Privilege and Hardship: The Wives of Raffles

~ Olivia and Sophia, by Rosie Milne ~

This is a version of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles and his two sojourns “Eastward” from the perspective of his two wives, Olivia and Sophia. It is not historically accurate; the author says “I treat history as first draft for a novel” (p432), explaining that the politics of the British conquest of Java and founding of Singapore were so complicated she had to simplify, then simplify her simplifications, then simplify again. Indeed, Milne has presented readers with a coherent, not over complicated narrative, which while may not be true to fact, is likely to be true to the spirit of the characters and period she researched.

Olivia was a widow when Raffles met her, and 10 years older than him. (Also, taller than him!) It seems clear she must have been an exceptionally beautiful, glamorous woman, because he took her on with full knowledge of all her debts, and with scandal attached to her name, not withstanding his own extensive ambitions even when he was young. Raffles marries Olivia and they set sail (with his sister, Mary Anne, who is on the fishing fleet), to Penang, seen as a far flung outpost of the British Empire. Raffles has high hopes he may make something of himself here.

Olivia, who was born in Madras but brought up in England keeps a diary, and the novel is structured along the diary entries she keeps, which informs the reader of developments. She depicts her husband’s growing ambitions, the politicking in the East India Company, the jostling for power amongst the Company’s employees far away from Britain but adhering to a British class system, set of values, ethical yardsticks, and morals and norms, playing out not only British social-ladder climbing in the far-flung corners of Empire, but European geopolitics too, with the French and the Dutch, using the eastern colonies and territories, and the riches they may be forced to yield, as pawns and battlegrounds.

Olivia, barely educated but literate enough, comes across as a mixture of shrewd and naïve, pragmatic and sentient. She often misspells words as she keeps her diary, (‘adjoo’ for ‘adieu’, for example, cancelling out words she knows she has misspelt  with little footnotes like “Tom tells me I sh’d spell it Leipzig”. She is unashamed of any lackings she may have, and courageous in tackling the challenges of being a Britishwoman in Malaya, Indonesia, and Java at the start of the 19^th century, with all its hardships and privileges. It is endearing how Olivia apparently does not much subscribe to the racism of her age, and expresses admiration for and interest in the local cultures, and often appreciative much she encounters. It is possible that because she herself comes from a humble background and is accustomed to suffering the slings and arrows of the British uppercrusts, she naturally has more sympathy with the underdogs, and is slow to orientalise, or much slower than her compatriots, at any rate, even if of course never completely exempt from looking through western lenses.

Through her recounting, the reader sees Raffles as depicted by his wife – hard working, driven, ambitious, kindly, honourable, interested in Malay, local customs, zoology, everything in that part of the world, but also keen on his own promotion, seeing the ventures in Penang, Java, and Singapore as stepping stones to his own fame and fortune, but fully intending to carry out his duties to rule well and benefit the locals, after first benefiting the Company, of course. Olivia’s depictions tell of Lord Minto’s patronage of Raffles – Lord Minto being the Governor General of India – who eventually appoints Raffles to Lieutenant Governor of Java. The low born but self-aware Olivia is delighted and amused to find herself Lady Governor, and although lacking snobbishness in her makeup, is able to highly enjoy her exalted status.

In her diary, we see through Olivia’s eyes Raffles’ efforts to make Java a paying concern, to protect British sovereignity, to make alliances with sultans, even reaching as far as Japan for new markets (alas, without much success). She tells of how he spends lavishly on collections (acquires a gamelan, a menagerie, etc), on anything that interests him, rendering them always in debt despite his ever rising salary. She also tells of how he plunders Borobudur – which while it may or may not be based on any fact, is extremely accurate of the mindset of colonialists, and representative of their actions.

Despite Olivia being much admired by other men and having had an adventurous past, she is faithful to Raffles, whom she respects and supports wholeheartedly, and they have a happy marriage for 9 years.

3 years after her death and after Java has been given back to the Dutch to cement Holland’s alliance with Britain against France, Raffles returns to Britain, for his health. He meets Sophia in Cheltenham, though ‘meets’ suggests more of an element of chance than Milne allows – apparently Sophia Hull, who is past her bloom and no beauty, came from Essex with her parents to Cheltenham, a favourite place to take the waters as well as catch a husband, particularly widowers. Sophia instantly makes close friends with Mary Anne, who is part of Raffles’ extensive household, and who promotes her relationship with her brother. When Raffles’ household moves to London, Sophia persuades her father to also move them to London, so she can continue her pursuit of Raffles. This pays off, and Raffles proposes marriage very quickly.

In case the reader is wondering why Raffles has chosen a woman so unlike his first wife, and moreover one with no knowledge whatsoever of the East (or “Eastward”, as they called it), and zero experience of life as a colonialist’s wife, it is quickly explained, when Sophia overhears Raffles discussing her: Raffles explained he did not seek an heiress, though he could have done so;

“She is turned of thirty, she is devotedly attached to me, and possesses every qualification of heart and mind calculated to render me happy – more I need not say”

(p241)

Sophia, for her part, thinks of Raffles,

“he is interested in everything, interesting about everything”

(p223).

She is not unhurt by hearing his “causal disregard” of her merits, but seems to be very different from the free-spirited Olivia, in being very pious, castigating herself for feeling hurt by his words:

“brooding is failing to trust in God…gallantry is for knaves”

(p241)

She is, moreover, genuinely humble:

“Moreover, I console myself it is true what Tom said: famous Governor Raffles, fellow of the Royal Society, a man on friendly terms with people of the first rank, could have married a woman much better able to promote his worldly interests than Sophia Hull” .

(p241)

Sophia is ecstatically happy to be married, to be “Mrs Thomas Stamford Raffles!!!”

Sophia is perhaps not surprisingly very jealous of Olivia, even though her predecessor is dead. She is jealous of the love Raffles may have borne for her, even though Raffles never seems to have given Sophia reason to worry. Sophia is completely unlike Olivia – which may be reason for the excessive jealousy – except for the narrative device that both liked to keep a personal diary, and through which Milne can continue this novel’s structure through the 2nd wife just as she did through the first wife, through diary entries which unfold the plotline and key events in their lives.

Only a few months after being married, Sophia becomes Lady Raffles (Raffles is knighted by King Leopold), and they set off (on the ship named for her) for Bencoolen, Sumatera, because Raffles once again needs to earn. Sophia delivers her first baby on board the ship. Unlike Olivia, she does not necessarily approve of the natives or their dress or culture, and comes across as quite prudish, priggish. But she works at learning Malay, and coping with her trying conditions with stoicism and courage. She is indeed a “stalwart” – one of her terms. Indeed, she proves exceptionally robust, managing all kinds of physical travails with minimal problems and no harm. She even gives birth in rapid succession (one baby every year) while travelling, and sometimes through very hostile terrain, on land and sea. It would seem Raffles has chosen his second wife well, finding a companion who though unlike him and not sharing his values and sentiments, is entirely devoted to him, largely uncomplaining, and extremely hardy. She moreover exemplifies the virtues of her age and class, that a wife prioritises her husband over all else, physical hardships, illness, risks, even her own children’s needs. Through Sophia’s eyes, Raffles is seen as tremendously industrious, full of plans and projects, endlessly sanguine, extremely family-oriented, very bright, honourable, high-minded. Even in her diary, written for herself, she does not criticise him, only sometimes recording oblique doubts. That said, even from her account, there is no doubt but that Raffles has his enemies and detractors. 

In this first half of the book, we read of Raffles’ getting to know William Farquhar in Penang, and then falling out with him when Farquhar regards Raffles as stealing credit for his knowledge and his recommendations; and we also meet John Crawfurd, then Resident of Yogyakarta, who seems unprepossessing at first, described as a grim, stingy Scot, who Raffles nevertheless thinks a sound appointment for his knowledge of Malay and local customs. (These two characters are, of course, soon to be the Residents of Singapore.) In this 2^nd half of the book, Milne unfolds the founding of Singapore, which takes place as a result of Raffles’ many negotiations with sultans and British elite alike. The entire novel is of course filtered through the eyes, interests, views of Raffles’ wives, and Milne depicts the geopolitical machinations as that the wives learn usually through Raffles’ own account of it, hence a naturally heavily partial and biased perspective. For example, through Raffles’ eyes, Farquhar becomes a menace to the well being of Singapore, and his wearing of a sarong, his taking of a local woman as partner, his “going native” all reason for suspicion of his soundness and judgement. And yet of course, through modern eyes, there is no doubt but that Farquhar is far better assimilated, in far deeper sympathy with those he rules, someone who was not as segregating as most colonialists tended to be, someone who merged local ways with British ways. Someone who was perhaps a couple of centuries too advanced for his time.

Tragedy hits the Raffles, with the death of 4 of their 5 very young children in rapid succession, and when they determine to leave for Britain, their ship (the Fame) catches fire, and although they survive, they lose everything they own, including their menagerie of live animals they were transporting. In this very packed final section of the book, we see Raffles negotiating to have William Farquhar removed as Resident of Singapore and replaced with John Crawfurd, in his single minded desire to see Singapore succeed – indeed, Raffles apparently regarded Singapore almost as a child of his own. The end of the novel descends into descriptions of illnesses of both the Raffles, recurring and debilitating, and much financial struggle, poor treatment from the Company, a lack of stability and funds when back in England. It is clear the life of colonialists were not all lucrative, in retirement, particularly.

A curious book in some ways – to have such a vast horizon and yet only two narrow apertures from which to look out at it. But this must have helped with Milne’s struggle to simplify and then simplify her simplifications. It may not satisfy a reader who wants to learn about Raffles’ life and chronicle his doings as a coloniser, but it does depict some of the conditions wives faced when accompanying husbands to outposts of the British Empire. They served their empire as much as their men did, even if they were unpaid and unrecognised for doing so. They were intrepid, bold, brave as the men or braver, because they were in even less control of their destinies or geographies. It is a book which may well be relished more by those who enjoy feminine and domestic detail, than those wanting to learn global geopolitics – but it is a good read all the same, telling a very exciting tale of its time, and putting some flesh on the bones of historical facts and figures.

Olivia and Sophia, by Rosie Milne. Monsoon Books, 2015