Constance Sydney Holmes

Constance Sydney Holmes (1858 – 22 November 1947), usually known as Sydney Swettenham, was the first wife of British colonial official Frank Swettenham, the first Resident-General of the Federated Malay States.

Lady Swettenham
Born
Constance Sydney Holmes

1858
Died22 November 1947(1947-11-22) (aged 88–89)
Wyke House Lunatic Asylum, Isleworth, Middlesex
Spouse(s)
​
(
m. 1878; div. 1938)
Parent(s)Cecil Frederick Holmes
Constantia Louisa Laugher

Early life

She was the oldest daughter of Cecil Frederick Holmes, who was master of Druries house at Harrow School, and Constantia Louisa Laugher. Among her siblings was younger sister Violet Marion Holmes (a wife of Bertram Pemberton Stedall and Edward Burgess Weatherall).[1] The family were "members of the well-to-do Victorian middle class."

Personal life
A view of Sydney Lake with the governor's residence Carcosa Seri Negara on a hill in the background, c. 1910.

In the summer of 1877, she was introduced to Frank Swettenham, a rising star in the British colonial civil service, whom she married in February 1878.[2] Sydney was nineteen when she married and Frank Swettenham was twenty-seven years old. The couple sailed together for Singapore shortly after the wedding. [3]

Sydney Swettenham initially threw herself into the social life of the colony, participating in activities such as tennis tournaments and amateur theatricals, and seems to have enjoyed considerable popularity during the early years of her marriage. However, the combination of the strain of her husband's infidelities and a family predisposition towards mental illness eventually led to the breakdown of the marriage and her commitment to an insane asylum in England. The Swettenhams were finally divorced in 1938 (Frank Swettenham remarried shortly thereafter).[4]

Lady Swettenham outlived her husband by a year, dying on 22 November 1947 at Wyke House Lunatic Asylum, Isleworth, Middlesex.[5]

Legacy

In Kuala Lumpur, the first large-scale recreational park was established in 1888, and an artificial lake was created and named "Sydney Lake" in her honor. The lake was later renamed Tasik Perdana.[6]

Malaysian actress and playwright Sabera Shaik wrote a play based on Sydney Swettenham's life entitled 'Lady Swettenham', which was staged at the Experimental Theatre in Kuala Lumpur in 1995 (as a two-person play with Sabera Shaik and Lina Othman) and again with an expanded cast in Kuala Lumpur in May 2004 (produced by the Masakini Theatre Company).[7] This play attempted to look sympathetically at Sydney Swettenham as a significant character in her own right, albeit a tragic one, and not simply as the wife of a colonial official.

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References
  1. The Illustrated London News. Illustrated London News & Sketch Limited. 1887. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  2. Cox, Ailsa (2009). The Short Story. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 106. ISBN 978-1-4438-0752-4. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  3. Barlow, Henry S. (1995). "Chapter 14 Leave and Married Life". Swettenham. Kuala Lumpur: Southdene.
  4. Ming, Ho Tak (2015). PHOENIX RISING, PIONEERING CHINESE WOMEN OF MALAYSIA: (sampling). Perak Academy. p. 21. ISBN 978-983-42500-5-8. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  5. Barlow, Henry S. (1995). Swettenham. Kuala Lumpur: Southdene. p. 728.
  6. Isa, Mariana; Kaur, Maganjeet (2015). Kuala Lumpur Street Names: A Guide to Their Meanings and Histories. Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd. p. 615. ISBN 978-981-4721-44-8. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  7. Chuah, Gerald (March 29, 2004). "'Lady Swettenham' on stage". New Straits Times (Malaysia).
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