Sophia Blackmore
| Sophia Blackmore | |
|---|---|
Sophia Blackmore
|
|
| Born |
October 18, 1857 Australia |
| Died | July 3, 1945 (aged 87) Australia |
| Occupation | Missionary, teacher |
Sophia Blackmore was an Australian missionary. She founded the Fairfield Methodist Schools, and also Methodist Girls' School in Singapore. She was the first woman missionary sent by the Methodist Women's Foreign Missionary Society to Singapore. She also set up a boarding home for girls, supported the early Methodist Straits Chinese Christian work, published a Christian periodical in Baba Malay and is closely associated with the founding of Kampong Kapor Methodist Church.
Born 100 miles off Sydney, Australia, Blackmore came from a devout Christian family from London who had migrated south in the 1850s. Her mother's family had had associations with missionary greats such as Robert Morrison, Robert Moffat and David Livingstone while her father was an established solicitor in New South Wales. She was one of eight children.
Influenced by Isabella Leonard, a visiting American missionary, Blackmore left for India on 10 December 1886 with her mind set on serving China. She was sent under the auspices of the Women's Foreign Missionary Society (WFMS) of the American Methodist Episcopal Church since single women serving as missionaries were unusual and Blackmore's Australian church did not support such a venture. However, Blackmore found no permanent position when she arrived in India. Then in Madras, she met Reverend William Oldham who had gone to India for a conference. This chance meeting opened the doors for Blackmore to contribute to the growing missionary field in Malaya. To prepare for her move, Blackmore took Malay lessons from a family in Moradabad. The couple had previously resided in Singapore. It was also in Moradabad that Blackmore was officiated into the Methodist Episcopal Church.
On her arrival in Singapore on 16 July 1887, Blackmore was encouraged by the Oldhams' work which included the local Methodist Episcopal Church and the Anglo-Chinese School at Coleman Street. Within a month, Blackmore helped open a school for Tamil girls on 15 August 1887, with the support of the Reverend Oldham, several members of the Indian community and a teacher named Alexander Hagedorn (Mrs Alexander Fox). Known originally as the Tamil Girls' School, the school was later renamed the Methodist Girls' School. The school started in a small shophouse on Short Street. By 1925 the school was overcrowded, which precipitated a move to Mount Sophia, where it remained there until 1992 before being moved to its current location.
Visiting homes by horse-carriage in the estates bounded by Telok Ayer and Neil Road, she was led to the establishment of a second school for girls. Tan Keong Saik, along with other influential Chinese families, had persuaded her to teach their daughters - an uncommon request as girls were not a priority for education amongst the Chinese then. A widow, Nonya Boon, later offered Blackmore her home along Cross Street to start a school for girls. Beginning with just eight girls, the Anglo-Chinese Girls' School began in August 1888. Under the leadership of Emma Ferris, who was principal from 1892-1894, the school grew and eventually became the Fairfield Methodist Girls' School. In 1983, the school went co-educational and the school was renamed as the Fairfield Methodist Secondary School.
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