Arthur Benison Hubback

[1] After an English training in Liverpool, he arrived in Malaya in 1895, and by 1900 was appointed chief government architect of the British-run Federated Malay States, returning to Britain in 1914 at the start of World War I, though he did not officially resign until 1917.

Arthur attended Fettes College, Edinburgh, and then started work as an apprentice for the city architect in Liverpool, Thomas Shelmerdine.

From then until the outbreak of World War I was a period of great construction projects, and he worked on buildings in Malaya and Hong Kong, from mosques to railway stations.

In 1914, at the start of World War I, he became a major in the 19th Battalion, London Regiment (St Pancras), a Territorial Force (TF) unit.

The division had suffered so badly during the German spring offensive of March that it had been reduced to a single composite brigade, which Hubback commanded during the Battle of the Lys.

Afterwards the division was reduced to a training organisation, and Hubback acted as divisional commander from 31 August to 10 September.

Theodore Rathbone Hubback joined Arthur in Malaya, and was a civil engineer and contractor, as well as working for a while as a rubber planter, and after early adventures as a big game hunter became a conservationist and author.

Jointly Organized by PAM Heritage Conservation Committee, Department of Museums Malaysia and National Textile Museum Officially Supported by Masjid Jamek, British Council, Arch, webmaster of thehubbacks.org, midor, ALFO, MIBOUTIQUE and Kuala Lumpur.

One style of his architecture may be known as Indo-Saracenic, which is a blend of Mughal forms with Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic details.

The Federal Secretariat/Sultan Abdul Samad Building formed the perimeter of the Padang or Merdeka Square is as much a part of the architectural consciousness of Malaysia as the Houses of Parliament is to Britain.

While in post-independence Malaysia these functions have moved elsewhere, these buildings remain as a potent visual symbol of the country.