CHAPTER VIII: THE SEVENTH DECADE (1879-89)

ON the 23rd May 1879, at a meeting of the Municipal Commissioners, the Secretary was directed to forward to Government a copy of a petition from Tan Tung Hup and others on behalf of the Khek tribe in Singapore, applying for permission to form a public burial ground, and requesting the Governor’s sanction. Nine years afterwards, a Lease of Government land in the district of Upper Tanglin (Holland Road, off Bukit Timah Road), containing an area of 150 acres, was demised by HE the Governor, Sir Cecil C Smith, unto Chong Yew Chee, Foo Sze Tat, Tan Tung Hup and Yong Kit Siong, Trustees of the Fung-yuntai Society of Khek Chinese and Managers of the Yok-san-tin burial ground, ‘upon trust for the said Society for the purposes of the said premises being used for the term of 999 years as the Yok-san-tin burial ground and for no other purpose’…