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The Yeoh Family Of Ipoh - The Patriarch Towkay Yeoh Khuan Joo And His Third Son, Professor Yeoh Ghim Seng
The picture on the left is simply a colour portrait of a c1932 black and white one already included in this database. It, together with a brief history of Yeoh Khuan Joo can be accessed via the link below.
On the right is a portrait of Professor Yeoh Ghim Seng (1918-1992) third son of the patriarch and probably the most famous of his offspring who became Professor of Surgery at the University of Singapore, Speaker of the Singapore Parliament and Acting President of Singapore.
He was born on June 22 1918 and received his early education at St Michael's Institution, Ipoh and then at Penang Free School. He studied medicine at Cambridge University in the 1940s becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1950. In 1951, he returned to Malaya to become consultant surgeon to the Singapore General Hospital. Appointed Professor of Surgery at the then University of Malaya in 1955, he was one of the first locals to hold that chair. In 1962 to set up what became a private practice, but continued to train medical graduates from the university.
He took to politics in 1966, when he was recruited by the People's Action Party to stand in a by-election in Joo Chiat. He won and served as the constituency's MP for 22 years. He was made Deputy Speaker in 1968, and elected Speaker two years later. In 1977, he also became the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization's (AIPO) first president.
Yeoh was awarded the Public Service Star, was an active Rotarian, and a Justice of the Peace who also served as chairman of various boards. The National University of Singapore created the Yeoh Ghim Seng Professorship in Surgery in his honour. He passed away on 3rd June 1993.
To see the Yeoh family tree as produced by Ian Latham, go to http://blog.yeohfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/Yeoh_Family_Tree_Sept_08.pdf
To read about the patriarch Yeoh Khuan Joo, click here.
To read about St Michael's Institution, click here.