Watch Personalities

8 May 1926

An English broadcaster and natural historian. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural history documentary series forming the Life collection that together constitutes a comprehensive survey of animal and plant life on Earth. He is a former Senior Manager at the BBC, having served as controller of BBC Two and director of programming for BBC Television in the 1960s and 1970s. 

1915 - 14 February 1942

A Malayan military officer of the 1st Infantry Brigade who fought the Japanese at the Battle of Pasir Panjang in Singapore during World War II. He is considered a national hero in Singapore and Malaysia for his actions during the battle. 

Hero of the Battle of Pasir Panjang

•  Originally trained as a teacher in Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia.

•  He joined the army's Malay Regiment (Askar Melayu) at the age of 18.

•  A dedicated and disciplined soldier, he was voted the best recruit, he then rose to the rank of Lieutenant.

•  Deployed to Singapore in 1941, he led his platoon of men of the Malay regiment in the defence of Pasir Panjang Line during the Japanese invasion of Singapore the next year.

•  He was observant enough to spot Japanese troops masquerading in Sikh uniform and repelled the feign.

•  Under his leadership, the Malay regiment fought to the last men.

•  Lt Adnan was wounded and captured; refusing to surrender, the Japanese hung him from a tree and stabbed him to death.

•  Lt Adnan was recognised as a hero in both Singapore and Malaysia.

6 August 1934

Since 1960s till 1990s, Bonington led the British climbing scene with some of the most ambitious mountaineering expeditions mounted in the era. 

He has led and been on 19 expeditions to the Himalayas, including 4 to Mount Everest which he climbed in 1985 at the age of 50. He has made First Ascents in the Alps, the Himalayas, Patagonia, Greenland and other greater ranges of the world.

He succeeded Sir Edmund Hillary as the Honorary President of Mountain Wilderness, an international NGO dedicated to the preservation of mountain areas, in their natural and cultural aspects. He received a knighthood in 1996 for services to mountaineering.

30 November 1874 - 24 January 1965

Sir Winston Churchill was a British statesman who was twice Prime Minister of the UK, from 1940 - 1945 during WW2 and again from 1951 - 1955. 

Widely considered one of the 20th century's most significant figures, Churchill remains popular in the UK and Western world, where he is seen as a victorious wartime leader who played an important role in defending Europe's liberal democracy against the spread of fascism. Also praised as a social reformer and writer, among his many awards was the Nobel Prize in Literature. 

12 February 1809 - 19 April 1882

An English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. 

In 1831, at the age of 22, Darwin joined a 5-year voyage aboard HMS Beagle where he explored remote regions and marvelled at a worldf so different from the one he knew. On his travels, Darwin collected plants, animals and fossils, and took copious field notes. These provided the evidence he needed to develop his remarkable theory. 

Darwin's theory of evolution challenged widely held religious beliefs of the time. His proposition that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors is now widely accepted, and considered a foundational concept in science. In a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding. Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history and he was honored by burial in Westminster Abbey. 

1898 - 2 September 1979

An Indian-born Singaporean social worker and women's rights activist. In her younger days, she was an educator but after her move to Singapore she was active in church work and social service organizations, serving as president of the YWCA on two separate occasions. 

After the Japanese occupation, Davies worked on improving the deplorable conditions in many women's lives in the past. This gave rise to the Singapore Council of Women, which sought to foster friendship between women of all races, and campaigned to improve women's economic, educational and social status in the colony.  Davies sat on its executive committee and drafted the appeal to the governor to grant Singapore women the same legal protection and rights as women in Britain. In 1961, the Legislative Assembly passed the Women's Charter, meeting many of their demands, including a ban on polygamy for non-Muslims. 

In 1970, Davies received the Public Service Star and was inducted into the Singapore Women's Hall of Fame in its inaugural year, 2014. 

7 March 1944

Fiennes served in the British Army for eight years, including a period on counter-insurgency service while attached to the Army of the Sultanate of Oman. He later undertook numerous expeditions and was the first person to visit both the North and South Poles by surface means and the first to completely cross Antarctica on foot. According to the Guinness Book of World Records in 1984, he was one of the world's greatest living explorer. 

In 2005 his first attempt to summit Mt Everest almost ended in disaster. Just 300m from the top he suffered severe chest pains caused by a heart attack. He sruvived only by taking heart medication which had been prescribed after his double heart bypass surgery 2 years ago. Despite this, he made his own way slowly down the mountain. Later in 2009 he successfully summited Everest, becoming the first person to summit Everest and cross both polar ice caps. 

3 April 1934

An English primatologist and anthropologist. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 60-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees since she first went to Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania in 1960. Her research challenged 2 long-standing beliefs of the day: that only humans could construct and use tools, and that chimpanzees were vegetarians.

In 1977, she established the Jane Goodall Institute which supports research work in Tanzania National Park, and she is the global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats. 

15 February 1564 - 8 January 1642

An Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Galileo has been called the "father of observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of the scientific method", and the "father of modern science". 

He was the first to report telescopic observations of the mountains on the moon, the moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and the rings of Saturn. He was condemned by the Catholic Church as his discoveries supported the idea that the Sun, and not the Earth, was the center of the Universe, as was commonly believed at the time. 

8 January 1942 - 14 March 2018

An English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. He was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009. 

In the early 1960s Hawking contracted amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, an incurable degenerative neuromuscular disease. He continued to work despite the disease's progressively disabling effects. He worked primarily in the field of general relativity and the physdics of black holes. His work brought together 2 great revolutions of 20th century physics: quantum mechanics on microscopic scales and general relativity on ginormous scales that govern the evolution of our universe. 

15 January 1929 - 4 April 1968

An American Christian minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. King is best known for advancing civil rights through nonviolence and civil disobedience, inspired by his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi. 

King's efforts gave way to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, paving the way for a more just society in America, despite which still remains a preeminent challenge even today.

18 July 1918 - 5 December 2013

A South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. 

He fought against South Africa's white-only government's apartheid system, a system of racial segregation that privileged whites. This eventually led to his imprisonment of 27 years. On his release in 1990, he continued to fight to end apartheid, resulting in the 1994 multiracial general election in which Mandela was victorious and became president. 

Globally he is regarded as an icon of democracy and social justice. He received the Nobel Peace Prize, and is held in deep respect in South Africa, where he is described as the "Father of the Nation".

17 September 1944

Reinhold Messner was the first person to summit all 14 peaks around the world above 8000m, further doing so without supplemental oxygen. He was also the first person to cross Antarctica and Greenland with neither snowmobiles nor dog sleds. Furthermore, he crossed the Gobi Desert alone. 

He is widely considered to be the greatest mountaineer of all time. He continued to tackle mountains, usually by untried routes, establishing new routes to the top. 

Messner also published more than 80 books about his experiences as a climber and an explorer. In 2018 he received jointly with Krzysztof Wielicki the Princess of Asturias Award in the category of Sports. 

26 September 1847 - 26 April 1895

James MacRitchie worked as Municipal Engineer in Singapore in 1883. He was responsible for numerous works and immense improvements in the streets, bridges, public markets, abattoirs and other infrastructure in Singapore. He was the architect for Lau Pa Sat market, Coleman Street Bridge and many other bridges. His designs were also replicated throughout Malaya. 

Sewage and water supply was a priority for him. He is best remembered for the Thomson Road Reservoir, which is known today as the MacRitchie Reservoir. When completed, MacRitchie calculated that the reservoir gave Singapore 130 days of storage and supply based on the consumption back in 1895. 

In memorial of him after his sudden demise in 1895 aged 47, a bronze memorial panel was built, featuring 4 of his major works: Bukit Timah Filters and the Reservoir representing the waterworks achievements, and the Read Bridge and Kim Seng Bridge representing his bridge building. 

26 August 1910 - 5 September 1997

Better known as Mother Teresa, she is best known for founding the Missionaries of Charity in 1950, a Roman Catholic religious congregation that had over 4,500 nuns and was active in 133 countries in 2012. The congregation manages homes for people who are dying of HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis. It also runs soup kitchens, dispensaries, mobile clinics, children's and family counselling programmes, as well as orphanages and schools. Members take vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, and also profess a fourth vow — to give "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor.” 

From an early age, Teresa devoted herself to helping others, and her selfless dedication and unwavering commitment to humanity earned her global admiration. 

Teresa received a number of honours including the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Peace Prize and the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. She was canonised (recognised by the church as a saint) on 4 September 2016, and the anniversary of her death (5 September) is her feast day.