The Tan Chin Tuan Private Papers

Tan Chin Tuan (1908 – 2005) – Banker/Philanthropist

Childhood and family

Tan Chin Tuan was born in Singapore on 21 November 1908. His father, Tan Cheng Siong, was a prominent Hokkien businessman who travelled from China to Singapore. Subsequently, he invested in several sawmills and a rubber estate which were highly profitable enterprises in early colonial Singapore.

Tan Cheng Siong was Managing Director of the United Saw Mills Limited and the company was reputed to be “an amalgamation of some of the most efficient saw mills in Singapore … [capable of supplying] all building materials with certainty and dispatch”.1 Shortly after, Tan Cheng Siong was also appointed as one of the Board of Directors of the Oversea-Chinese Bank when it was established in 1919 and he was the bank’s first non-English educated general manager. Other than serving as the Justice of the Peace.... Click here to read more.

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