Patrick Comerford
Our two visits to Singapore over the past two months have been short but sweet: six hours last month and less than 36 hours last week. But during those two short yet intensive visits, it was interesting to see the extent to which Singapore was shaped in the 19th century and early 20th century by some influential Irish figures, including the Governor Sir Orfeur Cavenagh (1820-1891), who had family roots in Co Wexford and Co Kildare, and the architects George Drumgoole Coleman (1795-1844), who was born in Drogheda, and Denis Santry (1879-1960), who was born in Cork.
General Sir Orfeur Cavenagh was the last Governor of the Straits Settlements appointed from India, and he governed from Singapore from 1859 to 1867.
Cavenagh was born in Hythe, Kent, where his father was stationed, on 8 October 1820. He was the third son of James Gordon Cavenagh (1766-1844), an Irish army surgeon, and Ann (née Coates) Cavenagh (1788-1846).
The Cavenagh family returned to Wexford in 1837 and lived at Castle House. Some of the Cavenagh children are said to have attended the Ferns Diocesan School, perhaps the parish school in Saint Patrick’s Square at the south end of High Street, Wexford.
James Cavenagh (1702-1769) of Graiguenamanagh, Co Kilkenny, was a Surveyor of Excise and was said to be descended from the Kavanagh family of Borris House, Co Carlow.
His son, Matthew Cavenagh (1740-1819), ran away from Co Wexford with Catherine Hyde Orfeur (1748-1814), daughter of Captain John Orfeur late of Drillingstown, Co Wexford, and they were married in Innishannon, Co Cork. They moved to Wexford in the 1770s and lived in Back Street, then regarded as a fashionable part of the town.
High Street was also known as Upper Back Street; Abbey Street was once called Lower Back Street; while the portion of Back Street that connects High Street and Rowe Street with John’s Gate Street and Cornmarket is now named Mallin Street and is the location of the new Wexford Town Library.
Matthew Cavenagh was the Surveyor of Excise in Wexford. Matthew Cavenagh, his son James Gordon Cavenagh, and other members of the Cavenagh family are buried in a family vault in the ruins of Saint Patrick’s Church, Wexford.
Matthew Cavenagh’s oldest son, James Gordon Cavenagh (1766-1844), became a surgeon and joined the British army. He lived at the barracks in Hythe, near Folkestone, Kent. He married Ann Coates (1788-1846) in New Romney, Kent, on 27 March 1815. A few months later, he was a late arrival at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
James Gordon Cavenagh returned to Wexford around 1837, and lived at Castle House, off Trinity Street and Parnell Street. James died in Wexford on 11 September 1844, Ann died in Wexford in 1846; they are both buried in the family vault at Saint Patrick’s Church, Wexford.
The future General Sir Orfeur Cavenagh Cavenagh trained at Addiscombe Military Seminary, the military academy of the British East India Company. He passed his examination in 1837, and he joined the 32nd Regiment Native Infantry in early 1838.
After further military training at Fort William College, Calcutta, in 1840, he was appointed to the 41st Regiment Native Infantry. He married Elizabeth Marshall Moriarty at Dinapore, India, on 7 September 1842, and they were the parents of two sons.
He was so badly wounded in the Battle of Maharajpore in December 1843 that his leg was severed just above the ankle. He was wounded again in the left arm in January 1846 during the first Anglo-Sikh war. After this he was appointed as Superintendent of the Mysore Princes and of the ex-Ameers of Sindh.
Cavenagh travelled to Britain and France in 1850 in political charge of the Nepalese Embassy under Jung Bahadur Rana. As Town and Fort Major of Calcutta, he was responsible for the safety of Fort William during the Indian Mutiny in 1857.
Canning offered him the post of Governor of the Straits Settlements, and he took up the post on 8 August 1859. Under a royal charter in 1826, Singapore, Malacca, Penang and Dindings had been combined to form the Straits Settlements.
As Governor of the Straits Settlements, Cavenagh was answerable to the Governor-General of India in Calcutta. One of his tasks was to prepare a special report on the resources of the State of Sarawak, administered as a separated independent state by the Rajah of Sarawak, Sir James Brooke.
When control passed to the Colonial Office in London on 1 April 1867, the Straits Settlements became a crown colony. Cavenagh was the last Governor to report to the Governor-General in Calcutta.
After his time in Singapore ended on 16 March 1867, Cavenagh continued as a general officer in the Bengal Staff Corps, becoming a lieutenant general in 1874 and a general in 1877. In retirement, Cavenagh lived in Long Ditton, Surrey. He was knighted in 1881, and died on 3 July 1891.
Cavenagh gives his name to Cavenagh Road in the Orchard Road area and Cavenagh Bridge in Singapore.
Cavenagh Bridge, spanning the lower reaches of the Singapore River in the Downtown Core, is the only suspension bridge and one of the oldest bridges in Singapore. It was opened in 1869 to commemorate Singapore’s new status in the crown colony of the Straits Settlements in 1867. It is the oldest bridge in Singapore that exists in its original form.
The bridge was originally known as the Edinburgh Bridge to commemorate a visit to Singapore by Queen Victoria’s second son, the Duke of Edinburgh. Its name was changed to Cavenagh Bridge in honour of Major General Sir Orfeur Cavenagh, and the coat-of-arms of the Cavenagh family can still be seen on the signage at both ends of the bridge.
Cavenagh Bridge linked the Civic District on the north bank to the Commercial District on the south bank of the Singapore River. Before Cavenagh Bridge was built, people could only move between the two districts by a detour over Elgin Bridge or by paying for a sampan boat crossing of the river.
Cavenagh Bridge has elaborate suspension struts compared to most other suspension bridges, and is the third bridge to be built in Singapore. Numerous steel rivets were used in its construction, which employed steel casting methods commonly used at the era.
The bridge was designed by John Turnbull Thomson of the colonial Public Works Department and built by P&W Maclellan, Glasgow Engineers. It was built and tested in Glasgow to withstand a load four times its own weight. It was then shipped to Singapore in parts and reassembled in 1869 by convict labour before opening to traffic a year later.
Rickshaws and ox carts used Cavenagh Bridge to cross Singapore River. Later the bridge became overloaded due to the flourishing trade on the Singapore River in the late 1880s.
When Cavenagh Bridge became unable to cope with the increasing traffic and its low draught was insufficient for the passage of boats at high tide, the government decided to build the Anderson Bridge in 1910 to replace Cavenagh Bridge.
Cavenagh Bridge was eventually spared from demolition and was converted into a pedestrian bridge, with the road traffic diverted to the Anderson Bridge. A police notice, preserved to this day, was placed at both ends of the bridge restricting the passage of vehicles that weighed beyond 3 cwt (152 kg or 336 lb), including cattle and horses.
Cavenagh Bridge is now a pedestrian bridge, with lighting added in 1990 to accentuate its architectural features at nightfall. It provides the most convenient pedestrian link between the cultural district at the north bank and the commercial district to the south of the Singapore River, and complements the renovated Fullerton Hotel beside the bridge. The bridge was designated a national monument in 2019.
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