This is a list of the British Residents of Malay State of Perak, British Malaya. [1] The position of Resident was an administrative post. By the terms of the Pangkor Treaty, the Resident was an adviser to His Highness Sultan of Perak whose decisions were binding in all matters in administration except for Malay customs and religion. The British Resident post is also equivalent with today's Menteri Besar post, where he was the chairman of the Perak State Council and the Sultan was the Lord President of the Council. The official residence for the Resident was at the Residency Hill, Taiping. Other residences were also available in Kuala Kangsar and Ipoh. After World War II, the position of British Resident was replaced by a British Adviser. Eventually, when Malaya achieved Independence, the British Adviser post was abolished.
British Resident | Portrait | Honour | Entered office | Left office |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. James Wheeler Woodford Birch | none | 4 November 1874 | 2 November 1875 | |
2. Sir Frank Athelstane Swettenham | GCMG, CH | 5 November 1875 | March 1876 | |
3. James Guthrie Davidson | none | 11 April 1876 | 31 March 1877 | |
4. Sir Hugh Low | GCMG, KCMG, CMG | 1 April 1877 | 31 May 1889 | |
5. Sir Frank Athelstane Swettenham | GCMG, CH | 1 June 1889 | 30 June 1896 | |
6. Sir William Hood Treacher | KCMG | 1 July 1896 | 12 December 1901 | |
7. Sir John Pickersgill Rodger | KCMG, CMG | 13 December 1901 | 9 February 1904 | |
8. Sir Ernest Woodford Birch | KCMG, CMG | 10 February 1904 | 5 March 1911 | |
9. Sir Henry Conway Belfield | KCMG, CMG, JP | 6 March 1911 | 15 December 1911 | |
10. Oliver Marks | 15 December 1911 | 9 August 1912 | ||
11. Colonel William James Parke Hume | CMG | 9 August 1912 | 12 August 1912 | |
12. Sir Reginald George Watson | CMG | 12 August 1912 | 17 September 1919 | |
13. Sir William George Maxwell (acting to 19 December 1919) | KBE, CMG | 17 September 1919 | 12 September 1920 | |
14. Colonel William James Parke Hume (acting for Maxwell to 12 September 1921) | CMG | 29 June 1920 | 13 July 1921 | |
15. Sir Cecil William Chase Parr | CMG, OBE | 14 July 1921 | 20 December 1925 | |
16. Oswald Francis Gerard Stonor | 20 December 1925 | 6 June 1927 | ||
17. Henry Wagstaffe Thomson | 6 June 1927 | 1929 | ||
18. Charles Walter Hamilton Cochrane | CMG | 1929 | 1930 | |
19. Bertram Walter Elles | none | 1931 | 1932 | |
20. Sir Geoffrey Edmund Cator | CMG | 1933 | 1939 | |
21. Marcus Rex | CMG | 1939 | 1941 | |
22. Arthur Vincent Aston | CMG, MC | 1946 | 1948 | |
23. James Innes Miller | 1948 | 1951 | ||
24. Edwin Cyril Geddes Barrett (acting to Blelloch) | CMG | 1953 | 1954 | |
25. Dato’ Ian Blelloch | CMG | 1951 | 1956 |
Perak is a state of Malaysia on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Perak has land borders with the Malaysian states of Kedah to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kelantan and Pahang to the east, and Selangor to the south. Thailand's Yala and Narathiwat provinces both lie to the northeast. Perak's capital city, Ipoh, was known historically for its tin-mining activities until the price of the metal dropped, severely affecting the state's economy. The royal capital remains Kuala Kangsar, where the palace of the Sultan of Perak is located. As of 2018, the state's population was 2,500,000. Perak has diverse tropical rainforests and an equatorial climate. The state's mountain ranges belong to the Titiwangsa Mountains, which is part of the larger Tenasserim Hills system that connects Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia.
The Malayan Union was a union of the Malay states and the Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca. It was the successor to British Malaya and was conceived to unify the Malay Peninsula under a single government to simplify administration. Following opposition by the ethnic Malays, the union was reorganised as the Federation of Malaya in 1948.
The Federation of Malaya was a federation of what previously had been British Malaya, comprising eleven states that existed from 1 February 1948 until 16 September 1963. The Federation became independent on 31 August 1957, and in 1963, Malaysia was formed when Malaya united with Singapore, North Borneo, and Sarawak.
The Federated Malay States was a federation of four protected states in the Malay Peninsula — Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang — established by the British government in 1895, which lasted until 1946, when they, together with two of the former Straits Settlements and the Unfederated Malay States, formed the Malayan Union. Two years later, the Union became the Federation of Malaya, which achieved independence in 1957, and finally Malaysia in 1963 with the inclusion of North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore.
The Pangkor Treaty of 1874 was a treaty signed between Great Britain and the Sultan of Perak on 20 January 1874, on the Colonial Steamer Pluto, off the coast of Perak. The treaty is significant in the history of the Malay states as it legitimised British control of the Malay rulers and paved the way for British imperialism in Malaya. It was the result of a multi-day conference organised by Andrew Clarke, the Governor of the Straits Settlements, to solve two problems: the Larut War, and Sultanship in Perak.
Sir Hugh Low, was a British colonial administrator and naturalist. After a long residence in various colonial roles in Labuan, he was appointed as British administrator in the Malay Peninsula where he made the first trials of Hevea rubber in the region. He is often considered the first successful British administrator in the region, whose methods became models for subsequent British colonial operation in the entire South East Asia Region.
The term "British Malaya" loosely describes a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the island of Singapore that were brought under British hegemony or control between the late 18th and the mid-20th century. Unlike the term "British India", which excludes the Indian princely states, British Malaya is often used to refer to the Federated and the Unfederated Malay States, which were British protectorates with their own local rulers, as well as the Straits Settlements, which were under the sovereignty and direct rule of the British Crown, after a period of control by the East India Company.
Sultan of Selangor is the title of the constitutional ruler of Selangor, Malaysia who is the head of state and head of the Islamic religion in Selangor. The current monarch, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah ascended the throne on the death of his father, on 22 November 2001.
This article lists important figures and events in Malayan public affairs during the year 1948, together with births and deaths of significant Malayans. Malaya left the British colonial Malayan Union; the Federation of Malaya took place on 1 February.
This article lists important figures and events in the public affairs of British Malaya during the year 1946, together with births and deaths of prominent Malayans. Malaya remained under British Military Administration until the establishment of the Malayan Union on 1 April.
The Royal Malaysia Police trace their existence to the Malacca Sultanate in the 1400s and developed through administration by the Portuguese, the Dutch, modernization by the British beginning in the early 1800s, and the era of Malaysian independence.
Chung Kok Ming, also known as Chung Ah Ming, was a Malaysian Chinese Perak State councillor and the only Asian committee member of the Perak Turf Club for many years. He represented Perak State in soccer, hockey, cricket and tennis.
This article lists important figures and events in Malayan public affairs during the year 1954, as well as births and deaths of significant Malayans.
The foundation of the Constitution of Malaysia was laid on 10 September 1877. It began with the first meeting of the Council of State in Perak, where the Yang di-Pertuan Agong first started to assert their influence in the Malay states. Under the terms of the Pangkor Engagement of 1874 between the Sultan of Perak and the British, the Sultan was obliged to accept a British Resident. Hugh Low, the second British Resident, convinced the Sultan to set up advisory Council of State, the forerunner of the state legislative assembly. Similar Councils were constituted in the other Malay states as and when they came under British protection.
The monarchies of Malaysia exist in each of the nine Malay states under the constitutional monarchy system as practised in Malaysia. The political system of Malaysia is based on the Westminster parliamentary system in combination with features of a federation.
This article lists important figures and events in the public affairs of British Malaya during the year 1909.
This article lists important figures and events in the public affairs of British Malaya during the year 1925, together with births and deaths of prominent Malayans.
This article lists important figures and events in the public affairs of British Malaya during the year 1933, together with births and deaths of prominent Malayans.