Richard James Wilkinson
Sir Richard James Wilkinson (1867–1941) was a Colonial administrator, a Malay scholar and historian.[1]
Richard James Wilkinson, the son of British Consul in Greece was born in 1867 at Salonika (Thessalonica), Greece.[2][3]
He was an undergraduate of Trinity College, Cambridge.[2][3]
He was multilingual and had command of French, German, Greek, Italian and Spanish, and later, Malay and Hockien which he qualified in, in 1889, while a cadet after joining the Straits Settlements Civil Service.[2][3]
He was an important contributor to the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Asiatic Society (JMBRAS).[4]
On 7 November 1900 Richard James Wilkinson presented a collection of Malay manuscripts and printed books to the University of Cambridge Library.[5]
He was appointed CMG in 1912.
1896 - 1898: Acting Director of Education, Penang
1898 - 1900: Acting Inspector General of Schools in the Straits Settlements, Singapore
1902 - 1903: Transferred to the Dindings, Perak
1903 - 1906: Acting Inspector of Schools for the Federated Malay States
1906 - 1910: Secretary General to the British Resident (EW Birch) in Perak
1910 - 1911: British Resident at Negeri Sembilan
1911 - 1916: Colonial Secretary, Straits Settlements, Singapore
1916 - 1922: Governor Sierra Leone from 9 Mar 1916 - 4 May 1922[9][10]
Cleaning Up The Pimp Problem In Singapore
31 March 1914: As the Straits Settlements Colonial Seceretary at Singapore, Richard James Wilkinson called on the Japanese Consul in Singapore, Fujii Minoru to inform him that the government was banishing from the colonies, 37 nationals identified as pimps.[11]
His Legacy
Institutions
He initiated the establishment of the Malay Training College in Malacca in 1900 which was eventually succeeded in 1922 by the Sultan Idris Training College (SITC) at Tanjung Malim, Perak.[12][13]
In 1905 he founded the Malay Residential School, later known as the Malay College at Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) [14]
Books Authored, Edited and Compiled
- A vocabulary of central Sakai (dialect of the aboriginal communities in the Gopeng Valley), Printed by J. Brown at the Federated Malay States Govt. Press, 1915
- Malay grammar, Published by The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1913, with Sir Richard Olof Winstedt (1878–1966)
- The Achehnese, Published by EJ Brill, 1906 with CS Hurgronje and AWS O'Sullivan
- Malay beliefs, Published by Luzac & Co, 1906
- A history of the peninsular Malays, with chapters on Perak & Selangor, Published by Kelly & Walsj 1920
- An English-Malay dictionary: roman characters, 1932 reublished by Kelly & Walsh, 1939, with RO Winstedt
- An Abridged Malay-English Dictionary (romanized), Published by the FMS Government Press, 1908
- Notes on the Negri Sembilan, Published by the FMS Government Press, 1911
- A history of Perak, Republished by the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1974, with RO Winstedt and SWE Maxwell
- The incidents of Malay life, Printed by J. Russell at the FMS Govt. Press, 1908
- Malay literature, Published by the FMS Government Press, 1907
- Life and Customs, Part 1: The Incidents of Malay Life (1908)
- Papers on Malay Subjects, Part I-V
- Papers on Malay Subjects: Law, Part 1-2: Introductory Sketch and the Ninety-Nine Laws of Perak, 1907–1908
- The education of Asiatics, 1901
- Pantun Melayu, with RO Winsted, 1914
- Kesah pĕlayaran Abdullah (Voyages of Munshi Abdullah), 1907
- Code for grant-in-aid scholls and departmental instruction to inspecting officers, 1905
- Malay literature part III: Malay proverbs on Malay chatacter, 1907
See also
- Federated Malay States
- List of colonial heads of Sierra Leone
- Chung Keng Quee
- Arthur Nonus Birch
- Ngah Ibrahim
- Etymology of Kapiśa
- History of Kapisa
References
- ^ Richard James Wilkinson (1867-1941): a man of parts by Gullick, J. M. 2001., Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 74, no. 1: 19-42.
- ^ a b c The Malay World in Textbooks: The Transmission of Colonial Knowledge in British Malaya by S Naoki
- ^ a b c The Malay World in Textbooks: The Transmission of Colonial Knowledge in British Malaya by S Naoki
- ^ History of the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (JMBRAS) 1878-1997: An Overview by Tiew, Wai Sin, published in the Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science, Vol.3, no.1, July 1998:43-60-Sc
- ^ Annals of Cambridge University Library, 1278-1900 by Charles Sayle, University Library, Cambridge, 1916: s3-VI: 308-345
- ^ For details of his career, see Burns [1971: 1J, Winstedt [1947J, Heussler [1981: 132-134J, Roft [1994 [1967J: 130-135J and Gullick [1992: 370-371J.
- ^ Malay Studies and the British by Russell Jones
- ^ One hundred years of Singapore : being some account of the capital of the Straits Settlements from its foundation by Sir Stamford Raffles on the 6th February 1819 to the 6th February 1919 (1921) by Braddell, Roland St. John; Brooke, Gilbert Edward, 1873-; Makepeace, Walter; published by JOHN MURRAY, 1931
- ^ Colonies, General: Original Correspondence CO 323/689/19, 1915, National Archives, UK
- ^ Colonies, General: Original Correspondence CO 323/893/7, 1922, National Archives, UK
- ^ Japan and Singapore in the world economy: Japan's economic advance into Singapore, 1870-1965, Volume 5 of Routledge studies in the modern history of Asia by Hiroshi Shimizu, Hitoshi Hirakawa
- ^ The Malay World in Textbooks: The Transmission of Colonial Knowledge in British Malaya by Soda Naoki, Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 39, No.2, September 2001
- ^ Ramlah 1991: 19-23
- ^ Khasnor 1996: 41-49J
Further reading
- 7 letters from Richard James Wilkinson to Oscar Browning
- A century of British orientalists 1902-2001 By Clifford Edmund Bosworth, British Academy
- One hundred years' history of the Chinese in Singapore, University Malaya Press, 1967
| Persondata |
| Name |
Wilkinson, Richard James |
| Alternative names |
|
| Short description |
|
| Date of birth |
1867 |
| Place of birth |
|
| Date of death |
1941 |
| Place of death |
|