The Tin Mining Magnate 

LIM TECK GHEE 林德義 (1830s–1891) Place of Ancestry: Gim Lee (锦里)
YEO IM NEO 杨淑懿 (1810s–1887) Place of  Ancestry: Gim Lee (锦里)

Lim  was the eldest son of Lim Liak  (1804–1875). His father invested in  tin mining in the Kluang valley in the 1820s when methods had improved and a wave of Chinese  immigrants were arriving  to fill  jobs in the labour intensive industry.  

 Lim was to grow his father’s mining operations and earn the trust of British resident  Frank Swettenham,  who appointed him  Financial Administrator of Selangor in 1874. He was impressed with how Lim managed the civil war in Selangor which broke out in 1867. The civil war was related to the control of the tin mining industry.  A succession dispute among Malay leaders escalated into a conflict involving the two major rival Chinese secret societies that controlled the workers in the tin mines – Hai San and Ghee Hin. Lim provided financial support to the Selangor Royal family throughout the seven years of conflict until British intervention occurred. 

At the end of the war, Teck Ghee was the largest individual holder of the Selangor State Debt Bonds. 

 Lim Liak established with business partners a trading company in Singapore in 1925, named “Leack, Chin Seng & Co, Chop Hiap Hin” on Market Street. The company became the largest supplier of goods from China to migrant workers and expanded operations to Malacca. 

The family bought land in Tiong Bahru where one of the streets was name after Lim Leack  and  in Toa Payoh there was a 14 hectare plantation  situated around Adam Drive and Sime Road.

According to the municipal minutes of 10 November 1886, the colonial government agreed to the internment of Yeo Im Neo on the plantation as there were no other suitable grounds for the “higher status” Chinese. Within this property, two  acres were designated as burial land where Lim and his mother were laid to rest. In 1905, a portion of the land was acquired by the government for the expansion of MacRitchie Reservoir. Later in 1935, the graves of mother and son were exhumed, and their tombstones  relocated to Bukit Brown Cemetery. The remaining land was also subsequently acquired by the government.

Lim’s tomb features an inscription with various names he was known by, following the Chinese practice  that commemorates significant moments in a person’s life. 

 “谥” indicates Lim’s posthumous name Jian Rang (俭让). “字” indicates his given name, Teck Ghee (德义). “号” indicates his alias, Shi Fang (士芳) – the last possibly for business purposes, 

His mother’s tomb is inscribed with: 皇清顯妣謚淑懿林門楊氏墓,Qing dynasty Honorable Mother, (Posthumous) Virtuous Mdm Yeo of Lim Family

 Elsewhere in Bukit Brown, in Block 2,  is his brother Teck Whee’s grave  which was  relocated  from Tiong Bahru. 

circa 1932 A visit by descendants to Lim Teck Whee’s relocated grave in Bukit Brown (photo credit : Lim Soon Hoe)