Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (26 July 1781-5 July 1826) founded Singapore, and is one of the best-known of the many Britons who created the largest empire the world has ever seen. Little is known of Raffle's parents. He started working as a clerk in London when he was 14 years old for the British East India Company, the quasi-government trading company that shaped much of England's overseas conquests.
In 1805, he was sent to what is now Penang in the country of Malaysia, and then called Prince of Wales Island, starting a long association with southeast Asia.
Raffles was also a founder and first president of the Zoological Society of London. He was knighted in 1817.
In Singapore,his name lives on in Raffles Junior College, Raffles Institution, Raffles Hotel, Stamford Road, Stamford House, Raffles City and Raffles Place, while he is also remembered in the name of the largest flower in the world, the Rafflesia.
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