Personalities

• Dr Lim Boon Keng was the first Chinese to win the Queen's Scholarship, in 1887.

• Singapore's first Scientific Director of the Botanic Gardens was Henry Nicholas Ridley, who was appointed in 1888.

• Sir Song Ong Siang, a distinguished lawyer who had devoted his life to municipal work and to volunteer soldiering in Singapore, was the first Singapore Chinese to receive a knighthood from King George V.

• Singapore's first Asian public health matron was a Mrs Maude Perera, who qualified as nurse in 1928 and joined the public health service in 1929.

• Lim Peng Han, the fifth and youngest son of Dr Lim Boon Keng, was the first local Chinese to race in the British circuits at Donington and Brooklands between 1930 and 1934.

• Singapore's first local eye surgeon was Dr Tan Soo Hock, who set up Singapore's first and only private hospital for Ophthalmology, and who died in 1986 at age 87.

• Lim Kim San was the first Singaporean to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award. He received it in 1965 for community leadership. Dr Goh Keng Swee was the second Singaporean to receive this award. He received the 1972 award for Government service.

• President Benjamin Henry Sheares was made an honourary fellow of the British Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in June 1976, the first head of state to be thus honoured.

• The first lady motorist in Singapore was Mrs Dare, wife of G M Dare, who drove a 12 horsepower two-cylinder Star.

• The first Malay driver was Hassan bin Mohamed, who was taught by Mrs Dare.

• The first pilot to land at the Singapore International Airport Paya Lebar, was the First Officer Chan Soon Kin of Malayan Airways, who had up till then clocked 8,000 flying hours to his credit.

• Singapore-born Flight-Lieutenant Tan Kay Hai was the first Straits Chinese to fly with the Royal Air Force and to win the Distinguished Flying Cross.

• Mr Lien Ying Chow, Singapore banker and hotelier, received the Golden Plate Award in 1981, the only non-American to get it. The American Academy of Achievement gave him the award for being "the imaginative banker and entrepreneur who created one of the most magnificent hotels, the Mandarin Singapore".

• Dr May Lim was the first woman in Asia and also the first Singaporean to win the fellowship of Britain's Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, in 1987.

• Justice Lai Siu Chiu was sworn in on April 30, 1994, as a High Court Judge, the first woman ever appointed to Singapore's High Court. She also made history when she became the first woman to be appointed a judicial commissioner on the High Court bench in May 1991.

• Former Straits Times chief reporter Chia Po Teik was the first Asian to be appointed chief reporter in any British-owned English language newspaper. He died in 1996 aged 86.