The Rendel Constitution also mandated that locals would share executive power, triggering a rapid process of Malayanisation throughout the civil service in the late 1950s.

Future lawyer Tharumaratnam Chelliah would witness this process first-hand. As for the legal service, no further expatriates would be brought in after Hill. Instead, in 1951, a Public Service Commission was set up in Singapore to recruit local entrants for the colony’s legal service posts.

The first two legal officers brought in this way were Abdul Wahab Ghows and Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam.

For Singapore, the decolonisation of the colonial legal service had begun.

Listen to Chapter Four:

You didn’t come this far to stop

Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam

Born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, on 5th January 1926, Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam attended the Government English School in Muar, Johor Bahru, before the war and subsequently continued his education in Singapore at St Andrew’s School from 1945 to 1946. He read law at University College London from 1948 to 1951. His legal career began as Magistrate, then Judge of the District Courts from 1952 to 1957. He served as Registrar of the Supreme Court from 1961 to 1963, when he left for private practice. He made his entry into the political arena in 1971 and was elected Member of Parliament of Anson Constituency in 1981 and 1984. Jeyaretnam passed away on 30th September 2008, aged 82.

Tharumaratnam Chelliah

Born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, on 12th October 1921, Tharumaratnam Chelliah attended Raffles College, followed by the University of Malaya in Singapore where he earned his Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in 1956. Subsequently, he received his Bachelor of Laws from the University of Singapore in 1967. He joined the Administrative Service upon his graduation from Raffles College. In 1959, he was Assistant Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Law, a position he served until 1962. In 1967, he was Deputy Secretary, Law Division of the Ministry of Law and National Development, a position he held until his retirement in 1976. Chelliah passed away on 17th January 2009, aged 88.