By Shawn Wongosari 

 

In tracing the origins of NUS, which began with the Straits and Federated Malay States (F.M.S.) Government Medical School, we explore our collections to learn more about the school’s successors—the King Edward VII (KEVII) Medical School and the King Edward VII (KEVII) College of Medicine. 

As I attempted to uncover the history of the KEVII Medical School and the latter College of Medicine, I mulled over three questions: Why was there a name change? Why was the medical school converted into a full college? And what was the difference between the Medical School and the College of Medicine? To seek for answers, I delved into our Singapore Primary Sources Collection and other primary sources, including the the original annual calendars of these institutions.  

Why the annual calendars, one might ask? The reasons are simple: not only do they offer the most direct glimpse of the life and administration of the schools then, they are also unique and exclusive to the NUS Libraries collection. 

The Renaming of the School
The story of the KEVII Medical School began with a donation from the KEVII Memorial Fund in 1912.  

The Fund’s origins can be traced back to December 6th, 1910, when a public meeting was held at the Victoria Memorial Hall to decide how King Edward VII, who had passed exactly seven months earlier, should be memorialised (The Straits Times, 1911). Several proposals were put forward (but the details of which were scarcely reported). Out of these proposals, one stood out: to raise funds for endowing a professorship, establishing lectureships and constructing new buildings. The proposal aimed to support the existing understaffed and under-resourced medical school in meeting the increasing demands for qualified medical practitioners and hospital assistants in the Malay Peninsula (Ibid.).  

This proposal was eventually chosen as it closely aligned with the late Edward VII’s interest in supporting the medical field, as was seen in the case of the King Edward’s Hospital Fund in London (The Straits Times, 1911). A fund was then established in the monarch’s namesake and donors from across the Peninsula were invited to make subscriptions to the Fund. A committee, which consisted of prominent members of the Chinese community like Seah Liang Seah and Tan Jiak Kim, oversaw the Fund (Ibid.). 

According to the school’s annual calendar of 1913, it was reported that a total of $124,855.87 (in Straits Dollars) was raised and donated to the Straits and F.M.S. Government Medical School by November 23rd, 1912. As part of the Fund’s conditions, the Straits and F.M.S. Government medical school was renamed ‘King Edward VII Medical School’ (University of Malaya, 1955, p. 13). 

The official name change took effect a full year later after the passing of Ordinance No. 12 of 1913—an amendment to the original 1905 ordinance that established the Straits and Federated Malay States Government Medical School. In the Straits Settlements Government Gazette of 1913, it was stated that the Legislative Council passed the amendment during a meeting on October 31st, 1913, and was assented to by the Governor of the Straits Settlements, Arthur Young, thereafter on November 18th, 1913 (CO 276/71, PDF p. 345). 

Key People
Apart from the name change, the terms of the donation included the establishment of an eponymous King Edward VII professorship. The position’s inaugural holder was Dr James Argyll Campbell, who, prior to this appointment, was an assistant to a professor at Edinburgh University for four years. Following his appointment, Dr Campbell went on to teach physiology at the school (CO 275/91, PDF p. 321). 

Other notable staff include Dr Robert D. Keith, the school’s first principal under the new name. He had served as principal from 1909, before the school was renamed, until 1918 when he retired due to ill health (see Annual Calendars from 1909 to 1918). Afterwards, Dr G. H. K. MacAlister, a former captain who served in the Indian Medical Services (IMS) during the First World War and the son of anatomy professor Alexander MacAlister of Cambridge University, succeeded Dr Keith as the new principal (CO 273/481/5458, PDF p. 350). 

 

In addition to having a principal, the school had a council that governed the school’s overall affairs and finances. The council was headed by a president and a vice-president—positions that were held by the Principal Civil Medical Officer of the Straits Settlements and the Secretary for Chinese Affairs (and the Protector of Chinese from 1916 onwards), respectively (see Annual Calendars of 1908-1920). 

Diploma and Curriculum
Students of King Edward VII Medical School were required to spend a minimum of five years of study to obtain a Licence in Medicine and Surgery (L.M.S.) diploma, which the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom (GMC) formally recognised in 1916 (CO/273/447/58879, PDF pp. 656-658). This recognition enabled L.M.S. diploma holders to be registered in the Colonial List of the Medical Register, granting them the rights to practice medicine in any of Britain’s colonies (Ibid.). 

Students had to study a wide range of subjects to fulfil the requirements of the diploma. These subjects range from fundamental disciplines like biology, chemistry, bacteriology and anatomy in the first two years of study, to medical jurisprudence, public health and midwifery in the latter years (see Annual Calendars of 1913-1920). Additionally, students had to gain practical work experience through understudying in a recognised hospital—this included attending to a certain number of patients, dispensing medication and performing post-mortems (Ibid.).  

From School to College
In 1921, the school was again renamed ‘King Edward VII College of Medicine’ as per Ordinance No. 39 of 1921 (see CO/276/90, PDF pp. 14-15). According to Attorney-General J. W. Murison in the ordinance’s bill, the official reason for the renaming was that the institution’s status as a school “conveys an unjustifiable impression of inferior status compared with Colleges of Medicine in India and China” (Ibid.). The medical school was thus promoted to the status of a full college. The ordinance also created a senate consisting of members of the teaching staff in order to be more directly engaged in the College’s welfare and to advise the Council better on technical and professional matters (Ibid.). 

Over the following decade, the College’s operations gradually expanded. In 1925, the College received another generous donation of $350,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation in the United States to establish three chairs in biology, biochemistry and bacteriology (see Annual Calendar of 1925). This benefaction was part of the Foundation’s pledges to improve medical education worldwide (Rockefeller Foundation, 1925, PDF p. 43). 

Three years later, the College established its first dental school with a License in Dental Surgery (L.D.S.) diploma programme. The vacant professorship in dental surgery was taken up by its inaugural holder, E. K. Tratman, in the year after the school’s establishment (see Annual Calendar of 1928). However, the GMC had only recognised the L.D.S. diploma in 1947—a milestone that might have been achieved earlier if not for the Second World War (Faris, 1949). 

In this story, we can see the developments that have shaped the King Edward VII Medical School and College of Medicine through two types of primary sources from our collection: the annual calendars of the King Edward VII Medical School and the British Colonial Office (CO) records (i.e. CO 273, CO 275, CO 276).  

Curious to uncover more? Dive into our Singapore Primary Sources guide and collection to explore the rich history of NUS and the nation at large. 

References
Faris, D. W. G. (1949). History of the King Edward VII College of Medicine Singapore, 1905-1949. The Medical Journal of Malaya, 4(1), pp. 3-5. 

King Edward VII College of Medicine. (1914) Calendar for the Academical Year, 1913-1914. Singapore: Government Printing Office. 

King Edward VII College of Medicine. (1926). Calendar for the Academical Year, 1925-1926. Singapore: Government Printing Office. 

King Edward VII College of Medicine. (1929). Calendar for the Academical Year, 1928-1929. Singapore: Government Printing Office. 

Legislative Council of the Straits Settlements. (1913). Annual Departmental Reports of the Straits Settlements for the Year 1913: CO/275/91. Government Printing Office. 

Malaya Tribune. (November 5, 1930). Obituary of Dr G. H. K. MacAlister. Malaya Tribune, p. 8. 

The King’s Fund. (n.d.). The History of the King’s Fund. Retrieved from: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/about-us/history 

The Rockefeller Foundation. (1925). The Rockefeller Foundation Annual Report, 1925. The Rockefeller Foundation, pp. 33-34. 

The Straits Settlements Government. (1916). The Straits Settlements Original Correspondence: CO/273/447/58879. London: Public Records Office, pp. 586-588. 

The Straits Settlements Government. (1918). The Straits Settlements Original Correspondence: CO 273/481/5458. London: Public Records Office, pp. 303-306. 

The Straits Settlements Government. (1914). The Straits Settlements Government Gazette Index for the Year 1913: CO/276/71. Singapore: Government Printing Office, Vol. 2, pp. 1863-1864. 

The Straits Settlements Government. (1922). The Straits Settlements Government Gazette Index for the Year 1921: CO 276/90. Singapore: Government Printing Office, Vol. 2, pp. 1125-1126. 

The Straits Times. (1911). King Edward Memorial. The Straits Times, p. 7. 

University of Malaya. (1955). Fifty years of medical education in Malaya, 1905-1955. Singapore: University of Malaya, p. 13.