Tan Keong Saik

Tan Keong Saik was a Singaporean businessman who contributed much to the social and intellectual life of the Chinese community at the turn of the 19th century. He was one of the men who contributed to the setting up of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in 1906. An advocate of education and equality of rights for women, he was also one of the first members of the Po Leung Kuk, an association looking after the interest of teenage girls and women, in Singapore.

Tan Keong Saik was the son of Tan Choon Sian, he was born in Malacca in 1850 and educated in Penang. After graduation, he came to Singapore to join Messrs Lim Kong Wan & Sons as a shipping clerk, and later as a storekeeper in a Borneo company. He became a prominent merchant and director of several companies, such as Straits Steamship Co Ltd, a position he held until his death in 1909.