The life story of our first president Every Singaporean knows who Yusof Ishak is, but not his story. For the uninitiated, he’s Singapore’s first president – that face you always see when you pull out your dollar note to pay for groceries. Although he passed away 46 years ago in 1970, his legacy lives on. We delve into 10 important milestones of his storied past, and what happened after Yusof Ishak became president. 1. His background Yusof Ishak was born on 12 August 1910 in Perak, Malaysia, and was the oldest of nine children. His father, a civil servant, was transferred to Singapore in 1923 to be the Fisheries Department’s assistant inspector, and later became the first non-European to be a director of the Fisheries Department. 2. Education He received his primary education at Victoria Bridge School (present-day Victoria School), and secondary education at Raffles Institution. The bright student was the only Malay in a group of 13 others admitted into the prestigious Queen’s Scholarship class at RI, but eventually fell short of receiving the Queen’s Scholarship by a few points. 3. His extra curriculum activities The sporty Yusof was a school athlete and represented RI in many sports including […]
8 years ago
