Louisa Zecha

[2][5] Zecha's community leadership, philanthropy, personal bravery and longevity earned her widespread respect and admiration in colonial society by the time she died in 1939.

[2] At the end of the nineteenth century, in the face of a violent uprising in Tamboen and in the absence of any Dutch military response, Zecha showed great personal courage.

[5][6] Zecha also raised funds and supplies for outbreaks of famines in China in the early twentieth century, for which she was honoured by the Qing Dynasty authorities.

[5][10] The historian Theodore Friend relates: 'When the grand dame was dying, she had a gramophone put on the table next to her bed and ordered "You don't cry, you play me my favorite Viennese waltzes."

Her great-grandson, the hotelier Adrian Lauw-Zecha, is the founder of Aman Resorts, while her granddaughter, the ballerina Che Engku Chesterina, is a princess by marriage of Negeri Sembilan in Malaysia.