Sir Richard James Wilkinson (1867–1941) was a Colonial administrator, a Malay scholar and historian.

Richard James Wilkinson, the son of British Consul in Greece was born in 1867 at Salonika (Thessalonica), Greece.

He was an undergraduate of Trinity College, Cambridge.

He was multilingual and had command of French, German, Greek, Italian and Spanish, and later, Malay and Hockien 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 Richard James Wilkinson presented a collection of Malay manuscripts and printed books to the University of Cambridge Library.

He was appointed CMG in 1912.

His Career Summary

1896 - 1898: Acting Director of Education, Penang

1898 - 1900: Acting Inspector General of Schools in the Straits Settlements, Singapore

1902 - 1903: Transferred to the Dindings, Perak

1903 - 1906: Acting Inspector of Schools for the Federated Malay States

1906 - 1910: Secretary General to the British Resident (EW Birch) in Perak

1910 - 1911: British Resident at Negeri Sembilan

1911 - 1916: Colonial Secretary, Straits Settlements, Singapore

1916 - 1922: Governor Sierra Leone from 9 Mar 1916 - 4 May 1922

Cleaning Up The Pimp Problem In Singapore

31 March 1914: As the Straits Settlements Colonial Seceretary at Singapore, Richard James Wilkinson called on the Japanese Consul in Singapore, Fujii Minoru to inform him that the government was banishing from the colonies, 37 nationals identified as pimps.

Institutions

He initiated the establishment of the Malay Training College in Malacca in 1900 which was eventually succeeded in 1922 by the Sultan Idris Training College (SITC) at Tanjung Malim, Perak.

In 1905 he founded the Malay Residential School, later known as the Malay College at Kuala Kangsar (MCKK)

Books Authored, Edited and Compiled

• A vocabulary of central Sakai (dialect of the aboriginal communities in the Gopeng Valley), Printed by J. Brown at the Federated Malay States Govt. Press, 1915
• Malay grammar, Published by The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1913, with Sir Richard Olof Winstedt (1878–1966)
• The Achehnese, Published by EJ Brill, 1906 with CS Hurgronje and AWS O'Sullivan
• Malay beliefs, Published by Luzac & Co, 1906
• A history of the peninsular Malays, with chapters on Perak & Selangor, Published by Kelly & Walsj 1920
• An English-Malay dictionary: roman characters, 1932 reublished by Kelly & Walsh, 1939, with RO Winstedt
• An Abridged Malay-English Dictionary (romanized), Published by the FMS Government Press, 1908
• Notes on the Negri Sembilan, Published by the FMS Government Press, 1911
• A history of Perak, Republished by the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1974, with RO Winstedt and SWE Maxwell
• The incidents of Malay life, Printed by J. Russell at the FMS Govt. Press, 1908
• Malay literature, Published by the FMS Government Press, 1907
• Life and Customs, Part 1: The Incidents of Malay Life (1908)
• Papers on Malay Subjects, Part I-V
• Papers on Malay Subjects: Law, Part 1-2: Introductory Sketch and the Ninety-Nine Laws of Perak, 1907–1908
• The education of Asiatics, 1901
• Pantun Melayu, with RO Winsted, 1914
• Kesah pĕlayaran Abdullah (Voyages of Munshi Abdullah), 1907
• Code for grant-in-aid scholls and departmental instruction to inspecting officers, 1905
• Malay literature part III: Malay proverbs on Malay chatacter‎, 1907

See also

1. Federated Malay States
   Federated Malay States
   The Federated Malay States was a federation of four protected states in the Malay Peninsula—Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang—established by the British government in 1895, which lasted until 1946, when they, together with the Straits Settlements and the Unfederated Malay...
   
   
2. List of colonial heads of Sierra Leone
3. Chung Keng Quee
   Chung Keng Quee
   Kapitan China Chung Keng Quee was the founder and administrator of modern Taiping. He was a millionaire philanthropist and known as an innovator in the mining of tin. He was involved in many other industries including farming, pawnbroking and logging. He was respected by both Chinese and European...
   
   
4. Arthur Nonus Birch
   Arthur Nonus Birch
   Arthur Nonus Birch was Lieutenant Governor of Ceylon, Colonial Secretary for Ceylon and acting Lieutenant Governor of Penang and Province Wellesley .The son of H.W.R...
   
   
5. Ngah Ibrahim
   Ngah Ibrahim
   Ngah Ibrahim was a Malay headman who succeeded his father Long Jaafar as headman and administrator of the district of Larut upon the death of his father in 1885. By the time of Sultan Ismail of Perak, Ngah Ibrahim had quarrelled with Raja Muda Abdullah, the son of the former sultan who had been...
   
   
6. Etymology of Kapiśa
7. History of Kapisa
   History of Kapisa
   The first references to Kapisa appear in the writings of 5th century BCE Indian scholar Achariya Pāṇini. Pāṇini refers to the city of Kapiśi, a city of the Kapisa kingdom. Pāṇini also refers to Kapiśayana, a famous wine from Kapisa...
   
   

Further reading

1. 7 letters from Richard James Wilkinson to Oscar Browning
2. A century of British orientalists 1902-2001 By Clifford Edmund Bosworth, British Academy
3. One hundred years' history of the Chinese in Singapore, University Malaya Press, 1967