 1858, established Cheng Chinese luminary Lim Boon Keng. Tuan (1880–1955), both of whom were eminent Yan & Co., one of the leading Chinese firms in Goh Loo Club and Singapore Chi- family provide a window into the lives of figures in Singapore’s early Peranakan (Straits Singapore at the time and dealing mainly in nese Weekly Entertainment Club Chinese) and business communities. property and financing. (中华维基利俱乐部), both located on the Straits Chinese community during the Club Street, were leading Chinese In 1912, Lee Choon Guan co-founded social clubs of the time, providing a colonial era, as Ong Eng Chuan reveals. Family Connections Chinese Commercial Bank together with the space for members to relax as well Straits Chinese luminary Lim Boon Keng2 as socialise and network. Lee Kip Lee and Lee Kip Lin hail from a dis- and a few other Chinese merchants, and was (Facing page back) Lee Choon Guan was a prominent member of the tinguished Peranakan family whose roots in appointed its chairman. Lee was also one Straits Chinese community and also the region date back to more than two cen- of the founding directors of Hong Ho Hong well regarded by the British. He was turies ago. Their grandfather Lee Keng Kiat Bank in 1917, and sat on the board of several frequently invited to attend social (1851–1917), after whom Keng Kiat Street in important companies, including the Straits functions, such as the dinner given Tiong Bahru is named, moved from Malacca Steamship Company. on 18 March 1920 by the Chinese community for the newly appointed to Singapore sometime in the second half of Lee Chim Tuan was appointed as general Governor of the Straits Settlements, the 19th century and became a partner of a manager of Cheng Yan & Co., and over time Laurence Nunns Guillemard. shipping company called Keng Yong Brothers became the trusted aide and “confidential (Above) Lee Chim Huk, father of Lee on Telok Ayer Street. manager” to his boss Lee Choon Guan. So close Kip Lee and Lee Kip Lin, striking a pose with his brother Lee Chim Tuan Lee Keng Kiat had six sons and four daugh- were their ties that in 1921, the younger Lee (standing) and a niece, in the vicinity ters. His fifth son was Lee Chim Huk (the father of accompanied his employer, his wife and their of Amoy Street, where they grew up, Lee Kip Lee and Lee Kip Lin). Among the siblings, family on a long holiday to Europe, America and c. 1900. Courtesy of Peter Lee. Lee Chim Huk was closest to his brother, Lee China. When Lee Choon Guan passed away in Chim Tuan, who was older by nine years. In his 1924, Lee Chim Tuan was named as one of the childhood memoir Amber Sands, Lee Kip Lee trustees of the estate in the will. recounts that his father and uncle went to the extent of pooling their finances into a common Overview of the Collection kitty which they called the “Tuan-Huk” account. He remembers that “although the bulk of the The Lee Kip Lee and Lee Kip Lin Family income [was] derived from Uncle’s sources, Archives contain approximately 6,000 items, Uncle didn’t mind that Pa, with his wife and five mainly the business and private correspon- children, were spending more of it than he did”. dences of Lee Kip Lee, Lee Kip Lin, Lee Chim Lee Chim Tuan grew up to become a Tuan, Lee Chim Huk, Lee Choon Guan and successful entrepreneur. With his younger other family members. Besides letters, there brother Lee Chim Huk as his partner, they are also business documents such as company ventured into various businesses in Singapore annual reports, minutes of meetings, busi- 56 57 BIBLIOASIA OCT – DEC 2018 Vol. 14 / Issue 03 / NL Notes other records capture a rarely explored slice Mr and Mrs Lee Choon Guan Guan tasked Lee Chim Tuan to negotiate the (Below) One of many letters re- (she is dressed in a qun-ao of the history of the oil industry in Singapore, takeover of Eastern Shipping Company. The garding the acquisition of Eastern [裙袄] and standing next to her including the management of the labour force younger Lee eventually acquired the company Shipping Company by the Straits husband in a Western-style suit) that supported the industry. At the same time, for $1.3 million. For his efforts, he was paid Steamship Company in 1922. In this in a photograph taken in the 1920s. these papers document the history and devel- a commission of 7.5 percent of the sale price. letter dated 9 August 1922 from the Lee Chim Tuan, who was the trust- Straits Steamship Company to Lee ed aide of Lee Choon Guan (his opment of Pulau Bukom into the key oil and The collection is important for the valu- Chim Tuan (who was helping to ne- father’s cousin and a director of petrochemicals facility it has become today. able insights it provides into the Straits Chinese gotiate the purchase), the company the Straits Steamship Company) is The collection also contains significant business community, and the clues that point agrees to increase its offer price standing at the extreme left wear- documents pertaining to the shipping trade to its business connections and personal ties. for Eastern Shipping Company to ing a hat. Courtesy of Peter Lee. and the banking industry in Singapore during $1.3 million. The sale eventually The collection not only contains the papers of went through. the early half of the 20th century. Notable items the Lee family, but also those of individuals from (Bottom) The original Ocean Build- include a folder containing letters and business the family’s extended circle of relatives, friends ing erected in 1866 at the corner papers relating to Straits Steamship Company’s and associates. These include prominent Straits of Collyer Quay and Raffles Quay acquisition of Eastern Shipping Company in 1922, Chinese such as Tan Cheng Lock, who was also was demolished to make way for this second Ocean Building that providing an insider’s look into the negotiations the brother-in-law of Lee Chim Huk. Tan later was completed in 1923. The Straits and discussions between the two companies. became the founder and president of the Malayan Steamship Company was located The Straits Steamship Company had been Chinese Association, and played a critical role in this building, 1920s. Courtesy founded some three decades earlier in 1890 by in the economic, social and political history of of National Archives of Singapore. Dutchman Theodore Cornelius Bogaardt and Singapore and Malaya in the years leading to several local Chinese businessmen, including and after World War II. Lee Cheng Yan (father of Lee Choon Guan), Tan The collection also includes documents Jiak Kim and Tan Keong Saik. pertaining to other important Chinese business In the early years, Straits Steamship leaders in Singapore and Malaya, such as Lim focused its operations on the western coast of Peng Siang, Chan Kang Swi and Chee Bong Quee, ness contracts, ledger books and receipts, commodities were the island’s most important the Malay Peninsula and mainly transported as well as the Lee family’s correspondences as well as personal family records such as exports after the 19th century and once described tin ore. Following in his father’s footsteps, Lee with British officials and merchants and even estate papers, household accounts books, as “the three pillars” of Singapore’s economic Choon Guan became a director in the Straits members of the Malay royalty. bank statements, remittance slips, invitation growth. In the first decade of the 1900s, tin was Steamship Company. One of the company’s Apart from business documents, the col- cards, postcards and school magazines. Singapore’s leading export until it was over- most successful achievements under his lection also offers a rich resource of primary Spanning nearly a century between the taken by rubber in the 1920s.

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