Quah Beng Kee

The New Straits Times of 24 Sep 2018 carried an interesting article about Penang's ferry services and the part played by an entrepreneur, Quah Beng Kee (b 1872, d 1952), in its early years.

But who was Quah Beng Kee? In the book, Biographical Dictionary of the Chinese in Malaysia and Biographical Dictionary of Mercantile Personalities of Penang, it was written that he was born in Penang in 1872 and his ancestors came from Ding Wei Hou Ke She Zhuang Jiang Village in Tung-an district, Fujien province of China.

Quah Beng Kee, OBE, JP

On leaving the Free School in 1891, he worked two years in Behn Meyer & Co and then with his four brothers, established Beng Brothers, a shipping and commission agency. When the firm dissolved in 1903, he started the first ferry service between the island and the mainland. He next founded Guan Lee Hin Steamship Company with his brothers which turned into a joint stock company in 1908 and became known as Eastern Shipping Company. Its ships carried the coastal trade along Burma, Siam, Sumatra and Singapore. 

Beng Kee became Managing Director of Eastern Shipping Company Ltd which was capitalised at $1.4 million, employed 1,500 men and owned 40 small steamers. The most important were the SS Alma (1,500 tons), Rotorua (950 tons) and Pin Sing (700 tons). The company operated its own shipbuilding and repair yards equipped with modern machinery in an 18-acre site. He also had interests in various European and Asian companies including Teik Lee Guan & Co with Khaw Joo Tok and Tan Soon Ee as partners. 

He had considerable private interests in rubber, coconut and tin mining. He owned the Penang Meiha Rubber Plantations and Otaheite Estate in the Sungai Nibong area. He was a lessee of Brown's coconut estate and proprietor of Pinang Foundry that produced equipment for tin mining. He was also the managing agent of the Government liner which ran requisitioned steamers in 1918-1919, rice distributing agent of the Food Control Department in 1919-1921, director of Government rice mills at Bagan Serai and Kuala Kurau, Penang agent of the Federated Malay States Government Rice Mill, director of Amalgamated Amusements Ltd and Criterion Press, chairman of Straits Echo and adviser of Great Eastern Assurance Company of Singapore. 

As his abilities were acceptable to the colonial state, he was often called upon to serve in various capacities. Thus, in public life, he was Municipal Commissioner of George Town (1902 to 1918), Straits Settlements Legislative Councillor (1926 to 1929), made Justice of the Peace in 1910 and conferred the OBE on 1 Jan 1923 for services in connection with the shipping industry of the port.  He was a member of Penang Harbour Board (first General Manager), Licensing Board, Chinese Advisory Board, Volunteer Advisory Board, District Hospital Committee, Po Leong Kok Committee and Town Band Committee. He was co-founder, vice-president (1907 to 1912) and president (1912 to 1916) and trustee (1920 to 1952) of Penang Chinese Town Hall, trustee of Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Po Leong Kok Committee, Penang United Hokkien Chinese Cemeteries, Lam Wah Ee Hospital and Chinese Quarantine Camp, president and trustee of Swee Cheok Tong (Seh Quah Kongsi) (pre-1928 to 1952), president of Straits Chinese British Association (1925 to 1927). 

He was also a patron of Chinese education. He was a trustee of Chung Hwa High School, Hu Yew Seah Girls' School, Hu Yew Seah Literary Association and Chinese Mandarin School. He was vice-president of The Old Frees' Association and Fellow of the Royal Society of Art and the Royal Meteorological Society.

The New Straits Times story filled in the information about Beng Kee's involvement in the ferry service, which I'd like to extract and reproduce here below:

BIRTH OF THE FERRY SERVICE
Everyone on board seems to be having a whale of a time as there’s practically nothing to dislike about this iconic ferry service that first started to take root in its most basic form sometime between 1893 and 1894. The inaugural regular service was initiated by a local entrepreneur, Quah Beng Kee who, together with his four brothers, worked under the collective name, Beng Brothers.

The siblings descended from a well-established Straits Chinese family headed by their China-born father, Quah Joo Moey who immigrated to Penang in the middle of the 19th century. Beng Kee, born in 1872, was educated in Penang Free School and Roberts’ College in Calcutta, India. He married the daughter of Chew Choo Im, the Chinese Kapitan of Deli in Dutch-ruled Sumatra and had five sons and two daughters.

The Beng Brothers’ service operated between Kedah Pier on the island and Bagan Tuan Kecil Pier in Butterworth. Apart from this main route, they also provided transportation services to other nearby areas like Teluk Ayer Tawar, Bagan Ajam, Bagan Luar, Simpang Empat, Bukit Tambun and Kuala Kurau. As motorised vehicles were yet to make their appearance at that time, the fleet only consisted of three large steamers and seven smaller steam launches.

BUSINESS EXPANSION
A few years later, in 1897, Beng Kee bought out his siblings’ shares in Beng Brothers and began operating the ferry service under his own company, Guan Lee Hin Steamship Company. When his business prospered in tandem with growing passenger and cargo demand, Beng Kee made the decision to convert his concern into a limited company and named it the Eastern Shipping Company Limited.

Besides maintaining its lucrative local ferry service, the Eastern Shipping Company Limited extended its activities by running ships regularly between Penang and ports in other parts of Malaya, Sumatra, Siam (today Thailand) and Burma (now Myanmar).

While keeping a close watch on his expanding shipping venture, Beng Kee also made his fortune by exporting copra from his Penang estates in Glugor and Sungai Nibong. He also dabbled in iron works and owned the Penang Foundry.

The onset of the First World War in 1914 witnessed the Straits Settlements Government requisitioning all local steamers including those belonging to the Eastern Shipping Company Limited. Thanks to the limited effects of the war on Malaya, the authorities released the vessels back to their owners by the end of that same year.

It was business as usual for Beng Kee until 1922 when he accepted a lucrative offer from Singapore’s Straits Steamship Company Limited to take over the ferry service between Kedah Pier and Bagan Tuan Kecil Pier. The new owners’ tenure, however, proved to be short-lived as the venture changed hands once again when the Penang Harbour Board gained control on Dec 1, 1924.