Leong Yew Koh
Malayan politician
Leong Yew Koh (Chinese: 梁宇皋; pinyin: Liáng Yǔgāo; Jyutping: Loeng4 Jyu5 Gou1; 22 August 1888 – 12 January 1963) was a Malayan politician who served as the 1st Yang di-Pertua Negeri of Malacca from the independence of the Federation of Malaya in August 1957 to August 1959 and Minister of Health from 1955 to 1956, Minister of Health and Social Welfare from 1956 to 1957 and Minister of Justice from 1959 to his death in January 1963. He was a Kuomintang member himself, serving under the Republic of China government from 1932 and later becoming the leader of the Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese Army branch in Perak from 1942 until 1945, he was one of the founders of the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) in 1949 and the party's first secretary-general.
Early life and background
Born in Salak Utara, Sungai Siput, Kuala Kangsar, Perak on 22 August 1888, Leong was the son of Leong Yew Teen, a Chinese migrant tin miner of Cantonese descent, who was responsible for developing Salak Utara.
He went to Canton for his early education. At age 13, he came back to Malaya from China and studied in Anglo-Chinese School Ipoh and St Xavier's Institution, Penang. At age 16, he joined Tongmenghui Singapore.
He went to the University of London in 1908, studying economics, sociology, political science and law. He graduated in 1912 with an LLB.
Further career
Malayan bar
He was called to the bar in 1920 and served as an advocate and solicitor in the Federated Malay States (FMS) and was also a member of the FMS Bar Committee until his resignation in 1932.
Republic of China
In 1932, Leong returned to China and served the Chinese government as counsellor of the Ministry of Railways, legal adviser to the Executive Yuan, member of Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission, adviser to the Treaty Commission of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and inspector of China consulates in the Philippines, Dutch East Indies, Malaya and South Africa from 1935. He was also the senior commissioner for China in the Sino-British Joint Boundary Commission for the Investigation of the Southern Section of the Undelimited Yunnan-Burma Boundary from 1935 until 1937.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Leong Yew Koh” is malayan politician. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Leong, Malayan and politician, not as a finished interpretation.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6526284. VIAF identifies the subject as 277913444. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1888, 1963, 1957 and 1959.
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This entry incorporates text from “Leong Yew Koh” 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.