Hugh Low

Sir Hugh Low, (10 May 182418 April 1905) was a British colonial administrator and naturalist. After a long residence in various colonial roles in Labuan, he was appointed as British administrator in the Malay Peninsula where he made the first trials of Hevea rubber in the region. He is often considered the first successful British administrator in the region, whose methods became models for subsequent British colonial operation in the entire South East Asia Region.

Early life Low was born in Upper Clapton, England, the son of a Scottish horticulturist, also named Hugh. He is not related to James Low, the Scottish East India Company officer active in the northern Malay states and Siam from the 1820s to 1850.

At an early age, he acquired botanical expertise working in the family nursery. At 20, his father sent him on a collecting expedition for orchids to Southeast Asia. He based himself in Singapore but soon joined James Brooke, the White Rajah, in Sarawak. In the months following he became well enough acquainted with interior of Sarawak to write a definitive book on it on his return home. In 1847, Brooke was appointed Governor of the recently established British colony of Labuan and Consul General of Borneo. He made Low his Colonial Secretary (18481850) and William Napier Esq., Lieutenant Governor. They, and Napier's daughter, Catherine, returned to the Far East in 1848.

Labuan Low married Catherine Napier when they reached Singapore on 12 August 1848 at St Andrew's Cathedral They had a son Hugh "Hugo" Brooke Low (18491887) and a daughter Catherine "Kitty" Elizabeth Low (18501923[?]). Low also married a local Malay woman named Siti Hawa. The marriage ended with the death of Catherine from fever in Labuan on 1851. Low buried her and 14 other fever victims at night in his garden of new Government House (known to locals as Bumbung 12, Malay: "twelve roofs") which he designed, due to fear of the potential headhunting by the Dayaks ransacking of graves as they had earlier done at the Christian cemetery. The children were taken care of by their grandfather and uncle.

Perak In April 1877, Low was transferred to the Malay Peninsula and became the fourth Resident of Perak. By the terms of the Pangkor Treaty, the Resident was an adviser whose decision were binding in all matters except for custom or religion. The first Resident, J. W. W. Birch, had been murdered in 1874 over his excessively heavy handed approach, precipitating a war that left nearly all high-ranking Malay officials either dead or in exile. The second meanwhile, had quit over poor pay and disagreements with the governor. Feeling that Perak deserved better and getting increasingly frustrated by the apparent sacrifice of quality for proximity, the Colonial Office would subsequently select Low at the suggestion of Robert Henry Meade, with him being highly regarded as a safe pair of hands.

The Sultan at the time was Raja Yusuf, a highly unpopular chief appointed solely because of his lack of complicity in the death of the previous Resident. As such, Low knew that a strong grip would be needed and that he must rule firmly through the chiefs, as should it be believed Low could not control Yusuf, there risked further unrest. Learning from the mistakes of the previous Residencies, the government would move his headquarters to Kuala Kangsar so as to remain in close proximity to the chiefs, and one of his first acts was to walk from Larut to Matang, conversing with locals so as to get a feel for his new parish. Finding many of the arrangements not to his satisfaction, he quickly ascertained that sound financial management would be the key to running the state effectively, and set about gathering information and cutting down on unnecessary outlays. His first court in Larut was received well however, with him explaining his intention remaining accessible and governing for their benefit, and promising employment for police and penghulus who deserved it.

Much of his focus was in managing the rulership of Yusuf - whilst no fool, the new Sultan seemed to care about little except for milking the role for all it was worth and venting his own spiteful views. His move to Kuala Kangsar meant that he was able to visit him much more frequently than Birch could to Abdullah, who had refused to even live in the same kampong, and the Raja would visit him almost every day, regardless of summons. Their long discussions would allow Low to get to know Yusuf well, giving him advice ranging from land policy to how to conduct himself around town. At various points he would also have to admonish both Yusuf and his deputy, Raja Idris, for issuing orders in his name, such as when they tried to legally mandate mosque attendance for Muslims. Gradually however, he was able to train them into more effective rulers.

Drawing upon the example Frank Swettenham had set as the previous Resident's assistant, Low would also work closely with local Malay leaders of the various areas of Perak, simultaneously compensating them for their loss of power whilst extending British administrative reach at little cost. Low thus made visiting and consulting the various chiefs an immediate priority, and found that whilst all were polite, the differing levels of exposure to Europeans led to significant variation in outlook, with more urban areas generally being more favorable to the British. Low would subsequently provide small subsidies to many chiefs and headmen as a means both of bringing them closer to the government and of studying their own suitability for their role. He recognised however that this was a delicate process heavily dependent on his own judgement, and was always conscious of the risk of "being made a tool of".

In his first year, he laid down the principle that in order to retain their right to the mining land that they owned, owners of mining land were obliged to see that their land was worked. Within eight years, he saw slavery abolished in the state. In 1885 he established the first railway line in the Malay Peninsula from Taiping to Port Weld (now Kuala Sepetang). He also helped set up the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Group portrait with Hugh Low, the British resident of Perak, and two Malaysian rajas, local administrators in Perak and Larut, 1880 or 1881. In his 12 years in Perak, Low firmly established a peaceful administration. He created a state council that included the principal Malay, Chinese and British leaders and was notably successful in making use of prominent local leaders at most levels of his administration.

During his time there was a controversy between James Innes, British magistrate in Selangor, and Sir Hugh Low, Resident of Perak, over the issue of debt-slavery in Malaya. Innes attempted to implicate Low, accusing him of abetting the practice of slavery in Perak when he was actually trying to abolish it. Low created a model rubber plantation in Malaya although this is sometimes mis-attributed to Henry Ridley who continued the work after a decade. Low also collected specimens of plants and butterflies from the region.

Low died on 18 April 1905 in Alassio, Italy.

Honours

Several species are named to commemorate his work as collector, naturalist and orchidologist:

Plants Rhododendron lowii, Rhododendron Nepenthes lowii, pitcher plant Vatica lowii Myristica lowiana

Orchids Dimorphorchis lowii, Dimorphorchis (originally Vanda, then Arachnis) Dendrobium lowii, Dendrobium Paphiopedilum lowii, lady's slipper Plocoglottis lowii, Plocoglottis Malaxis lowii, Malaxis Phalaenopsis lowii

Insects Sarothrocera lowii, a beetle Neorina lowii, a butterfly Papilio lowi, a butterfly

Reptiles Calamaria lovii, a snake

Mammals Ptilocercus lowii, pen-tailed treeshrew Sundasciurus lowii, Low's squirrel

and places: Low's Peak, the highest peak of Southeast Asia, on Mount Kinabalu, Borneo Low's Gully Hugh Low Street, at Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. The street name has changed to Jalan Sultan Iskandar, but locals still call it Hugh Low Street. It was once a busy two-way street, but since the name change and turning into a one-way street, the street has lost its glamour. There was once an arch; this was removed in 1986 when Hugh Low Street turned into a one-way street.