About

Sir Frank Athelstane Swettenham (1850 – 1946)

 Sir Frank Athelstane Swettenham (1850 – 1946) was the Governor, as well as the first Resident-General of the Federated Malay States (1896-1901). Highly influential in shaping British policy and the structure of British administration in the Malay Peninsula, he learned the Malay language and played a major role as a British-Malay intermediary in the events surrounding British intervention in the peninsular Malay states in the 1870s. Swettenham is known to be one of some 40 former British empire officials who actually opposed the Malayan Union. He also created a dictionary "Vocabulary of the English and Malay languages", as well as published two books, "Malay Sketches" (1895), and "Unaddressed Letters (1898)". Port Swettenham (now Port Klang) was named in his honor.

Brief biography: Born in Belper, Derbyshire, Britain, Frank Swettenham was first sent to Singapore in 1871 as a cadet in the civil service of the Straits Settlements and would eventually spend his entire career in the Malay Peninsula in the service of the British Crown. He learned the Malay language and played a major role as a British-Malay intermediary in the events surrounding British intervention in the peninsular Malay states in the 1870s.

Frank Swettenham, then aged 25, was appointed Deputy Commissioner (1875–1876), following the murder of James Birch, the first British Resident of Perak, that year. Appointed British Resident of Selangor in 1882, he successfully promoted the development of coffee and tobacco estates, as well as helped boost tin earnings by constructing a railway from Kuala Lumpur (the capital of Selangor at that time) to the port in Klang, which was later named "Port Swettenham" (now Port Klang) in his honor. Through Swettenham's concerted efforts, the British Foreign Office reversed its policy of accepting Siamese control of the northern Malay states. His portrayal of their maladministration under native rulers and his warnings of possible intervention by rival European powers led to British penetration of those states in the early 1900s.

 

In 1901, three years before his retirement, Frank Swettenham was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Straits Settlements (1901–1904), as well as the High Commissioner of the Federated Malay States. He died in 1946, then aged 96.

PUBLICATIONS 

• Burns, P.L., and Cowan, C.D. ed. (1975), 'Sir Frank Swettenham's Malayan journals 1874-1876', Kuala Lumpur, London: Oxford University Press.
• Clifford, Hugh Charles, and Swettenham, Frank Athelstane (1894), 'A dictionary of the Malay language', Taiping, Perak: Printed for the author's at the Government's printing office.
• Cowan, C.D. ed. (1952), 'Sir Frank Swettenham's Perak journals 1874-1876', 'Journal of the Malayan branch of the Royal Asiatic Society', vol.24, part 4. Singapore: Malaya Publishing House.
• Swettenham, Frank Athelstane (1881), 'Vocabulary of the English and Malay languages'. Singapore: printed at the Government Printing Office.
• Swettenham, Frank Athelstane (1893), 'About Perak'. Singapore: Straits Times Press.
• Swettenham, Frank Athelstane (1895), 'Malay sketches'. London: John Lane.
• Swettenham, Frank Athelstane (1898), 'Unaddressed letters'. London: John Lane.
• Swettenham, Frank Athelstane (1899), 'The real Malay'. London: John Lane.
• Swettenham, Frank Athelstane (1907), 'British Malaya'. London: John Lane.
• Swettenham, Frank Athelstane (1910), 'Report of the Mauritius royal commission, 1909'. HMSO.
• Swettenham, Frank Athelstane (1912), 'Also and perhaps'. London: John Lane.
• Swettenham, Frank Athelstane (1925), 'Arabella in Africa'. London: John Lane.
• Swettenham, Frank Athelstane (1942), 'Footprints in Malaya'. London: Hutchinson.
• Swettenham, Frank Athelstane (1946 ?), 'The future of Malaya'. [S.l.]: [s.n.]
• Swettenham, Frank Athelstane (1967), 'Stories and sketches'. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.