Lim Nee Soon (; 12 November 1879 – 20 March 1936) was a Singaporean banker and businessman who promoted social and community matters, and was a respected

community leader Community leader is a designation, often by secondary sources (particularly in the media), for a person widely perceived to represent a community. A simple way to understand community leadership is to see it as leadership in, for and by the communit ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. Lim was of

Peranakan The Peranakans () are an ethnic group defined by their genealogical descent from the first waves of Southern Chinese settlers to maritime Southeast Asia, known as Nanyang (), namely the British Colonial ruled ports in the Malay Peninsula, ...

descent, with ancestry from

Chenghai District Chenghai (; postal: Tenghai; Teochew: Thěng Hài) is a district of the city of Shantou, Guangdong Province, China. Located at the Han River Delta in the southeast part of Guangdong Province, Chenghai spans from 116°41' to 116°54' E long ...

, Shantou in

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

, China. He was a rubber magnate and was nicknamed the "pineapple king" for being the leading pineapple planter in the region. He was also a banker, contractor and general commission agent. He was the first general manager of the Bukit Sembawang Rubber Company Limited, formed in 1908. Nee Soon and Company was formed in 1911. As a Chinese Peranakan, known as "Baba" locally, he was affectionately known as Bah Soon Pah (). Bah Soon Pah Road was named after him.

Early life

Lim Nee Soon was born in Kampong Glam, Singapore. His family was from Shantou, Guangdong, China. His father died when he was eight and his maternal grandfather, a merchant, took care of him. Lim was educated in English at the St. Joseph's Institution, and then later, at the Anglo Chinese School.

Career

Lim was one of the pioneers that opened up

Sembawang Sembawang is a planning area and residential town located in the North Region of Singapore. Sembawang planning area is bordered by Simpang to the east, Mandai to the south, Yishun to the southeast, Woodlands to the west and the Straits of Jo ...

. He served on the Rural Board from 1913 to 1921 and was also appointed a Justice of Peace. In the field of education, he was one of the founders of

The Chinese High School The Chinese High School () was an independent school in Singapore offering secondary education. The school merged with Hwa Chong Junior College on 1 January 2005 to form the integrated Hwa Chong Institution. Founded on 21 March 1919, The Chine ...

and also a member of the Raffles College Committee. He was the President of the

Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce The Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI; ) is a business chamber in Singapore. The chamber was originally created to protect and promote the commercial interest of the Chinese community in Singapore but it also played a ...

for two periods, from 1921-1922, and 1925-1926.

Later life

Lim, along with his uncle Teo Eng Hock, were the leading members of the Teochew clan association

Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan () is a Teochew clan association in Singapore. ''Poit Ip'', which means eight districts in the Teochew dialect, stood for the eight Teochew districts in the province of Guangdong, China. ''Huay Kuan'' means "clan ass ...

, and was a close friend of Dr Sun Yat Sen. He died on the way home from a trip to China and his embalmed body was scheduled to be brought back to Singapore. However, the Chinese government requested to give him a State burial and so he was buried in Nanjing, near the mausoleum of his close friend, Dr Sun Yat Sen.

Family

Lim married Ms. Wi Peck Hay () and had 3 sons and 6 daughters. His sons Lim Chong Kuo () and Lim Chong Pang () later also became prominent merchants and community figures. One of his daughter, Lim Chit Geck, married Oei Tjong Tiong, son of

Chinese-Indonesian Chinese Indonesians ( id, Orang Tionghoa Indonesia) and colloquially Chindo or just Tionghoa are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries. Chinese people and their Indonesian descendants have l ...

Businessman,

Oei Tiong Ham Oei Tiong Ham, Majoor-titulair der Chinezen (; 1866–1924) was a Chinese Indonesian tycoon and the son of Oei Tjie Sien, the founder of the Kian Gwan, a multinational trading company. Born in Semarang, Central Java, Dutch East Indies (now Indo ...

Legacy

Nee Soon Road was officially named in 1950 by the Rural Board to facilitate postal services. Nee Soon also owned a large plot of land in the area and several roads in this area are named after his business concerns and family members. For example, Chong Kuo Road is named after his eldest son Lim Chong Kuo, and Chong Pang City his second son Lim Chong Pang. The residential town of Yishun in the northern part of Singapore, is also named after him. Although originally named Nee Soon, the name was subsequently romanized to its current appellation, to reflect the Singapore government's move to use standardised Mandarin over the unstandardised Chinese variants prominent amongst local dialect groups.

References

Secondary sources

* * * * *

External links

Genealogy entry of Lim Nee Soon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lim, Nee Soon 1879 births 1936 deaths Singaporean bankers Singaporean chief executives Peranakan people in Singapore Singaporean people of Teochew descent People of British Malaya