Cecil Clementi Smith
British colonial administrator
Sir Cecil Clementi Smith (23 December 1840 – 6 February 1916), was a British colonial administrator.
Background
The son of an Essex rector, John Smith, and his wife Cecilia Susanna Clementi (daughter of Muzio Clementi), Cecil Clementi Smith received his education at St Paul's School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. In 1864, he began his civil service career as a cadet interpreter in Hong Kong, learning much about the Chinese culture and gradually becoming an accomplished scholar of the Chinese culture. He was also the Colonial Treasurer of Hong Kong.
Civil Service
On 3 September 1878, Clementi Smith took office in Singapore as a Colonial Secretary in the Straits Settlements, and understudied Governor Frederick Weld. His knowledge of Chinese culture and competence in the language proved useful as he was able to communicate effectively with leaders of the growing Chinese community.
Smith became known for his effective work in quelling Chinese secret societies in the Straits Settlements, such as those in Singapore which had been terrorising locals for decades. He also established the Queen's Scholarships in 1889 to fund bright Singaporean students to further their studies in top British universities.
In 1887, he was appointed Governor of the Straits Settlements and High Commissioner to Malaya till 1893. A popular governor, the local Chinese community petitioned for a continuation of his appointment when he left Singapore in 1893.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cecil Clementi Smith” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.