Explorer. He is credited as the founder of the city of Singapore and Straits Settlements, which were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. He was largely responsible for the creation of Britain's Far Eastern Empire. Born the son of a sea captain, his father was an active part of the slave trade. After attending boarding school that specialized in preparing students for the military, he started, at age 14, as a clerk at the British East India Company to support his widowed mother and four sisters. Although his formal education could be considered lacking, he studied the sciences and several languages at his own leisure and conceived an interest in natural history, which would earn him later a distinguished reputation. Ten years later he and his wife, Olivia, were sent to Southeast Asia. During the Napoleonic Wars, he was heavily involved with the forty-five-day battle and capturing of Java from the Dutch. He served as Lieutenant Governor of the Dutch East Indies from 1811 to 1816. During his term, the local royal families resisted British rule, which led to violent conflicts, the British troops looting the country's riches, and the locals being greatly humiliated. He did abolish slavery and catalogued for the first-time ancient monuments and Buddhist temples in Java. His wife, Olivia, died in 1814. Returning to England in 1817 he was knighted by Prince Regent George IV and was elected to the Royal Society. About this time, he started using his middle name "Stamford" instead of Thomas. In 1817 he wrote "The History of Java." In a journal, he recorded local cultures as well as the plant and flora of this island and others during his career. In 1817 he married Sophia Hull before taking the post of Lieutenant Governor of Bencoolen in 1818, where he abolished illegal gambling and slavery there as well as in Borneo. Once again, he met resistance from local royals, but in the end, the locals easily understood that England was a powerful nation. This was a poor country, which only export was black pepper, and known for epidemics of various tropical diseases. Late in 1818, he personally sailed to secure a British presence in the Riau area, especially Singapura. By January of 1819, he was on the Malay Peninsula and by the 16th of February, obtained the land as an excellent trading port for the East India Company that would become the modern-day city of Singapore. He left within 24 hours but returned establishing a free port for world trade along with plans laid for the foundations of a city, rule of law, public schools and Christian churches in the native languages. Eventually, he returned to Bencoolen. In the fall of 1819 he returned to Singapore, but with his decline in health, returned to Bencoolen, which he considered to be home. From June 27, 1821 to November 28, 1823, four of his five children died from an epidemic of dysentery and were buried at Bencoolen, in Southeast Asia. In 1822 he was elected to the American Antiquarian Society. Before retiring from the British East India Company, he visited Singapore again in October of 1822 before sailing to England. During his career, he spent a total of only eight months in Singapore. His most noted adversary was Major-General William Farquhar, an agent of the British East India Company, who was the first Governor of Singapore, yet refused to leave Singapore after having a conflict with Raffles. With Farquhar as governor, Singapore was involved with the slave trade as well as dealing with the open trade of opium and alcohol, which was not approved by Raffles. Eventually, Farquhar left for England in 1823 and on arrival, attempted to legally discredit Raffles by suing him. While on route and visiting other islands, another daughter was born but died within weeks and a ship's fire destroyed many of his papers. He arrived in England on August 22, 1824 in poor health. In 1825 he was elected a member of the Linnean Society of London. He was the founder and first president of the Zoological Society of London and the London Zoo. The British East India Company did not grant him a pension but instead charged him with owning twenty-two thousand pounds for expenses during his career. He had only a surviving daughter, Ella, who died at age 19 unmarried. Raffles was not allowed to be buried inside his local parish church of St Mary's at Hendon because the vicar, Theodor Williams, whose family had made their money from the slave trade, objected to Raffles' anti-slavery advocacy. However, when the church was extended in the 1920s, his tomb was incorporated into the body of the building and a square floor tablet with inscription marked the spot. In front of the Old City Hall in Singapore, life-size statue of him was erected in 1972 with his arms folded while looking thoughtfully out to sea from the spot believed to be his first landing. A duplicated dark bronze statue by Thomas Woolner from 1887 was removed from this site and placed in front of Victoria Memorial Hall at Empress Place. A life-sized figure in white marble by Sir Francis Chantrey depicts Raffles in a seated position in Westminster Abbey in London. The sculpture was completed in 1832, and it is in the north choir aisle. After his wife's death, his nephew donated to the British Museum 2,100 artifacts including decorated masks, coins, wooden figurines, shadow puppets and traditional percussion instruments that Raffles had collected during his years in Southeast Asia. A second donation was made by a great-grandniece in 1939.