Embedded Files
1927 - 2008
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER, MALAYAN CIVIL SERVICE 1952 - 1955
LECTURER, UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 1955 - 1960, 1964 - 1971
LECTURER, UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA, KUALA LUMPUR 1960 - 1963
LECTURER & HEAD OF HISTORY DEPARTMENT, HONG KONG UNIVERSITY
Read more of Turnbull's life and career in Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Professor C.M. Turnbull's name is almost synonymous with the written history of Singapore.
Even today, as a younger crop of historians explore a range of interpretations of local Singapore history, Turnbull's three editions of her history textbook remains the starting point for research.
A HISTORY OF SINGAPORE
This is surely her most significant and appreciated contribution to the record of Singapore's history. She wrote and updated three editions of this monumental textbook, in 1977, 1989 and 2009. I am proud to say that I own a copy of all three editions.
These three books, each an updated form of the previous one, are themselves a study of historiography, as Turnbull sought to enlarge the bigger picture with the advancing years. Not many historians would do this, since the study of a nation is simply viewed contextually, with historians seeing no real need to keep pace with time.
Turnbull's willingness to update her books however, reflect her appreciation of the utilitarian value of history. That is to say, young nations often fall back on a common thread of national history in order to forge an immediate sense of national identity. While this use of history is controversial, and hotly debated, many governments none the less engage in it to some extent or another.
The importance of Turnbull's three editions is that while she brought the record of events a little more up to date, she did not undermine her basic premise - which was that Singapore under the British colonial administration provided the administrative and material foundation for modern times. As Turnbull herself argues:
"Singapore's administration, judiciary, commercial institutions, education system and eventually the constitution of the independent republic derived from the colonial government and developed within it." (Introduction, 3rd edition)
This interpretation of Singapore's past has its admirers and its detractors, and has been the subject of a very stimulating conference quite recently.
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