Eu Tong Sen

Eu was born in Penang, Malaya on 23 July 1877. His grandfather, He Song, a feng shui master, was originally from Jiangxi but moved to Foshan in Guangdong, China. His father, Eu Kong Pui (a.k.a. Eu Kong) became a Chinese immigrant from Foshan and went to Penang to work as a grocery shop assistant and later laid the foundation for his son's fortune by starting tin mining and other businesses.[4] Eu's mother Leong Lay Yong stayed in Foshan until brought to Penang, where Eu Kong had married a second wife, Mun Woon Chang, who was well-connected in Malaya.[2] Eu Kong died in Penang in 1890 at the age of 38.[1][3][5]

Eu built his fortune by acquiring from the British, monopolies for tax or revenue farming (opium, alcohol or spirits, gambling and pawn broking) in Perak in the 1880s and when tin started to boom, he acquired land for mining tin. He expanded this to retailing and taxing goods from China that he sold to the miners he employed[1][3] and set up a grocery shop in Gopeng that was later expanded to include a Chinese dispensary for Chinese immigrants. He operated his businesses under the mark Chop Yan Sang.[1][3] He had two younger brothers, Eu Kong Chun and Eu Kong Tak. His business partner was Chiu Tong Hin and his attorney was Grant Mackie of the Straits Trading Company.[1][3]

While he was still a child, Eu Tong Sen had been sent back to his mother in Foshan, China, to study. However, with the sudden death of his father, he found himself, at only 13, heir to the family estates and tin mining businesses. He returned to Malaya in 1892[6][7] but his stay with his two uncles and his stepmother was short. He moved to the home of R. Butler and lived there for two and a half years, taking private tuition in English from F. W. Harley. From there he moved to Ipoh and enrolled in a government school.[1][5] Later he would move to Singapore where he lived for some time before moving to Hong Kong when business conditions changed.[1]

In 1898, at the age of 21, Eu took over his father's estate from Grant Mackie and discovered the business to be in decline. Over the next ten years he expanded the family business and multiply his fortune many times over. He expanded his business empire in Singapore, Malaya and Hong Kong and, at 30, was one of the richest men in the region.[4]

In Malaya and the Straits, when tax farming was abolished and tin prices started to fall, Eu ventured into rubber plantations in British Malaya and remittances between Malaya and Hong Kong.[1]

Eu purchased an official title from the Qing Dynasty government in 1903.[1] He sold it back in 1906.

In May 1912, Eu was appointed a permanent Unofficial Member of the Federal Council of the Federated Malay States, the seat having fallen vacant on the death of Leong Fee.[12][13]

Eu donated HK$55,000 to the University of Hong Kong during one of his visits there in 1918.[1]

Eu had a large family, with eleven wives and 24 children.[14][15]

Outside of his businesses, Eu was an early admirer of the Shaw brothers (Run Run Shaw and Runme Shaw) and invited them to Singapore as his guests.[16] He also organised and oversaw the 1928 construction on that same street of the Majestic Theatre, a performing hall for Cantonese opera, and for forming an opera troupe to perform there, all to entertain one of his wives who was a fan of Cantonese opera.[17] Later, he would become the first non-European commoner to be admitted to the Royal Ipoh Club.[18]

Eu and Chung Thye Phin, the Kapitan China of Perak, were "blood" brothers. They went through a Chinese ceremony to become oath brothers. When Chung travelled to Hong Kong, he stayed in Eu's villa there and they kept an account of his expenses in the company's account books. Eu and Chung had common interests in motorcars, racehorses, country houses, etc. In 1903 when the Ipoh Gymkhana Club was founded, both of them decided to enter their thoroughbreds regularly in the Ipoh races. They jointly built a weekend retreat, "Forest Lodge", at Gopeng Road with a large stable. When Eu was appointed to the Federal Council, Chung sold his half-lot to Eu, who desired grander accommodations following the latter's elevation in status. In 1908, together with Chung, Eu built a large Chinese theatre in the important mining town of Kampar near Ipoh.[3] Chung's Penang firms served as the agent for Eu in Penang before Eu opened a branch on the island. Eu's Penang branch, at least according to business directories, was the latest in his branch office network. Eu and Chung were also members of the board of directors of the Eastern Smelting Company, Ltd.[19]

Eu took a keen interest in horse-racing, motoring and rifle-shooting. He imported the first motor car into Perak.[3] Eu was also the pioneer of Singapore to bring in calf racing. Calf racing evolves around two men and two calves. Then, they will ride the calf through a series of obstacles before finally falling into a pool of water. The men then will have to finally swim to land and run back to the starting point, the first becoming the winner.

Eu's villa in Hong Kong was called "Eucliff". It has been torn down. It was built at Repulse Bay, overlooking the sea. The property was huge. It was built with stone like a castle. It included within its walled area a tennis court and also a swimming pool. Eucliff villa contained a statuary collection of Eu Tong Sen. When Eucliff was demolished, a statue of an anonymous World War I soldier[20] was donated to Osborn Barracks in Kowloon where it stayed for 20 years before being relocated to Hong Kong Park.

Eu died of a heart attack on 11 May 1941 in Hong Kong at the age of 63.[4] However, before that fatal heart attack, Eu survived multiples heart attacks and suffered a 5-day collapse a few times. He also had lung cancer but was cured.

In 1919, Singapore's Wayang Street was renamed to Eu Tong Sen Street in his honour.[7] The honour was given in recognition of his contributions of a scout fighter plane called No. 1 Eu Tong Sen, and 6,000 pounds for a tank that had two "eyes" to further the British efforts in World War I.[1][4] Mr. Addison, the Minister of Munitions commissioned a painting of the tank and presented the painting to Eu.[1][5]

A description of Eu's residences in Perak, written by Herman Norden in 1923, goes as follows:

"Eu Tong Sen is a notable with his twenty-five millions of gold dollars. He has two palaces in Ipoh; one more in Kampar, and a castle with a garden and lake in Singapore. Art treasures selected in Europe by himself fill these various residences of the great Chinese tin magnate; the marble for his houses was brought from Italy."[21]

• Correspondence related to the appointment of Chung Thye Phin to the position of Unofficial Member of the Federal Council of the Federated Malay States (during the temporary absence on leave of the EU TONG SEN by SIR ARTHUR HENDERSON YOUNG, then High Commissioner of the Federated Malay States)
• "Eu Kong Papers," National Archives of Singapore
• Chung, Stephanie (2006). "The Transformation of an Overseas Chinese Family – Three Generations of the Eu Tong Sen Family, 1822–1941". Modern Asian Studies. 39 (3): 599–630. doi:10.1017/S0026749X05001873. S2CID 143207031.
• Path of the Righteous Crane, The Life & Legacy of Eu Tong Sen, by Ilsa Sharp, Landmark Books Pte Ltd., 2009, ISBN 981-4189-22-7