Richard James Wilkinson

Richard James Wilkinson (1867 – 5 December 1941) was a British Colonial administrator, scholar of Malay, and historian. The son of a British Consul in Greece, Richard James Wilkinson, was born in 1867 in Salonika (Thessaloniki), Greece. He was an undergraduate of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was multilingual and had a command of French, German, Greek, Italian and Spanish, and later, Malay and Hokkien which he qualified in, in 1889, while a cadet after joining the Straits Settlements Civil Service. He was an important contributor to the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Asiatic Society (JMBRAS). On 7 November 1900 Wilkinson presented a collection of Malay manuscripts and printed books to the University of Cambridge Library. He was appointed CMG in 1912.

Wilkinson arrived in Singapore in 1889 and the Government Gazette of 6th December that year noted that "Messrs. Littleton Edward Pipe Wolferstan and Richard James Wilkinson (who reported their arrival in the Colony on the 3rd instant) have also been appointed Cadets [in the Straits Settlements Civil Service]". In December 1895, Wilkinson, who was then a District Officer in the Malay States and by then considered well-versed in the native language, joined the Foreign Office. He then rejoined Colonial Civil Service and was the Acting Superintendent of Education at Penang, after which, by the end of March 1897, he became a Police Magistrate at Singapore. By January 1899, Wilkinson was serving as the Acting Inspector of Schools. In April 1907, his book, Malay Beliefs was released. His "An Abridged Malay-English Dictionary (Romanised) was released in August 1908. At that time he was serving as Assistant to the Resident of Perak. In 1911 he was Colonial Secretary for the Straits Settlements and an Official member of the Legislative Council. In 1912 he was appointed to the Commission of the Peace (Singapore).

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