Navroji Mistri
Open-knowledge reference entry
Navroji Rastomji Mistri OBE (3 June 1885 – 29 October 1953) was a Parsi Indian entrepreneur and philanthropist. Known as the “godfather of the poor” or the “bachelor godfather” of Singapore's poor children, Mistri donated a large part of his wealth towards the improvement of medical services in Singapore. He ran a successful soda drinks business in Singapore. Both Mistri Road, near Shenton Way, and Mistri Wing at the Singapore General Hospital were named in his honour.
Early life
Navroji was born into a Parsi family on 3 June 1885 in Mumbai, India. An engineer by training, Navroji started work at the Royal Indian Marine Dockyards. While in India, the young Navroji reportedly met Jamsetji Tata, the founder of the Tata group, who told Navroji that "When you grow up and if you work hard, you will be a success.". In 1909, Navroji moved to Singapore after being employed to work on the building Keppel Harbour's graving dock. He had only 10 rupees when he arrived in Singapore.
Career
While working in Singapore, Navroji met Phirozshaw Framroz, a well-known soft drinks producer through the small Parsis community in Singapore.
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This entry incorporates text from “Navroji Mistri” 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.