Sophia Cooke

Sophia Cooke (27 February 1814 – 14 September 1895) was a British missionary and schoolmistress at what is now St. Margaret's Secondary School in Singapore. She arranged church services in Chinese and helped distribute bibles in Malay and Arabic. She founded the YWCA in Singapore.

Life Cooke was born in Hilborough in Norfolk and for twenty years she worked as a governess before she was sent to Singapore.

The (now) oldest girls’ school in Singapore and the Far East was founded in 1842 by Maria Dyer, a missionary of the London Missionary Society. In 1853 the Society for Promotion of Female Education in the East sent Cooke to Singapore to become the Principal of what was then called the "Chinese Girls' School". The school provided a basic education for girls as well as a home for orphans. This demonstration is said to have encouraged the local churches to also offer worship in Chinese. The bibles were distributed by the Singapore Ladies' Bible and Tract Society which Cooke had set up in 1857. in 1875. There is a Sophia Cooke Ballroom and Sophia Road in Singapore is named for her.