George Drumgoole Coleman
George Drumgoole Coleman (1795–1844), also known as George Drumgold Coleman, was an Irish civil architect who played an instrumental role in the design and construction of much of the civil infrastructure in Singapore, after the island was founded by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819.
Born in Drogheda County Louth, Ireland, son of James Coleman, a merchant, part of whose business was dealing in building materials.[1] Coleman was trained as a civil architect.
In 1815 at the age of nineteen, he left Ireland for Calcutta, India, where he set up as an architect designing private houses for merchants. In 1819, he was invited, through his his patron John Palmer, to build two churches in Batavia. The churches were never built, but Coleman spent two years working in Java.[2]
Coleman then obtained an introduction to Sir Stamford Raffles from John Palmer in Calcutta, and travelled to Singapore, arriving in June 1822. Raffles was away in Sumatra at the time, but Coleman set about designing a residency house for him. On his return, Raffles approved the house, which was begun in November of the same year (it was built of timber, with a thatched roof), and commissioned Coleman to design a garrison church.[3] The church was not built, and, in June 1823, Coleman left for Java where he spent he next two and a half years, returning to Singapore in 1825.[4]
Coleman was responsible, as advisor to Raffles, for the draft layout of Singapore in 1822. He planned the centre of the town, created roads, and constructed many fine buildings.
On his return to Singapore in 1825, he designed a large Palladian house for David Skene Napier, and a palatial building for the merchant John Argyle Maxwell, which before completion was leased to the government for use as a court house and government offices. Much altered and enlarged it eventually formed part of the Parliament House of the Republic of Singapore. It was again in the Palladian manner, adapted to the tropical climate by incorporating a veranda and overhanging eaves to provide shade.[5] An outstanding example of his work, which survives to this day, is the Armenian Church of Saint Gregory the Illuminator on Hill Street, built in 1835. He also built the first Anglican church in Singapore, St Andrew's, begun in 1835, but this was demolished in the 1850s, having become unsafe due to lightning strikes. [6]
In 1833, Coleman was appointed the Superintendent of Public Works. He was also the surveyor and overseer of convict labour. Coleman's house on Number 3 Coleman Street was demolished in December 1965 to make way for the current 21-storey Peninsula Hotel.
Coleman had earlier leased his house to Monsieur Dutronqouy in 1831, before his departure to England after 15 years of continuous work and 25 years in the East. While in Ireland on this trip he married Maria Frances Vernon, of Clontarf Castle, Dublin. On Coleman's unexpected return to Singapore with his bride in November 1843 as he could not settle down in Europe, he took possession of another house of his nearby, standing at 1 and 2 Coleman Street. It was there that he died in 1844, at the age of 49. He was buried in a cemetery at the foot of Bukit Larangan, now Fort Canning Hill. The impressive memorial over his mortal remains still stands at Fort Canning Park.
[edit] Legacy
George Drumgoole Coleman's name lives on in the following entities in Singapore:
- Coleman Street
- Coleman Bridge
- Coleman Place
[edit] References
- Victor R Savage, Brenda S A Yeoh (2003), Toponymics - A Study of Singapore Street Names, Eastern Universities Press, ISBN 981-210-205-1
- Lee Geok Boi (2002), The Religious Monuments of Singapore, Landmark Books, ISBN 981-3065-62-1
[edit] Bibliography
Hancock, T.H.H. (1986). Coleman's Singapore. Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in association with Pelanduk Publications. ISBN 2126 7353.
