Benjamin Sheares

His Excellency Benjamin Sheares GCB
本杰明·亨利·薛尔思
2nd President of Singapore
In office 2 January 1971 – 12 May 1981
Prime Minister	Lee Kuan Yew (1959–1990)
Preceded by	Yusof Ishak
Succeeded by	Devan Nair
Personal details
Born	Benjamin Henry Sheares (1907-08-12)12 August 1907 Straits Settlements (now Singapore)
Died	Singapore
Resting place	Kranji State Cemetery
Nationality	Singaporean
Spouse(s)	Yeo Seh Geok Sheares
Children	Constance Edwin Chin-Hwee Joseph
Occupation	Physician
Religion	Christianity
Website	www.istana.gov.sg

Benjamin Henry Sheares, GCB, (12 August 1907 – 12 May 1981), was the second President of Singapore.

The Benjamin Sheares Bridge was named after him.

Early life

Benjamin Sheares was born the second of six children in Singapore to a Eurasian family with an English lineage. His father Edwin H. Sheares, a technical supervisor of the Public Works Department, was born in England and raised in India. Edwin later migrated to Penang and married Singapore-born Lilian Gómez, of Chinese Singaporean and Spanish descent, and had six children – the first died in infancy. Life was hard for the Sheares family with the meagre salary that Edwin received from his post.

As a young child, Sheares was affectionately known as Ben or Bennie. He was a quiet boy who kept much to himself and loved to play at Pierce Reservoir, where his father worked.

He had a close relationship with his sister Alice and often loved to play doctor with her. On one occasion, he made Alice swallow a one-cent coin as a medical "pill" in their game. Benjamin was six years old then and received a good hiding from his mother Lilian. Throughout his growing years, Benjamin showed ambition to become a doctor – a dream deemed almost impossible for someone who was Asian and came from a poor family in the early colonial days of Singapore. However, Alice continued to spirit him on with that dream, against his mother's wishes for her son to take up a job as a clerk and start helping out with the family bills as soon as he completed his Senior Cambridge Examinations (O-Level equivalent).

Sheares attended the Hwa Chong Institution and then in 1918 went to Saint Andrew's School, Singapore. In 1922, he transferred himself to study at the Raffles Institution, the only school equipped with scientific laboratories – making it an ideal place to further his ambition to become a doctor. In 1923, he enrolled into the King Edward VII College of Medicine (a predecessor of the National University of Singapore) to begin his medical training. Sheares was aware that his family could not see him through the hefty school fees afforded by the College, therefore he won a generous scholarship offered by the Council of the Medical College with his exemplary academic performance. With this quantum, he was able to give $50 monthly to his mother for the support of his family.

He continued to excel in his studies and was awarded four medals by his College. Later, he passed his Obstetrics and Gynaecology (O&G) final examinations with distinctions. Upon graduation and working as an obstetrician in the Kandang Kerbau Hospital and a professor at the University of Malaya he continued to support his family, and assumed full responsibility for his family when his father died in 1940.

One of Sheares' main contributions to medicine was a technique to create an artificial vagina for those born without one. A modification of it is still used for sex change operations today.

Sheares was also the first Chancellor of the National University of Singapore.

Presidency

Benjamin Sheares became Singapore's second president on 2 January 1971. His mother was 91 years of age when she learnt that he had become President of the Republic of Singapore. Just two weeks before she died, she said "God has blessed Bennie especially after the way he looked after us and me." He possibly had donated his entire salary as President to charity.

Sheares held the office until his death in 1981. C. V. Devan Nair succeeded him as President.

Legacy

File:Tomb of President Benjamin Sheares.jpg

Tomb of President Benjamin Sheares at Kranji State Cemetery

Sheares was buried in the Kranji State Cemetery. The Benjamin Sheares Bridge and Sheares Avenue is named after him. In academia, the student's residence Sheares Hall in the National University of Singapore, the Benjamin Sheares Professorship, and the Benjamin Sheares College at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School are all named after him.

References

Bibliography

Political offices
Preceded by Yusof Ishak	President of Singapore 1970–1981	Succeeded by C.V. Devan Nair