Anne Griffith-Jones

Anne Laugharne Phillips Griffith-Jones (1890–1973) was the founder of Tanglin Trust School, a well-known international school primarily catering for British expatriate students in Singapore.

Griffith-Jones was born in Wales in 1890. During World War I, she served as a welfare officer at a munitions factory in Wales, for which she was awarded an MBE.

In 1923, Griffith-Jones travelled to Singapore for what was intended to be a three-month holiday to visit her brother, who was living there at the time. However she decided to stay and, in spite of having no formal teaching qualifications, opened a primary school. At the time, many British expatriates living in Singapore sent their children away to boarding school in Britain at an early age. Griffith-Jones saw a gap in the market to provide British-style education in Singapore so that parents could postpone boarding school until an older age. The school opened initially within the premises of the Tanglin Club, with just five students. It soon became very popular and grew rapidly. Within the school, Griffith-Jones was affectionately known as "Miss Griff".

In 1935, Griffith-Jones opened a second school, the Tanglin Boarding School in the Cameron Highlands (now part of Malaysia). This too was intended as a near-by alternative for expatriate families living in the region who would otherwise have to send their children to boarding schools in Britain. Many children who attended the school in Singapore up to the age of eight then went on to the boarding school in the Cameron Highlands, which catered for students up to the age of 13.

Following the outbreak of World War II, the Malay Peninsula was occupied by Japan in 1942. The two schools were forced to close, and Griffith-Jones was interned in Changi Prison. She apparently rose to the challenge of internment, and set about establishing a school in the prison for children.

After the war, the two schools reopened. However in 1948, the school in the Cameron Highlands had to be put under full-time armed guard after terrorists surrounded the school, and was eventually forced to close by the Federal Government for security reasons.

The school in Singapore continued to flourish. In 1958, Griffith-Jones decided to retire and sold the private company Tanglin School Ltd to the British European Association in Singapore. (In 1961, governance of the school was handed over to a non-profit education Trust known as the Tanglin Trust Ltd.)

Griffith-Jones was awarded an OBE for her services to education. She was also bestowed a "Pingat Jasa Kebaktian" (Meritorious Service Medal) by the Sultan of Pahang in Malaysia in 1962.

After retirement, Griffith-Jones moved to the Cameron Highlands. She died in Ipoh Hospital in 1973 at the age of 83.

External links

* [http://www.tts.edu.sg/ Tanglin Trust School website]