Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore and London Zoo

Great Lives

BBC

History, Documentary, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.2 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's a famous name - there's Raffles Hotel and Raffles Hospital, plus the rafflesia, the largest flowering plant in the world, an ant, a butterflyfish and a woodpecker, as well as the Raffles Cup, a horse race in Singapore. He was born in 1781 and as an agent of the East India Company, Thomas Stamford Raffles rose to become lieutenant governor of Java during the Napoleonic war. He's also often named as the founder of Singapore and also London Zoo. But how did he achieve so much so fast? Recorded on location at London zoo with Matthew Gould, CEO of the Zoological Society of London; plus Stephen Murphy of SOAS University of London and Natasha Wakely who talks about Matthew Gould's second choice, Joan Procter, first female curator of reptiles who famously used to take a Komodo dragon for walks on a leash. The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, and welcome to Woman's Hour.
0:04.0	I never would have dreamed of going out and playing in front of thousands of people all
0:07.8	around, you know, center court.
0:09.4	The daily podcast featuring women's voices.
0:12.1	It seems that I'm a threat and they scared all women like me who can say no to this barbaric
0:17.6	regime talking about women's lives.
0:20.1	You're doing what every other girl is doing, just going out at night, having fun and they
0:25.2	again, villainized us for it.
0:26.9	Woman's Hour.
0:27.9	First, on BBC Sounds.
0:29.9	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:36.9	Just walk from Regent's Park tube station.
0:39.9	Could do with a few more signs.
0:41.9	I've met a couple of families trying to find their way.
0:44.9	Trying to find the way to the zoo.
0:46.9	The zoo, yes, yes.
0:47.9	Because it's the zoo where we are today.
0:49.9	Yes, it's the zoo where we are today.
0:51.9	Yes, should we do this now?
0:53.9	Right, good.
0:54.9	We're out of the studio today at the entrance to the zoo where a bust of today's life sits
1:02.1	at the entrance to the offices where my guest now works.
	...

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