Person:Boon Chew (2)

Following the death of his peasant father when he was 13 or 14 years old and his mother a few years later, Chew Boon Lay left China to join his uncle in Bangkok. After slaving for his uncle for three years, he found work as a clerk on board a Chinese trading junk and eventually settled in Singapore.One of Singapore's early pioneers, Chew started a soap manufacturing business, followed by a biscuit factory in 1898. Around 1931, Ho Ho Biscuit Factory expanded operations and he sent his eighth son, Chew Hock Hin, to head the branch in Batavia (present-day Jakarta). Chew also bought large tracts of land in Jurong to cultivate gambier and pepper, and later rubber where he made his biggest fortune.The Chew family lived in Oxley Road, then Hillside Drive, before eventually moving to four adjoining houses in Devonshire Road.Chew is buried at Bukit Brown cemetery. He left behind six sons, three daughters, six daughters-in-law, two granddaughters-in-law and twenty-four great grandchildren.

1.   Ong, Chwee Im; Evelyn Chew; and Kheng Chuan Chew. Chew Boon Lay : A Family Traces Its History: A Family Album. (Singapore: Ong, Chwee Im, c2002).