10 things you may not know about Tan Kim Seng

  1. He was a third-generation Malaccan.
  2. He helped to stop the Great Riot between Hokkiens and Teochews in 1854.
  3. He believed in the value of real estate and was once the biggest landowner in Singapore.
  4. Unlike others in his generation, he made sure that his wife and daughters would be financially independent after his death.
  5. He was the first Chinese to give a Western-style ball in Singapore.
  6. He founded the first Chinese school in Singapore.
  7. He commissioned a poem from which his descendants derive their generation names.
  8. His well-planned will was dismantled by English Law.
  9. He could speak English and Dutch.
  10. His princely donation to allow fresh water to be brought into Singapore town was wasted by the colonial government.