RAFFLES, Thomas Stamford Bingley (1781–1826)

Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles was a British colonial administrator, diplomat, collector, reformer, and historian. He was renowned particularly in two capacities, namely, as lieutenant governor of Java (1811–1816) implementing land and tax reforms and as founder-administrator of Singapore (1919–1923). A thinker and visionary, his ambition for the East Indies (insular Southeast Asia, especially present-day Indonesia), though unfulfilled, would have established free trade across the archipelago and introduced liberal reforms for the indigenous peoples.