From Government Hill to Fort Canning Hill
Government Hill
After the British arrived in 1819, they quickly set their claims on Bukit Larangan. Besides raising the Union Jack on its summit, a bungalow was built there as well. The hill was also renamed “Government Hill” in 1823 although people sometimes referred to it as “Singapore Hill”, “Bukit Bendera” which means “Flag Hill”, or simply “The Hill”.
The Union Jack on Fort Canning Hill was raised by the first British Resident and Commandant of Singapore (1819 to 1823) William Farquhar. It was later used, among other things, to inform the settlement on the arrival of ships in the harbour. The hoisting was recounted by Munshi Abdullah in his autobiography, Hikayat Abdullah (1849) (Call no.: RSING 959.5 ABD). Click or tap HERE to read the extract.
"One day Colonel Farquhar wanted to ascend the Forbidden Hill...The Temenggong's men said, 'None of us have the courage to go up the hill because there are many ghosts on it. Every day one can hear on it sounds as of hundreds of men. Sometimes one hears the sound of heavy drums and of people shouting.' Colonel Farquhar laughed and said, 'I should like to see your ghosts' and turning to his Malacca men 'Draw this gun to the top of the hill.' Among them there were several who were frightened, but having no option they pulled the gun up. All who went up were Malacca men, none of the Singapore men daring to approach the hill. On the hill there was not much forest and not many large trees, only a few shrubs here and there. Although the men were frightened, they were ashamed by the presence of Colonel Farquhar and went up whether they wanted or not. When they reached the top Colonel Farquhar ordered the gun to be loaded and then he himself fired twelve rounds in succession over the top of the hill in front of them. Then he ordered a pole to be erected on which he hoisted the English flag. He said, 'Cut down all these bushes.' He also ordered them to make a path for people to go up and down the hill. Everyday there was this work being done, the undergrowth being slashed down and a pathway cleared."
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| Fort Canning Hill is captured in many early maps of Singapore including this survey map by Captain Daniel Ross. Titled “Plan of the Singapore Harbour”, it was commissioned by Raffles days after his first arrival at Singapore before being published in the The Calcutta Journal in May 1819. In the map, Fort Canning Hill is shown situated at the north bank of a river inlet (Singapore River) near its mouth. The hill, which is unnamed in the map, overlooks a cluster of villages. Its walls are also being marked out with the description, “Old Walls of the City”. Captain Ross’s map is the earliest known survey of Singapore Harbour that marked the first appearance of the name “Singapore” rather than “Singapoora” or “Sincapore” on a map or chart. (Image Credit: Extracted from The Calcutta Journal, 6 April and 1 May 1819) |
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| Known as “The Brute Map”, this late 1819 map is the earliest known landward map of Singapore. Attributed to Lieutenant Henry Ralfe and named after the Bute Archive in Scotland where it now resides, the map labelled Fort Canning Hill as “Singapore Hill”. It also marked out an embankment stretching from the north side of the hill to the mouth of “Water Place” (Stamford Canal) as “the ancient lines of Singapore”. (Image Credit: Courtesy of The Bute Archive at Mount Stuart; image from the National Library Singapore Facebook page) |
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| In this 1846 edition of the”Plan of Singapore Town and Adjoining Districts” by then Government Surveyor John Turnbull Thomson, Fort Canning Hill has been renamed “Government Hill”. Furthermore, two of the hill’s most prominent structures at the time - the Government House and the flagstaff - are also been marked out and labelled. Although these two structures and the renamed hill were captured in earlier survey maps including G.D. Coleman’s “Map of the Town and Environs of Singapore” (1839), they were not as clearly named as in Thomson’s map which is widely seen as the most detailed map of Singapore’s town at the time. (Image Credit: Royal Geographical Society, London; Royal Geographical Society, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore) |
Government House
The bungalow on the summit of Fort Canning Hill was built in late 1822 for Raffles and his sister’s family. It was a wooden bungalow 100 ft long and 50 ft wide, with venetians and an attap roof. The bungalow also had two parallel halls with verandas at both the front and back, and two square wings that served as sleeping quarters. After Raffles left Singapore for the final time in June 1823, the bungalow became the residence of subsequent colonial governors until Fort Canning was built on it in the 1850s.
Despite being a simple structure, Raffles enjoyed staying in his bungalow on Fort Canning Hil. In fact, he liked it so much that he even suggested in his letter to William Marsden dated 21 January 1823 that he wanted to be buried there. Click or tap HERE to read what Raffles wrote which can be found in Letters and books of Sir Stamford Raffles and Lady Raffles (2009). (Source: Call no.: RSING 959.5703092 BAS)
"We have lately built a small bungalow on Singapore Hill, where though the height is inconsiderable, we find a great difference of climate. Nothing can be more interesting and beautiful than the view from this spot. I am happy to say the change has had a very beneficial effect on my health, which has been better during the last fortnight than I have known it for two years before. The tombs of the Malay Kings are however, close at hand; and I have settled that if it is my fate to die here, I shall take my place amongst them: this will, at any rate, be better than leaving one's bones at Bencoolen..."
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| Sketched by Lt. Phillip Jackson on 5 June 1823, this is the earliest known drawing of a view of Singapore from the sea. The drawing provides a rare glimpse of how Singapore looked like at the time. Other than having a row of buildings with attap roof along the seafront, Raffles’ bungalow on Fort Canning Hill can also be seen in the background standing near a flag pole. This picture comes from the Drake collection of documents and personal effects belonging to Stamford Raffles, and was published in the July 1953 issue of the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. (Image Credit: Extracted from Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, July 1953) |
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| Raffles’ bungalow, which later became the Government House, was also captured in many early paintings at the time including this 1837 litograph. Painted and engraved by Barthelemy Lauvergne and Louis Bichebois respectively, it looks across an open space (today’s Padang) towards a somewhat distorted perspective of Fort Canning Hill where Government House and the flagstaff can both be seen. Other 19th century paintings that provide a view of Fort Canning Hill with these structures include John Turnbull Thomson’s “The Esplanade from Scandal Point” (1851) and Percy Carpenter’s “View of Singapore from Mount Wallich” (1856). (Image Source: Singapore Through 19th Century Prints & Paintings) |
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| In 1828, Marianne Jane James, wife of the third Bishop of Calcutta Thomas James, painted this piece that not only provides a view of Singapore harbour, but also a close-up of Government House (right) and the flagstaff (centre-right). At the time, the Government House had been made the official residence of the Governor following Raffles’ final departure from Singapore in June 1823. It had also been redesigned in the neoclassical style by G. D. Coleman with two new wings being added. In its augmented form, the building served the Governors until Fort Canning Hill was taken over by the military. Thereafter, the Governors began a sojourn of eleven years without an official residence, until the the new Government House (today’s Istana) was completed in 1869. (Image Credit: Courtesy of the National Museum of Singapore, National Heritage Board) |
Christian Cemetery
Besides Government House and the flagstaff, Fort Canning Hill was also the site of one of Singapore’s earliest Christian burial grounds. Encompassing two burial sites, with the first being used from 1819 to 1822 and the second from 1822 to 1865, the cemetery was closed to further burials after the completion of Bukit Timah Christian Cemetery. Today, the former Fort Canning Cemetery has been converted into a park.
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| The first burial site of Fort Canning Cemetery was located near the hilltop, close to the bungalow that Raffles built. At least three burials were made here. The first was that of John Casamajor, a Commercial Resident of the British East India Company and judge who was visiting from India. He died in Singapore on 1 February 1821. The other two burials were those of John Carnegy, a ship captain who died on 12 February 1821, and John Collingwood, a ship commander who died on 21 November 1821. The cemetery was discontinued at the end of 1822 after it was found to be too close to Raffles’s residence. There are no visible traces of this cemetery. (Image Credit: Extracted from Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, July 1953) |
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| The second burial site was located on the slopes of Fort Canning Hill. This two-acre parcel soon became full so the then resident chaplain Reverend Robert Burn, the then resident chaplain applied for a new burial site in 1827. This request resulted in the cemetery to be enlarged instead. Due to the restricted size of the cemetery, segregation of Protestant and Catholic burials was not enforced strictly until 1845. In the same year, the cemetery was again extended to include land to the east of the central path, and in 1846, a brick wall and a pair of gates of Gothic design were built to enclose the cemetery. Around the time of the wall’s construction, two arches were built on the south (seaward) and the land-facing sides of the burial ground. (Image Source: Singapore Through 19th Century Prints & Paintings) |
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| As the cemetery’s burial register had been lost, the government hired H. A. Stallwood to recompile the burial register by copying details from gravestones. Although his task was complicated by the poor condition of some of the tombstones as well as the haphazard and crowded layout of the cemetery, he was able to complete it. His findings, which came with the above plan showing the locations of all the tombs and monuments there, were later published in the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1912. (Image Credit: Extracted from Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, July 1953) |
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| By the end of 1863, the cemetery was full again, and a new site in Bukit Timah was identified as an alternative burial site. Between 1822 and 1865, more than 600 burials took place at the Fort Canning Cemetery. Around one-third of these burials were those of Chinese Christians. Today, visitors can still find the traces of the old Christian cemetery on Fort Canning Hill. These include the cemetery’s two Gothic gates, the James Brooke Napier Memorial that was built in memory of the infant son of William and Maria Frances Napier, as well as two dome-shaped cupolas. (Image Credit: Photo by Francisco Anzola via Flickr) |
Between 1822 and 1865, more than 600 burials took place at the Fort Canning Cemetery. Click or tap HERE to find out from H. A. Stallwood what were the oldest and latest tombs he discovered in the cemetery when he was compiling its burial registry which was published in the June 1912 issue of the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. (Source: Call no.: RCLOS 959.5 JMBRAS)
"The oldest tomb discovered is that dated 1821, erected to the memory of John C. Collingwood of the ship "Susan". It is surmised that this stone was taken from the old original Cemetery and re-erected here, as this Cemetery was not opened until 1822. The latest discovered is dated 1868, erected to the memory of Marie Dominica Scott, a child of only two years of age, and the interment presumably took place after the Cemetery was closed in 1865, as the parents were possibly interred here."
Becoming Fort Canning
In 1859, Government House was demolished to make way for an artillery fort. Built on an excavated plateau, the fort was completed in 1861 and named Fort Canning, after Viscount Charles John Canning, Governor-General and First Viceroy of India (1856–1862). The fort was built to protect Singapore from a sea attack, oversee the security of the town, and served as a place of refuge for Europeans in Singapore in the event of social disturbances such as the Indian Mutiny in 1857.
The idea of building a fort on Fort Canning Hill could be traced to Sir Stamford Raffles when he proposed for it in one of his letters to the first Resident of colonial Singapore William Farquhar in 1819. Click or tap HERE to read what he wrote. (Source: National Archives of Singapore)
"...On the hill overlooking the Settlement and commanding it and a considerable portion of the anchorage, a secure? fort, or a commodious blockhead on the principle which I have already described to you, capable of mounting 8 or 10 twelve-pounders, and of containing a magazine of brick or stone, together with a barrack for the permanent residence of 30 European artillery, and for the temporary accommodation of the rest of the garrison, in case of emergency."
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| Fort Canning was built by some 400 Chinese coolies, and had several buildings for the garrison stationed there. They included barracks, officers quarters, a hospital and two gun-powder magazines. The fort also had a moat, thick fort walls that were able to withstand artillery bombardment, and a wide variety of armaments including seven 68-pounders, eight 8-inch shell guns, and two 13-inch mortars. By the early 1900s, as seen in the plan here, the fort had expanded considerably with more barracks, a parade ground and even tennis courts. (Image Credit: Courtesy of the National Archives UK via National Archives of Singapore website) |
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| Despite offering extensive defences, the local European community questioned the decision to build the fort on the hill as it was too far from the shore thus putting the cannons and guns at a disadvantage against enemy ships at sea. Furthermore, when the fort was completed, the soldiers complained they were unable to use the cannons because their aim was obstructed by the neighbouring Pearl’s Hill which was 4 metres higher. This prompted the colonial government to order the Military Engineer to cut the top off Pearl’s Hill. (Image Credit: Courtesy of National Archives UK via wikicommons) |
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| In the end, Fort Canning never saw battle. Instead, its 68-pounder cannons were used to indicate time and signal the outbreak of fire. The fort was eventually decommissioned in 1907 and demolished in 1926 to make way for a reservoir. By then, a time-ball, a lighthouse and a telegraph office were erected on the hill. Together with the existing flag staff, Fort Canning Hill was functioning as a signal and communication station. Today, remnants of the old fort can still be found scattered on the hill. These include the main gate, a sally port and parts of the original wall.(Image Credit: Photo by Uwe Schwarzbach via Flickr) |
The Malaya Command
The demolition of Fort Canning in 1926 did not mark the end of the military presence on the hill as the British went on to place the headquarters of the Malaya Command there.
This arrangement would last till the fall of Singapore in 1942. After the war, the returning British used the building as the Singapore Base District Headquarters before it became the headquarters of the 4th Malaysian Infantry Brigade in 1963. When Singapore gained independence in 1965, the Singapore Armed Forces converted the premises into the Singapore Command and Staff College.
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| Fort Canning was built by some 400 Chinese coolies, and had several buildings for the garrison stationed there. They included barracks, officers quarters, a hospital and two gun-powder magazines. The fort also had a moat, thick fort walls that were able to withstand artillery bombardment, and a wide variety of armaments including seven 68-pounders, eight 8-inch shell guns, and two 13-inch mortars. By the early 1900s, as seen in the plan here, the fort had expanded considerably with more barracks, a parade ground and even tennis courts. (Image Credit: Courtesy of the National Archives UK via National Archives of Singapore website) |
Fort Canning Centre
Architecture
Fort Canning Bunker
After independence
Reinvent
Coleman map even the earliest map only shows the second cemetery
The first burial site of Fort Canning Cemetery was located near the hilltop, close to the bungalow that Raffles built. At least three burials were made here. The first was that of John Casamajor, a Commercial Resident of the British East India Company and judge who was visiting from India. He died in Singapore on 1 February 1821. The other two burials were those of John Carnegy, a ship captain who died on 12 February 1821, and John Collingwood, a ship commander who died on 21 November 1821. The cemetery was discontinued at the end of 1822 after it was found to be too close to Raffles’s residence. There are no visible traces of this cemetery.
Image: The Old Cemetery on Fort Canning, Singapore. With a plan and four plates (JMBRAS)
gardens and parks: botanical gardens and spice gardens strolling https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/stannual19600101-1.2.33
https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/photographs/record-details/a19aea83-1162-11e3-83d5-0050568939ad