From the Archive: LKY at Cambridge
Lee Kwan Yew: The most significant statesman to be a member of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.
Back row, sixth from right: Founder of Singapore, Lee Kwan Yew c.1949 /Reproduced by permission of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
Matriculation photograph: taken against the frontage of the Fitzwilliam Museum (south of the main entrance), a convenient location because Fitzwilliam House was on the other side of Trumpington Street, directly opposite the Museum. Fitzwilliam moved to its present site in 1963. At that time it was operated by the Non-Collegiate Students Board of the University - it achieved collegiate status in 1966.
Lee Kuan Yew at his graduation in 1949, with his wife Kwa Geok Choo (Girton, 1947 – who also had achieved a First in Part II Law)
By permission of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
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Lee Kwan Yew was the Prime Minister of Singapore for the first three decades of its independence, and led its transformation to a flourishing nation.
His university education was ended by the Japanese invasion in 1941.
After the war, Lee determined to go to England and read Law and sought a congenial environment in Cambridge.
One of his fellow Raffles College students introduced him to W S Thatcher, the Censor of Fitzwilliam House, who admitted him for the 1947 Lent term.
This proved to be an inspired decision: despite all the disruption to his education, Lee’s high ability and determination ensured that he graduated First Class in both parts of the Tripos; his Starred First for Part II Law in 1949 placed him at the very top of his cohort, above two contemporaries who became Professors of Law in Cambridge, and gained for him Fitzwilliam's Whitlock Prize. He was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1950.
Lee Kuan Yew was elected to an Honorary Fellowship of Fitzwilliam in 1969, and for many years was the most senior of the College’s Honorary Fellows. Two years later, he gave the Foundation Lecture: East and West – the twain have met.
The connection between Fitzwilliam College and Singapore has continued to be strong over several generations. A substantial and significant body of Singaporean leaders in the professions and the nation have studied at Fitzwilliam, including Lee’s younger brothers who read Law and Medicine.
Please visit the Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge website for more: LKY at Cambridge