Robert Carr Woods (1816–1875), a native of

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

, England, is best known from his time 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, bor ...

as first editor of ''

The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was establish ...

'', and subsequently as a lawyer.

Biography

Born in

Burgh A burgh is an autonomous municipal corporation in Scotland and Northern England, usually a city, town, or toun in Scots. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Bur ...

in England, Woods first published papers on meteorology (including description of a meteor storm in 1837) and was Registrar of the Meteorological Society of London. He went to India in 1840 and edited the '' Bombay Courier''. In 1845, Woods moved on to Singapore and was founding editor of ''The Straits Times''. In 1849, an article about

James Brooke Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak (29 April 1803 – 11 June 1868), was a British soldier and adventurer who founded the Raj of Sarawak in Borneo. He ruled as the first White Rajah of Sarawak from 1841 until his death in 1868. Brooke was b ...

's anti-piracy activities was instrumental in encouraging

Joseph Hume Joseph Hume FRS (22 January 1777 – 20 February 1855) was a Scottish surgeon and Radical MP.Ronald K. Huch, Paul R. Ziegler 1985 Joseph Hume, the People's M.P.: DIANE Publishing. Early life He was born the son of a shipmaster James Hume ...

to raise questions in the British Parliament and, together with a petition from Singapore traders which he took round for signature in 1851, eventually culminated in an Inquiry held in Singapore in the autumn of 1854. Having registered as a law agent in 1849, Woods went on to found Singapore's first law firm, Woods & Davidson, in 1861 The firm then became

Rodyk & Davidson Dentons Rodyk & Davidson LLP is one of Singapore's largest law firms, with around 180 lawyers who are qualified in various jurisdictions such as those of Singapore, Australia, England and Wales and India, and with offices in Singapore and Myanma ...

in 1877, and Dentons Rodyk in 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woods, Robert Carr 1816 births 1875 deaths British newspaper editors 19th-century British journalists British male journalists 19th-century Singaporean lawyers 19th-century British male writers