William Farquhar

Once there was a Scotsman,
William Farquhar.
He was appointed the first British Resident and
Commandant of colonial Singapore, by Stamford
Raffles, of the East India Company
And the year was 1819,
The likes of this the natives had never seen
before
Because earlier on, Farquhar had established his
competence in Malacca

Soon, the Jackson Plan for orderly town planning
was unveiled
Farquhar didn’t object to ladies plying their wares
The visiting sailors were gleeful
And delightfully aware
What a jolly good fellow,
The Commandant was
And helped him to raise the Union Jack
At the Fort Canning parade square

So this is the story of Singapore’s beginning
Lest many a tale speaks otherwise
There was thinking in its conception
Not for naught was its foundation
For which a quirk of wise happenstance
was all it need.
To match the neighboring Dutch excellence
In Indonesia
Just in time for England to succeed
In Singapore and Malaya

Feb 2019