Selections from the Selangor Journal (1892–1897). .M. Gullick. Reprint 26. A short history of the Society
J.M. Gullick’s “A Short History of the Society” (1995) traces the institutional history of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society from its founding in 1877 through the early 1990s, arguing that the Society’s fortunes were shaped by the interplay between the availability of capable office-holders, the shifting balance of scholarly interests in its Journal, and the broader political and academic transformations of the Malay world. The paper was substantially prepared by the late Dr Mubin Sheppard, who did not live to complete it, and it draws on the Society’s own records, annual reports, and the contents of its Journal.
Summary
The Society was founded at a meeting on 4 November 1877 at the Raffles Library in Singapore, with Archdeacon G.F. Hose as first President and a small group of civil servants and scholars as its moving spirits (p. 67). Its model was J.R. Logan’s Journal of the Indian Archipelago (1847–1859), and its early success was driven by W.E. Maxwell and A.M. Skinner, who carried it through its first decade and saw membership grow to 153 by 1891 (p. 68). However, the departure of these founding figures, combined with the preoccupation of the period’s leading Malay scholars—R.J. Wilkinson and Walter Skeat—with other projects, left the Society at a “critical” low ebb around 1890 (p. 68).
The appointment of H.N. Ridley as Hon Secretary in 1890, a position he held for 21 years with brief interruptions, coincided with a shift in the Journal’s content toward natural science, reflecting Ridley’s own expertise as Director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens and his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1907 (pp. 68–69). This predominance of museum-based scientific papers lasted roughly three decades and drew criticism from members who felt the Journal had lost its broader appeal. The Council’s annual report for 1920 confronted this issue directly, urging members to contribute more diverse material (pp. 70–71). The 1923 reorganisation—changing the Society’s name from “Straits Branch” to “Malayan Branch” and instituting a new Journal series—marked a turning point, and the inter-war period saw the emergence of major State histories by Winstedt and Wilkinson, the increasing participation of Malay contributors such as Zaba, and a record membership of 644 in 1929 (pp. 71–72).
The post-war era brought a fundamental structural change: the appearance of university-trained scholars as contributors and office-holders, a development that had been impossible before the establishment of the University of Malaya and the expansion of South-East Asian studies programmes abroad (pp. 73–74). The death of C.A. Gibson-Hill in 1963, who had been the Society’s driving force for over a decade, left it in a state of administrative chaos that Mubin Sheppard spent the 1970s and 1980s resolving. The Society’s physical relocation from Singapore to Petaling Jaya in 1974 signalled the end of its long association with the Raffles Museum and the beginning of a new era (p. 74).
Key Findings
- Membership peaked at 153 in 1891 and again at a record 644 in 1929, with two distinct periods of decline around 1890 and the post-war years (pp. 68, 71).
- H.N. Ridley served as Hon Secretary for 21 years (1890–1911, with brief gaps), during which the Journal’s content shifted decisively toward natural science, a pattern that persisted for approximately 30 years (pp. 68–69).
- The Council’s 1920 annual report explicitly acknowledged that “some of our more technical papers are admittedly indigestible and not likely to be read by say one per cent of our members” and called for a broader range of contributions (p. 70).
- Zainal Abidin bin Ahmad (Zaba) was the most prolific Malay contributor to the Journal, publishing 15 papers between 1922 and 1951 (p. 71).
- The Japanese occupation (1942–1945) completely interrupted the Society’s activities for three and a half years; the Hon Secretary F.N. Chasen died in 1942, and the Society’s records were preserved largely through the efforts of its clerk T.D. Ree and E.J.H. Corner (p. 72).
- C.A. Gibson-Hill, as Hon Editor from 1948 to 1961, contributed approximately 40 papers and notes to the Journal and was responsible for developing it to “a very flourishing state,” but left it in a state of “chaos” at his death in 1963 (pp. 73–74).
Conclusion
Gullick’s definitive takeaway is that the Society’s vitality has always depended on the convergence of three factors: a large membership, adequate funds, and the active participation of members in providing material for the Journal (p. 70). The Society’s history is one of repeated cycles of decline and renewal, each time driven by the arrival of a new generation of scholars—first the civil servants of the 1870s, then the museum naturalists of the 1890s, then the State historians of the inter-war period, and finally the university academics of the post-war era. The transition from a society sustained by colonial administrators and museum staff to one supported by professional academics represents the most significant structural transformation in its history.
Context
- The Society’s records and headquarters were housed in the Raffles (National) Museum and Library building in Singapore from the 1880s until 1974, when they were moved to the National Archives in Petaling Jaya (pp. 68, 74).
- The Society’s long-standing practice of having the Director of the Raffles Museum serve as Hon Secretary created an institutional dependency that was only broken in the post-war period (p. 71).