Women On A Mission

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HOME / JAN-MAR 2018 / WOMEN ON A MISSION
Women on a Mission
04 JAN 2018
Female missionaries in colonial Singapore have made

their mark in areas such as education, welfare and
health services. Jaime Koh looks at some of these
intrepid trailblazers.
The Catholic sisters of the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus with some orphans and
their Malay nanny in 1924. In addition to a school, the convent also ran an orphanage
that accepted and cared for orphans and abandoned babies. Sisters of the Infant Jesus
Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.
Nineteenth-century Singapore was a thriving centre of commerce

that held much promise. Soon after the British established a trading
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post in 1819, Singapore’s status as a free port and great emporium

grew, attracting many who were drawn to the economic
opportunities the island offered. Besides workers and merchants, the
settlement also attracted Christian missionaries from the West who
saw an opportunity to spread their message “among heathen and
other unenlightened nations”1 in Asia.
As early as 1820, missionary societies of various denominations

began to dispatch their representatives to sow the seeds of the
Christian faith in Singapore. The Protestants were among the earliest
to arrive, establishing churches and printing presses, and evangelising
through preaching on the streets and home visits. Over time, the
Protestant missionaries started schools and provided medical and
social services for the poor and the displaced. Catholic missionaries
followed, and similarly established churches and schools in
Singapore.
Most of the early missionaries who came were men. In the early 19th
century, the few women who ventured to Asia were the wives, sisters
or relatives of Protestant missionaries who supported the men in
their work abroad.2
Male missionaries were encouraged to bring their wives with them

for several reasons. The first was the perception that missionaries
who came with their families were better received in foreign lands as
they gave the impression of coming with “peaceful intent”. The
second was that missionary wives were seen as models of solicitous
female behavior, thus demonstrating the virtues of good Christian
families.3
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Conversely, mission groups were initially reluctant to send unmarried

female missionaries abroad. It was feared that they would either get
married, or, being of weaker disposition, would not be able to cope
with the rigours of living in a strange land and liable to suffer a
nervous breakdown. The belief at the time was that women were
“more emotional and less controlled, more anxious minded, more
easily ‘worried’, more given to overtax their strength… more
depressed by heathenism”.4
Things began to change from the 1850s onwards when missionary

societies started to actively recruit and send unmarried female
missionaries overseas. This was a result of a growing need for
specialised services in education and medical work as well as
increasing calls in Western society and within the church there to give
women a more prominent role in mission work.5
Singapore in the 19th century was clearly a male-dominated society,
with men outnumbering women by as many as four to one.6 There is

no known data on the number of children before 1871 when the first
of a series of regular census was taken. The population censuses of
1871, 1881 and 1891 put the number of children (under the age of
15) as 18.1 percent, 16.4 percent and 14.3 percent of the total
population respectively.7
There was little public demand for education and the Bengal
government in Calcutta – the capital of British territory in India until
1911 – was unwilling or unable to channel any money into
developing education, much less education for girls, in Singapore.
Most people in Singapore at the time did not even think that girls
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needed to be educated. Likewise, social welfare services were very

basic. In fact, social welfare and education provisions in 19th-century
Singapore were considered “below even the rudimentary
standards” expected of governments at the time.8
The first female missionaries sent to Singapore from the West were
well positioned to fill these gaps, and many went on to make
tremendous contributions to society. In several cases, their legacies
persist to the present day in the form of schools and institutions they
founded.
The London Missionary Society
The earliest female missionaries in Singapore were the wives of

missionaries from the London Missionary Society (LMS), a Protestant
society founded in London in 1795. One of the LMS’s most
important contributions in Singapore, apart from the introduction of
the printing press, was setting up schools.
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Bessie Osborne, wife of a London Missionary Society (LMS) missionary William D.

Osborne, who worked with the Indian leper community in Trivandrum, India, c.
1900−1910. LMS, founded in 1795 in London, is one of the earliest Christian missionary
groups that went out to Asia to proselytise. Image source: Wikimedia Commons.
Mrs Claudius Henry Thomsen, who accompanied her LMS missionary

husband, Claudius Henry Thomsen, to Singapore, is credited for
starting the first school for girls in 1822. Known as Malay Female
School, it was designed chiefly as a day school for girls “of any class
or denomination” where they were taught needlework, catechism,
hymns and prayers, reading and writing in Malay, and arithmetic.
Although the school had only six students, its establishment marked
the beginning of formal education for girls in Singapore.9
The LMS missionaries went on to start several other schools here. In

1830, there was reportedly a school for Chinese girls under the care
of a Miss Martin. Nine years later, in 1839, a boarding school for
“girls of European fathers and Malay mothers” was established. It
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was run by Mrs A. Stronach and Mrs J. Stronach, wives of the Stronach
brothers, Alexander and John, who were both LMS missionaries. The
subjects taught included English and Malay languages, and hygiene.
There are few surviving records of these schools beyond the dates
when they were established. They were likely short-lived too and
closed down when the LMS withdrew from Singapore in 1847.10
But one school started by the wife of an LMS missionary has survived
until today. This was the Chinese Female Boarding School, established
in 1842 by Mrs Maria Dyer (nee Tarn), wife of LMS missionary
Reverend Samuel Dyer. Mrs Dyer had been in charge of several girls’
schools in Penang and Melaka in the 1820s and 1830s when the
Dyers were posted there for missionary work. Mrs Dyer was
prompted to start the school in Singapore when she moved here and
encountered young girls being sold as slaves on the streets.11 The

Chinese Female Boarding School began with 19 girls in a rented
house in North Bridge Road, where they were given a basic education
in English and homemaking skills.
Mrs Dyer’s association with the school ended in 1844 when she left
Singapore after the death of her husband. The school was placed in
the care of Miss A. Grant, a missionary from the Society for the
Promotion of Female Education in the East (SPFEE; see text box
below) who took over the running of the school.
Under Miss Grant, the school, which had been renamed Chinese
Girls’ School, operated as an orphanage for unwanted girls as well
as a boarding school.12 One of Miss Grant’s students was Yeo Choon
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Neo, the first wife of Song Hoot Kiam, the noted Peranakan
community leader after whom Hoot Kiam Road is named.13
Sophia Cooke
After Miss Grant left Singapore in 1853, the SPFEE sent another
missionary, Sophia Cooke, to run the school. Miss Cooke would
manage the school for the next 42 years, and her name became
synonymous with the institution − “Miss Cooke’s School”, as
people would come to call it.14 By this time, the school had moved
several times, from North Bridge Road to Beach Road, before settling
down at 134 Sophia Road in 1861.
An undated portrait of Miss Sophia Cooke, a missionary from the Society for the
Promotion of Female Education in the East (SPFEE). In 1853, Miss Cooke took over the
management of Chinese Girls’ School – initially established as the Chinese Female
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Boarding School in 1842 – and would run it for the next 42 years. Her name became
synonymous with the institution and came to be called “Miss Cooke’s School”.
Image source: Walker, E. A. (1899). Sophia Cooke, or, Forty-Two Years’ Work in
Singapore (frontispiece). London: E. Stock. Collection of the National Library,
Singapore. (Accession no.: B29032405C; Microfilm no.: NL 11273).
In addition to running the girls’ school, Miss Cooke also started a
Chinese “ragged school”15− a charitable establishment providing

free education for poor children − that took in children as well as
their mothers. Inspired by similar schools in London, the ragged
school opened on 6 March 1865.16 Buoyed by its success, Miss Cook

started a second such school but there are no records of what
happened to these two ragged schools.
In 1900, the SPFEE was dissolved and the Chinese Girls’ School was
taken over by the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society
(CEZMS) and became known as the CEZMS School. In 1949, the
school was renamed St Margaret’s School (after Queen Margaret of
Scotland), and is today the oldest girls’ school in Singapore in
existence.17
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Students from the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society School or the CEZMS
School playing netball at its premises in Sophia Road, c. early 1900. The school has
changed names and moved locations several times since its founding in 1842 as the
Chinese Female Boarding School. In 1949 it was renamed St Margaret’s School, after
Queen Margaret of Scotland. Courtesy of St Margaret’s Secondary School.
A MATCH MADE IN SCHOOL
Over time, the Chinese Girls’ School gained a reputation for cultivating
good Christian wives with practical domestic skills. Chinese men from China,
Malaya and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) who converted to
Christianity would approach the school in search of a suitable bride. The girls
were married off from as early as 13 or 14 years old; most of these arranged
marriages were said to be successful as the suitors were carefully screened
by the school. The arranged marriages took place so frequently that its
founder Sophia Cooke was said to have bought a wedding dress to be kept
as school property for loan to girls who were getting married. The school
continued to play the role of matchmaker right up to the 1930s.18
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Besides education, the indefatigable Miss Cooke also helped improve

the welfare of women, sailors, policemen, soldiers and the sick. She
visited women in their homes and hosted regular meetings for young
girls and mothers as part of a social support group. During these
meetings, the girls would pray and listen to Christian messages from
young women missionaries, whom locals called the Bible women. In
turn, the local women were taught English and skills such as sewing
and cooking.19 By 1897, these meetings developed into a formal

organisation that became known as the Singapore branch of the
Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA).
Another group Miss Cooke worked with were police, sailors and
soldiers. She held Bible classes for them as well as attended to the
needs of destitute and sick sailors. In 1882, together with a Brethren
missionary Mr Hocquard, Miss Cooke started the Sailors’ Rest to
provide shelter and food for homeless sailors. The Sailors’ Rest
became the Boustead Institute in 1892 – named after the English
businessman and philanthropist Edward Boustead – and continued to
look after the welfare of destitute sailors in Singapore.20
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The Boustead Institute, at the junction of Anson Road and Tanjong Pagar Road,
succeeded the Sailor’s Rest started in 1882 by a missionary named Miss Sophia
Cooke to provide shelter and food for homeless sailors. The Boustead Institute, named
after the English philanthropist Edward Boustead, continued to look after the welfare of
destitute sailors. Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.
Sophia Blackmore
Another missionary society that left a deep impact on Singapore was

the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society (WFMS; see text box
below) of the Methodist Episcopal Church of America. More familiar
is the name Sophia Blackmore, its most well-known missionary in
Singapore.
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Miss Sophia Blackmore (seated, middle), a missionary of the Woman’s Foreign

Missionary Society (WFMS) of the Methodist Episcopal Church of America, posing with
students of Methodist Girls’ School in this photo taken in 1915. She started the Tamil
Girls’ School in 1887, which later accepted girls of other nationalities. By the 1890s,
the school had been renamed the Methodist Girls’ School. Lee Brothers Studio
Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.
In 1887, the Minneapolis branch of the WFMS sent Miss Blackmore,

who was Australian by birth, to Singapore. This was in response to a
call from Reverend William Oldham for a woman missionary to work
with the mothers Anglo-Chinese School (ACS) that he had started in
1886. Miss Blackmore was a true pioneer in that she was the first
unmarried female Methodist missionary sent to Singapore.21
SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF FEMALE EDUCATION IN THE EAST
The Society for the Promotion of Female Education in the East (SPFEE) was
founded in 1834 in London in response to an appeal by Reverend David
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Abeel for female missionaries to work among women in India and China.
Also known as “the Society for Promoting Female Education in China, India
and the East” and “the Female Education Society”, it was the first
women’s missionary society ever to be formed.22
As an interdenominational society, the primary objective of the SPFEE was to

establish schools in China, India and elsewhere in the East. Between 1834
and 1899, the SPFEE sent missionaries to Melaka, Singapore, India, China
and Japan, as well as to the Middle East – specifically Palestine and Syria –
for this purpose. In 1899, the society was dissolved following the death of its
secretary and its work was taken over by other missionary societies. Besides
Miss A. Grant and Miss Sophia Cooke, other SPFEE missionaries sent to
Singapore included Miss Gage-Brown, who took over the Chinese Girls’
School following the death of Miss Cooke, and Miss Elizabeth Ryan, who
worked with Miss Cooke at the Chinese Girls’ School and the Young
Women’s Christian Association.23
In August 1887, Miss Blackmore started the Tamil Girls’ School in a
shophouse at 33 Short Street.24 Over time, the school took in girls of

other nationalities. It relocated several times, first to the Christian
Institute on Middle Road, then back to a purpose-built building in
Short Street. By the 1890s, the school had been renamed Methodist
Girls’ School.25 In the 1920s, the school relocated to Mount Sophia
and remained there for the next seven decades.26
Not one to rest on her laurels, just a year later, in August 1888, Miss
Blackmore started a school for Chinese girls in the home of
businessman Tan Keong Siak – known as Telok Ayer Chinese Girls’
School. In 1912, the school moved from Cross Street to Neil Road and
was renamed Fairfield Girls’ School in honour of a donor named Mr
Fairfield.27
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Fairfield Girls’ School at its Neil Road premises. c.1920. Miss Sophia Blackmore started
the school in 1888 for Chinese girls and called it Telok Ayer Chinese Girls’ School.
When the school moved from Cross Street to Neil Road in 1912, it was renamed
Fairfield Girls’ School. The school was renamed Fairfield Methodist Girls’ School in
1958. Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.
It was one thing to set up schools, but it was another to convince

parents to send their girls to be educated. At the time many parents
thought it was pointless for girls to go to school. Not to be defeated,
Miss Blackmore went from house to house (particularly in the Telok
Ayer and Neil Road areas) both to proselytise and to convince parents
of the value of education and to send their daughters to school.28
The work was exhausting, but the women were motivated by a higher
calling. One of the teachers in the school, a WFMS missionary, wrote:
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“It was not easy work. It has meant patient working and praying. It
has meant going to the homes and bringing them to school by love
and sometimes almost by force. Day after day we have had to go to
each home for the girls. It has meant outside work and assistance in
trying to keep dull ones up to the level of the others. Many times I
have left my classroom alone and gone to a home to get back a girl.
Sometimes, after getting her part of the way, she would run home
again and leave me, but I have never gone back to school under such
circumstances without taking her back in a gentle, loving way.”29
Between 1887 and 1892, Miss Blackmore was the sole representative
of the WFMS in Singapore although she was helped by local Eurasian
ladies. In 1892, the WFMS sent out two more female missionaries –
Miss Emma Ferris and Miss Sue Harrington – to Singapore to assist
Miss Blackmore.30
In 1890, Miss Blackmore established the Deaconess Home as a base

for WFMS work in Singapore. The home served as a residence for
female missionaries (known as deaconesses) and also took in
abandoned babies, orphans and young girls sold into slavery (known
as mui tsai in Cantonese). In 1912, the home was renamed Nind
Home after Mrs Mary C. Nind, the secretary of the Minneapolis
branch of the WFMS.31
WOMAN’S FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY
The Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society (WFMS) of the Methodist

Episcopal Church of America was founded in Boston by Mrs William Butler
and Mrs Edwin Parker, both wives of missionaries, in 1869. Both saw the
need for female missionaries to work with women in India as teachers,
doctors and even preachers. Thus, they established the WFMS with the aim
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of “engaging and uniting the efforts of the women of the church in sending
out and supporting female missionaries, native Christian teachers and Bible
women in foreign lands”.32
The WFMS was critical to the success of Methodist Girls’ School (MGS) and
Fairfield Methodist School, especially in the period before World War II. The
society provided both the funds and personnel to keep the schools running.
All the principals of MGS and Fairfield in the pre-war period were WFMS
missionaries, and most of them were unmarried. Several of its principals and
teachers worked at both schools, either concurrently or at different points in
time.33 Besides the school in Singapore, WFMS missionaries also managed
Methodist schools in Malaya, such as those in Taiping (Perak), Ipoh (Perak)
and Kuala Lumpur.34
Miss Sophia Blackmore (back row, middle) with fellow missionaries from the
Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society (WFMS) of the Methodist Episcopal
Church of America and charges at the Deaconess Home, 1890s. She had
established Deaconess Home as a base for WFMS work in Singapore in 1890.
Morgan Betty Bassett Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.
In addition to their work in schools, WFMS missionaries were active

evangelists.35 Miss Sophia Blackmore, for instance, helped Methodist pastor
Reverend William Shellabear set up the Baba Church (later known as Middle
Road Church) in Middle Road.
One little known accomplishment of the WFMS was the establishment of the
Rescue Home for “fallen” women in 1894. Two years earlier, WFMS
missionary Miss Josephine Hebinger had been sent to Singapore to rescue
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Chinese and Japanese girls sold into prostitution. Miss Hebinger was
released from her work in 1894 when she announced her plans to get
married.36 It is not known what happened to the rescue home.
Sisters of the Holy Infant Jesus (IJ)
Besides the Protestant missionaries, Catholic nuns were also among

the pioneers who provided education for girls. In February 1854, four
nuns from the Institute of the Charitable Schools of the Holy Infant
Jesus of St Maur in France arrived in Singapore. Reverend Mother St
Mathilde, Sister St Appollinaire, Sister St Gaetan and Sister St
Gregoire formed the core team that ran the school that came to be
known as the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus. The convent was the
idea of Reverend Father Jean-Marie Beurel of the Missions Étrangères
de Paris, who had started St Joseph’s Institution for the education of
boys in 1852. He wanted the convent to be a safe place that would
house a school for girls, an orphanage and an asylum for destitute
widows.37
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Orphans having a meal at the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus in 1924. In addition to a
school, the convent also ran an orphanage that accepted and cared for orphans and
abandoned babies. Sisters of the Infant Jesus Collection, courtesy of National Archives
of Singapore.
Established in 1854, the convent, known as Town Convent due to its

location on Victoria Street in the city area, was the first Catholic
mission school for girls in Singapore. In addition to running a day
school, it also had an orphanage that accepted and cared for orphans
and unwanted babies. Many of these babies were found on the
doorsteps of the convent wrapped in rags or newspapers, abandoned
by their mothers who could not care for them. The babies were often
disabled, deformed or weak, and were usually girls.38
The IJ Sisters, as they came to be known, provided moral and

domestic education for their charges, including classes in sewing,
knitting and cooking as well as simple reading, writing and
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arithmetic. Gradually, the Sisters went on to establish several more
convent schools throughout Singapore.39
The IJ Sisters were also actively involved in medical work. In his 1885
report, the Resident Surgeon of the General Hospital outlined in his
report the Sisters’ work as nurses in the hospital:
“I am glad to report that, during this year, the introduction of

Female Nurses has become an accomplished fact. The Nurses are
Sisters from the Convent in Singapore, and they entered on their
duties on August 1st. They have shewn [sic], and are shewing [sic],
great interest in their work, and are very careful, and quick to learn.
The improvement in the appearance of the hospital wards since the
Nurses came is very marked, and the relief given to the Surgeon, and
the Apothecaries in their attendance on bad cases is already great,
and will in time be greater.”40
Up to that point, nursing work at the General Hospital was mainly

carried out by apothecaries, dressers, ward stewards, servants and
even convicts.41 The Sisters, although not professionally trained,

became the first group of dedicated nurses in Singapore, and their
services helped ease much of the staff’s workload. As part of their
duties, the IJ Sisters attended to the patients, received hospital
rations and looked after the servants.42
Nonetheless, the IJ Sisters’ involvement in nursing was short-lived.

In May 1900, the Convent withdrew the Sisters’ services following a
disagreement with the government. Trained nurses from the Colonial
Institute in England replaced the Sisters.43

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CATHOLIC SCHOOLS FOR GIRLS
Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ) on Victoria Street – also known as
Town Convent – founded in 1854 was the first of the CHIJ schools to be
established in Singapore for girls.
In the 20th century, the Catholic order of the Holy Infant Jesus Sisters from
France established eight more CHIJ schools: CHIJ Katong Convent (1930),
CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School (1933), CHIJ St Theresa’s Convent (1933),
CHIJ St Joseph’s Convent (1938), CHIJ (Bukit Timah) (1955), CHIJ Our Lady
of the Nativity (1957), CHIJ Our Lady of Good Counsel (1960) and CHIJ
Kellock (Primary) (1964).44
In 1964, the Town Convent was separated into primary and secondary
schools and, in 1983, moved from its Victoria Street premises to Toa Payoh,
where it remains today.
A music class in session at the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus in 1924.
Sisters of the Infant Jesus Collection, courtesy of National Archives of
Singapore.
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Dr Jaime Koh is founding director of The History Workroom LLP and adjunct professor
at the Culinary Institute of America (Singapore) where she teaches History and Cultures
of Asia. She has authored several books and various articles on Singapore’s history.
Back to Issue
NOTES
1. Home, C.S. (1908). The story of the L.M.S., with an appendix
bringing the story up to year 1904 (p. 10). Blackfrairs: London
Missionary Society. Retrieved from Missiology website. ↩
2. Kirkwood, D. (1993). Protestant missionary women: Wives and

spinsters (pp. 23–42). In F. Bowie, D. Kirkwood & S. Ardener (Eds.),
Women and missions: Past and present: Anthropological and
historical perceptions (p. 25). Oxford: Berg Publishers. (Not
available in NLB holdings). ↩
3. Kirkwood, 1993, p. 26. ↩
4. Kirkwood, 1993, p. 34. ↩
5. Kirkwood, 1993, p. 32; Williams, P. (1993). The missing link: The

recruitment of women missionaries in some English evangelical
missionary societies in the nineteenth century (pp. 43–69). In F.
Bowie, D. Kirkwood & S. Ardener (Eds.), Women and missions: Past
and present: Anthropological and historical perceptions (p. 56).
Oxford: Berg Publishers. (Not available in NLB holdings). ↩
6. Saw, S.H. (2012). The population of Singapore (pp. 31–32).

Singapore: ISEAS. (Call no.: RSING 304.6095957 SAW) ↩
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7. Makepeace, W., Brooke, G.E., & Braddell, R.S.J. (Eds.). (1991). One
hundred years of Singapore (Vol. 1, pp. 155, 353). Singapore:
Oxford University Press. (Call no.: RSING 959.57 ONE-[HIS]) ↩
8. Turnbull, C.M. (1989). A history of Singapore, 1819–1988 (pp. 59–

64). Singapore: Oxford University Press. (Call no.: RSING 959.57
TUR-[HIS]); Kiong, B.H. (1953). Educational progress in Singapore,
1870–1902 (p. 4). (Unpublished academic exercise, University of
Malaya).; Blackmore, S. (n.d.). A pioneer in Malaya. Singapore: MGS
Heritage Centre. (Unpublished manuscript) ↩
9. O’Sullivan, R.L. (1990). A history of the London Missionary Society

in the Straits Settlements (c 1815–1847) (pp. 132–133) (PhD thesis).
London: University of London, School of Oriental and African
Studies. (Call no.: RCLOS 266.0234105957 OSU); Buckley. C.B.
(1902). An anecdotal history of old times in Singapore (Vol. 1, p.
77). Singapore: Fraser & Neave. (Call no.: RCLOS 959.57 BUC-
[HIS]) ↩
10. William E. (1844). A history of the London Missionary Society (Vol.

1) (pp. 569–570). London: John Snow. (Not available in NLB
holdings); O’Sullivan, 1986, pp. 99, 133–134; Turnbull, 1989, p.
60. ↩
11. Lee, Y. M. (2002). Great is thy faithfulness: The story of St

Margaret’s School in Singapore (pp. 27, 28, 30). Singapore: St
Margaret’s School. (Call no.: RSING q373.5957 SAI) ↩
12. Lee, 2002, pp. 30–31; O’Sullivan, 1986, p. 134; Sng, B.E.K. (2003). In
His good time: The story of the church in Singapore, 1819–2002 (p.
62, 63, 78, 86). Singapore: Bible Society of Singapore: Graduates’
Christian Fellowship. (Call no.: RSING 280.4095957 SNG) ↩
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13. Song O.S. (2020). One hundred years’ history of the Chinese in
Singapore. (p. 78). Singapore: National Library Board Singapore.
Retrieved from BookSG. ↩
14. Walker, E.A. (1899). Sophia Cooke, or, forty-two years’ work in
Singapore (pp. 5, 28-29). London: E. Stock. [Call no.: RRARE
287.10924 WAL; Microfilm no.: NL 11273]; Sng, 2003, pp. 65–66;
Makepeace, Brooke & Braddell, 1991, p. 462. ↩
15. Ragged schools referred to the independently run charity schools

the United Kingdom in the 19th century. These provided free
education, food and lodging for the destitute. See Ragged
University. (n. d.). Education history: A brief history of Ragged
Schools. Retrieved from Ragged University website. ↩
16. Walker, 1899, pp. 43–45. ↩
17. Tiedemann, R.G. (2009). Reference guide to Christian missionary

societies in China: From the sixteenth to the twentieth century (p.
213). Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe. (Call no.: R 266.0095103 TIE);
Seton, R. E. (2013). Western daughters in Eastern lands: British
missionary women in Asia (p. 95). Santa Barbara, California: Praeger.
(Call no.: R 266.0234105082 SET); Lee, 2002, p. 70. ↩
18. National Library Board (2014, December 16). St Margaret’s School

written by Fiona Tan. Retrieved from Singapore Infopedia. ↩
19. Walker, 1899, p. 37; Young Women’s Christian Association. (1995).

Young Women’s Christian Association: 1875–1995 (p. 16).
Singapore: Young Women’s Christian Association, (Call no.: RSING
267.59597 YOU); Young women’s association. (1898, January 3).
The Straits Times, p. 3. Retrieved from NewspaperSG. ↩
20. Walker, 1899, pp. 73, 83; Doraisamy, T.R. (Ed.). (1987). Sophia
Blackmore in Singapore: Educational and missionary pioneer 1887–
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1927 (p. 17). Singapore: General Conference Women’s Society of

Christian Service, Methodist Church of Singapore. (Call no.: RSING
266.70924 SOP); The Sailor’s Rest. (1883, November 17). Straits
Times Weekly Issue, p. 13; Tyers, R. (1973, May 4). Our heritage.
New Nation, p. 15. Retrieved from NewspaperSG; Sng, 2003, pp.
66–67 ↩
21. Lau, E. (2008). From mission to church: The evolution of the

Methodist Church in Singapore and Malaysia: 1885–1976 (pp. 7, 12,
15). Singapore: Genesis Books. (Call no: RSING 287.095957 LAU) ↩
22. Seton, R.E. (2013). Western daughters in Eastern lands: British

missionary women in Asia (pp. 13–14). Santa Barbara, California:
Praeger. (Call no.: R 266.0234105082 SET); University College
London. (2011, April 13). UCL Bloomsbury Project: Society for
Promoting Female Education in China, India, and the East. Retrieved
from UCL Bloomsbury Project website. ↩
23. Untitled. (1897, November 16). The Singapore Free Press and
Mercantile Advertiser (Weekly), p. 312; Death of Miss E. Ryan.
(1923, December 17). The Straits Times, p. 8; C. E. Z. M. S. work.
(1928, July 10). The Straits Times, p. 2. Retrieved from
NewspaperSG. ↩
24. Voke, R. (1920, August). History of the MGS, Singapore. The

Malaysia Message, 29 (11), 82. Singapore: The Methodist Church
Archives. (Not available in NLB holdings) ↩
25. The Malaysia Message, Jan 1893, p. 38. ↩
26. Methodist Girls’ School. (1957). Methodist Girls’ School

Singapore: Seventieth anniversary souvenir magazine: 1887–1957
(p. 30). Singapore: Methodist Girls’ School. (Call no.: RCLOS
372.95957 MET); Blackmore, S. (n.d.). A record of 40 years of
2022/12/17 14:57 Document
woman’s work in Malaya 1887–1927 (p. 3). Singapore: The

Methodist Church Archives. (Not available in NLB holdings.);
Methodist Girls’ School. (1900, February 27). The Straits Times, p.
3. Retrieved from NewspaperSG. [Note: In 1992, Methodist Girls’
School moved to its current premises in Bukit Timah, specifically
Blackmore Drive, which is named after its founder Miss Sophia
Blackmore.] ↩
27. Sng, 2003, pp. 113–114; Fairfield Methodist School (Secondary).

(2015). School history. Retrieved from FMSS website. [Note: Over
the years, Fairfield Girls’ School has changed its name several
times: Fairfield Methodist Girls’ School in 1958; Fairfield
Methodist Primary School and Fairfield Methodist Secondary
School in 1983 when it moved to Dover Road and became co-
educational; and finally, Fairfield Methodist School (Primary) and
Fairfield Methodist School (Secondary) in 2009.] ↩
28. Lau, 2008, p. 15; Blackmore, n.d. ↩
29. Miss Hemingway writing in 1899. Quoted in Sng, 2003, pp. 114–
115. ↩
30. Blackmore, n.d. ↩
31. Lau, 2008, p. 16; Blackmore, S. (1928). A record of forty years of

women’s work in Malaya, 1885–1925 (p. 1). (Unpublished
manuscript); Lim, L.U.W. (1987). Memories, gems and sentiments:
100 years of Methodist Girls’ School (p. 5). Singapore: Methodist
Girls School. Retrieved from BookSG. ↩
32. Lau, 2008, p. 7. ↩
33. Doraisamy, 1987, pp. 24–26. ↩
2022/12/17 14:57 Document
34. Blackmore, n.d; See various issues of The Malaysia Message from
1890 to 1941. Singapore: The Methodist Church Archives. (Not
available in NLB holdings) ↩
35. See for example the report on WFMS evangelistic work in Minutes
of the Malaysia Mission Conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. (1895, February 14–20) (pp. 32–35). Retrieved from Images
library website; Lau, 2008, pp. 27, 46. ↩
36. Doraisamy, 1987, p. 56; Lau, 2008, p. 16; The Malaysia Message, Jun
1894, p. 88; Minutes of the Malaysia Mission Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, 14–20 Feb 1895, pp. 15.,17. ↩
37. Buckley, 1902, pp. 267, 365–266. ↩
38. Kong, L., Low, S.A., & Yip, J. (1994). Convent chronicles: History of a
pioneer mission school for girls in Singapore (p. 56). Singapore:
Armour Publishing. (Call no.: RSING 373.5957 KON); Meyers, E.
(2004). Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus: 150 years in Singapore (p.
62). Penang, Malaysia: The Lady Superior of Convent of the Holy
Infant Jesus. (Call no.: RSING q371.07125957 MEY) ↩
39. Kong, Low & Yip, 1994, p. 56; CHIJ Secondary. (2017). IJ
communities and schools. Retrieved from CHIJ Secondary
website. ↩
40. Annual medical report on the civil hospitals in the Straits

Settlements for the year 1885. See Straits Settlements. Legislative
Council. (1886). Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Straits
Settlements (with appendices) for the year 1886. Singapore:
Government Printing Office. [Microfilm no.: NL 1107] ↩
41. Khoo, H. H. (1955). Medical services in the Straits Settlements,

1867–1905 (p. 55) (Unpublished thesis). Singapore: University of
Malaya. (Not available in NLB holdings); Viji Mudeliar, V., Nair,
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C.R.S., & Norris, R.P. (1983). Development of hospital care and

nursing in Singapore (p. 18). Singapore: Ministry of Health.
Retrieved from PublicationSG. ↩
42. Annual medical report on the civil hospitals of the Straits

Settlements for the year 1893. See Straits Settlements Legislative
Council. (1893). Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Straits
Settlements (with appendices) for the year 1893. Singapore:
Government Printing Office. [Microfilm no.: NL 1107] ↩
43. Untitled. (1900, May 14). The Straits Times, p. 2; Legislative Council.
(1990, February 28). The Straits Times, p. 3. Retrieved from
NewspaperSG. ↩
44. CHIJ Secondary. (2017). IJ communities and schools. Retrieved from

CHIJ Secondary website. ↩

Women On A Mission

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HOME / JAN-MAR 2018 / WOMEN ON A MISSION

Female missionaries in colonial Singapore have made

Nineteenth-century Singapore was a thriving centre of commerce

post in 1819, Singapore’s status as a free port and great emporium

other unenlightened nations”1 in Asia.

As early as 1820, missionary societies of various denominations

their work abroad.2

Male missionaries were encouraged to bring their wives with them

Conversely, mission groups were initially reluctant to send unmarried

Things began to change from the 1850s onwards when missionary

women a more prominent role in mission work.5

Singapore in the 19th century was clearly a male-dominated society,

with men outnumbering women by as many as four to one.6 There is

needed to be educated. Likewise, social welfare services were very

standards” expected of governments at the time.8

The London Missionary Society

The earliest female missionaries in Singapore were the wives of

Bessie Osborne, wife of a London Missionary Society (LMS) missionary William D.

Mrs Claudius Henry Thomsen, who accompanied her LMS missionary

the beginning of formal education for girls in Singapore.9

The LMS missionaries went on to start several other schools here. In

closed down when the LMS withdrew from Singapore in 1847.10

encountered young girls being sold as slaves on the streets.11 The

as a boarding school.12 One of Miss Grant’s students was Yeo Choon

community leader after whom Hoot Kiam Road is named.13

In addition to running the girls’ school, Miss Cooke also started a

Chinese “ragged school”15− a charitable establishment providing

school opened on 6 March 1865.16 Buoyed by its success, Miss Cook

A MATCH MADE IN SCHOOL

Besides education, the indefatigable Miss Cooke also helped improve

and cooking.19 By 1897, these meetings developed into a formal

look after the welfare of destitute sailors in Singapore.20

Another missionary society that left a deep impact on Singapore was

Miss Sophia Blackmore (seated, middle), a missionary of the Woman’s Foreign

In 1887, the Minneapolis branch of the WFMS sent Miss Blackmore,

unmarried female Methodist missionary sent to Singapore.21

SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF FEMALE EDUCATION IN THE EAST

As an interdenominational society, the primary objective of the SPFEE was to

In August 1887, Miss Blackmore started the Tamil Girls’ School in a

shophouse at 33 Short Street.24 Over time, the school took in girls of

Girls’ School.25 In the 1920s, the school relocated to Mount Sophia

and remained there for the next seven decades.26

It was one thing to set up schools, but it was another to convince

of the value of education and to send their daughters to school.28

circumstances without taking her back in a gentle, loving way.”29

In 1890, Miss Blackmore established the Deaconess Home as a base

branch of the WFMS.31

WOMAN’S FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY

The Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society (WFMS) of the Methodist

In addition to their work in schools, WFMS missionaries were active

Sisters of the Holy Infant Jesus (IJ)

Besides the Protestant missionaries, Catholic nuns were also among

Established in 1854, the convent, known as Town Convent due to its

disabled, deformed or weak, and were usually girls.38

The IJ Sisters, as they came to be known, provided moral and

arithmetic. Gradually, the Sisters went on to establish several more

convent schools throughout Singapore.39

“I am glad to report that, during this year, the introduction of