(1907-08-12)12 August 1907 Singapore, Straits Settlements
Died
12 May 1981(1981-05-12) (aged 73) Singapore
Cause of death
Lung tumour
Resting place
Kranji State Cemetery
Political party
Independent
Spouse
Yeo Seh Geok Sheares (m. 1939–1981)[1]
Children
3
Alma mater
King Edward VII College of Medicine Royal Postgraduate Medical School
Occupation
Physician
academic
Benjamin Henry Sheares (12 August 1907 – 12 May 1981) was a Singaporean physician and academic who served as the second president of Singapore from 1971 until his death in 1981.
Sheares retired in 1960 and was in private practice before being elected as the president of Singapore by the Parliament after the death of Yusof Ishak, the former president of the Republic, on 23 November 1970.[2] He was sworn in on 2 January 1971.
Sheares initially wanted to retire after finishing his second term as he felt that he did not have the energy for another term, but Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew persuaded him to remain and Sheares took on his third term. He served as the president of Singapore for three terms from 2 January 1971 until his death on 12 May 1981. He was succeeded by Devan Nair on 23 October 1981. [3]
Benjamin Sheares remains the only Singaporean President elected for three terms and remained the longest-serving President at 10 years - a record surpassed in January 2010 by his successor S. R. Nathan.
Both the Benjamin Sheares Bridge and Sheares Hall at the National University of Singapore are named after him.[4]
^"Remembering Mrs Benjamin Sheares". Duke-NUS. Archived from the original on 9 January 2015. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
^Singapore. Parliament. Parliamentary Debates: Official Report. (30 December 1970). Election of President of Republic of Singapore (Vol. 30, cols. 378–382); Election of President today. (30 December 1970). The Straits Times, p. 6. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
^Sheares in a coma. (11 May 1981). The Straits Times, p. 1; Lee, P., Ngoo, I., & Bala, K. (13 May 1981). Singapore mourns. The Straits Times, p. 1. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
^"How they came to be named". The Straits Times, Retrieved from Newspaper SG. 16 August 1994.
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marriages and mixed offspring. Independent Singapore's second President, BenjaminSheares, was a Eurasian of English lineage. E. W. Barker, the former Law Minister...
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programme now only airs in English. In May 1981, on the day President BenjaminSheares was pronounced dead, SBC's television channels cancelled their regular...
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Chair of Clinical Medicine at the University of Singapore in May 1965. BenjaminSheares Richard Nixon Punch Coomaraswamy 8 October 1976 30 November 1976 August...
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