Sophia Cooke (27 February 1814 – 14 September 1895) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

missionary and schoolmistress at what is now St. Margaret's Secondary School in Singapore. She arranged church services in Chinese and helped distribute bibles in Malay and Arabic. She founded the YWCA in Singapore.

Life

Cooke was born in

Hilborough Hilborough is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is south of Swaffham, west-southwest of Norwich and north-northeast of London. The population of the parish (including Bodney) at the 2011 Census was 243. ...

in Norfolk and for twenty years she worked as a governess before she was sent to Singapore. Handwriting re Sophia Cooke in Singapore

The (now) oldest girls’ school in Singapore and the Far East was founded in 1842 by

Maria Dyer Maria Dyer (née Tarn) (c. 1803 – 21 October 1846), was a British Protestant Christian missionary to the Chinese in the Congregationalist tradition, who worked among the Chinese in Malaya. Life She was born in London in about 1803. She ...

, a missionary of the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational miss ...

. In 1853 the

Society for Promotion of Female Education in the East The Society for Promotion of Female Education in the East was a British Protestant Christian missionary society that was involved in sending workers to China during the late Qing dynasty and to other Asian countries. The society was at work in Nazar ...

sent Cooke to Singapore to became the Principal of what was then called the " Chinese Girls' School". The school provided a basic education for girls as well as a home for orphans. Cooke would use her influence to persuade the Anglican chaplain to begin a mission there. The society paid Cooke's salary but she had to rely on fund raising to keep the school viable. She arranged for Christian services to be conducted in Chinese in the school grounds. This demonstration is said to have encouraged the local churches to also offer worship in Chinese. The only other missionary when Cooke arrived was Benjamin Keasberry who was an independent missionary. He had created a Malay translation of the Bible in 1853 in roman letter and an Arabic translation in 1856 and he had the means to print it. The bibles were distributed by the ''Singapore Ladies' Bible and Tract Society'' which Cooke had set up in 1857. After nearly a decade Cooke returned to England for a break. She returned, but after 1869 she was periodically ill and had to return to England to recover. Cooke established of the

Young Women's Christian Association The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...

in Singapore in 1875. In 1870, the first lay chaplain of St. George's Church, Singapore, Major Malan, together with Cooke revived the Auxiliary by separating the Bible department from the Tract department of Cooke's society.

Death and legacy

Cooke died in

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, borde ...

. St. Margaret's Secondary School continues in Singapore. There is a Sophia Cooke Ballroom and Sophia Road in Singapore is named for her.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooke, Sophia 1814 births 1895 deaths People from Hilborough British Christian missionaries Heads of schools in Singapore People of British Singapore 19th-century British educators