Raffles–Singapore’s most famous Historic Hotel
Named after Thomas Stamford Raffles who came to the islands in 1819 on behalf of the British East India Trading Company and developed the southern part of Singapore as a trading post and settlement. The entire island became a British Colony in 1824 and remained so until World War II when the British surrendered Singapore to the Japanese in 1942. The British repossessed the island in 1945, one month after the Japanese surrendered.
Singapore officially gained sovereignty in 1965.