Robert Norman Bland
Brief biographies are given of him in Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya One Hundred Years of Singapore, Who's Who in the Far East, Burke's Irish Family Records and other works.
[2] He married, in 1895, Laura Emily, eldest daughter of the late Mr. Thomas Shelford, C.M.G., head of the firm of Paterson, Simons Co., and for some twenty years member of the Legislative Council of the Straits Settlements.
He is the author of the illustrated work Historical Tombstones of Malacca, which has done much to preserve the records of monuments of the past, otherwise only too likely to perish, and he was a frequent contributor to the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal.
They passed Naples, Port Said, Suez, Aden and Colombo, arriving at Singapore alongside the Borneo Company's wharf on the morning of 19 February 1883.
On 2 March 1883, vide the Government Gazette of even date, the Secretary of State appointed Bland and Evans to be Cadets in the Service of the Colony of the Straits Settlements.
[12] By the time he retired, Bland had served the people of the different parts of the Straits Settlements, and the Federated Malay States in a wide variety of roles spanning the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of Government.
[37] In late April 1893 Collector of Land Revenue Bland was appointed Acting Sheriff of Singapore, vice Kyshe in addition to his existing duties.
Baskets, chairs, and various kinds of coir matting made at the Prison were, it was announced, available for sale at reasonable prices, as were a limited number of tennis nets.
[49] Towards the end of May, 1886, Bland proceeded to "Qualla Pilah to take up the appointment of Collector of Land Revenue" at Sri Menanti, arriving there aboard the S.S. Pakan on 28 May.
[53] 1891 seemed, for Bland, to be taken up with the auctioning off of land including the former Hye San Kongsee's property (2,278 square feet) at Upper Cross Street on 15 January, and various other plots sold under Section 8 of Ordinance IV, 188 on 16 April, 17 September.
This created the need to fill his seat on the Legislative Council among the Official Members and gave rise to a reshuffle in the S.S. Civil Service.
Upon its inauguration there a Chinese Malaccan Ong Kim Wee founded a fund to provide an annual prize on Empire Day, to be competed for by the English-speaking boys of Malacca.
[72] In September 1907 there was an outbreak of cholera and smallpox aboard the British India steamer Teesta, bringing in 3,700 Indian Coolies bound for, among other situations, the many plantations on the Peninsula.
[75] In late February, after nineteen deaths had occurred during its voyage, the Blue Funnel steamer Idomeneus bringing 859 pilgrims from Jeddah, arrived at Penang.
Clayton's reported noted that the accommodation at Pulau Jerejak had been considerably extended in 1907 to handle up to 3,500 inmates, and that a new and improved quarantine camp, in course of construction on the western side of the island, was expected to be completed before the end of 1908.
On 24 June Bland called for tenders, to be received at the Resident Councillor's Office by noon 12 September 1908 for supply and erection of steelwork for thirty-two corrugated iron buildings at Pulau Jerejak.
In the first week of January 1910, just a few months before he retired and left the Colony, Bland escorted Governor John Anderson on an inspection of the work in progress there.
The deputation had been appointed to explain to the Resident Councillor the Chamber's request that its certificate of membership should be recognised as a sufficient guarantee to permit of the landing of a passenger from an infected port.
On 18 September 1908, the Colonial Secretary called for tenders for the erection of a reinforced concrete jetty for the new quarantine camp at Kampong Panchor, Pulau Jerejak.
[82] In his 1910 Budget speech, on 1 October 1909, Governor Sir John Anderson noted that progress had been made with the new quarantine camp at Pulau Jerejak and that it was expected to be finished at the end of 1910.
White, whose diagnosis was later confirmed by a pathological examination by Government Veterinary Surgeon, William Henry MacArthur, who identified the bacteria as being the Trypanswomes.
[85] A few days later Bland had issued an order prohibiting the export of equines, other than bona fide race-horses, from Penang,[86] except under a certificate from the Government Veterinary Surgeon, McArthur.
In December 1908, the Government acted on Bland's suggestion and a Committee comprising Judge L. E. P. Wolferstan (Chairman), Harbour Master Commander D. C. MacIntyre R.N.R., and Assistant Protector of Chinese David Beatty was appointed to enquire into the complaints of the sampan men of Penang.
[94] On 8 February 1909 at 12 noon, Penang's Resident Councillor, Bland, officiated at the opening ceremony of the Chung Hwa Confucian High School.
[95] Yeoh Guan Seok, on behalf of the principal ethnic-Chinese members present, thanked Resident Councillor Bland and took the opportunity to dispel a misleading rumour.
The objects of the new school, Yeoh said, were simply to provide pupils a knowledge of Chinese literature and people, with a view to intellectual development and to help prepare them for careers in business.
In his address to the assembled, Bland noted that Malacca owed their memorial largely to the action and efforts of the late Lee Keng Liat and other Chinese gentlemen associated with him.
A meeting was held in Malacca to discuss this, and on behalf of the Chinese Lee Keng Liat expressed a desire to erect instead some local memorial, and stated that some $1,500 had already been subscribed for that purpose.
They did so and their design with some few alterations was accepted, and had resulted in this graceful memorial, which had been erected at a cost of about $5,000.." Bland said that thanks were due to the late Lee Keng Liat and also to C. Garrard (Secretary of the Committee), Doulton of London, and Superintendent of Works Lupton who had supervised the project.
[96] Acting Resident Councillor Bland officiated at the unveiling of a tablet commemorating the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria at Malacca on 2 July 1900.
