Early life of David Marshall

The early life of Singaporean politician, lawyer, and diplomat David Marshall comprises the first 29 years of his life, from 1908 to 1937. The first chief minister of Singapore, Marshall was born to Jewish immigrant parents in British colonial Singapore on 12 March 1908, the second of seven children. Throughout his youth, he fell sick often and had a strict Jewish upbringing. He was interned at six-years-old in 1914 when he travelled to Baghdad and was arrested for having a British passport. Marshall returned to Singapore in 1917, where he attended kindergarten at the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus at Victoria Street.

In 1918, he studied at Saint Joseph's Institution, but was expelled for skipping class. He then studied at Saint Andrew's Secondary School and later at Raffles Institution in 1923. He studied to attempt to win the Queen's Scholarship, but fell ill and was sent to Switzerland to recover. Marshall went on to study textile manufacturing in Renaix, Belgium, and returned to Singapore in 1927. During the Great Depression, he worked as a textile representative and later a salesman. He saved up money to study law in London and began studying at the University of London as an external student in 1934. Marshall came back to Singapore by June 1937 after completing his dinners with Middle Temple.

Ancestry

Saul Nassim Mashal David Marshall's father, Saul Nassim Mashal, was born in 1880 in Baghdad, Mesopotamia, the eldest of nine to Nissim Mashal (1853–1923) and Farha Sadka (1857–1937). Saul's family were merchants who sold dyed cloths. The family name of Mashal was Arabic for torch. According to family legend, the surname originated with Nissim Heskiel Mashal (1778–1848), the first known ancestor of the Mashals. He was so named due to a streak of red in his hair that bore a resemblance to a torch or beam of light. Saul's father, Nissim Mashal, and his grandfather, Za'aroor Yona, were both born in Baghdad; beyond Za'aroor, Marshall's male line of ancestry is unknown. Za'aroor was probably born around the beginning of the 1800s and his occupation is unknown. He married Hannah Mashal (1815–1891), and together they had four children, Jonathan (1850–1948), Nissim, Eliahoo (1859–1925), and Habiba (1862–1892). Among their four children, Nissim was the only one to take his mother's surname of Mashal. Hannah was the only daughter and youngest child of Nissim Heskiel Mashal.

Saul was known to have studied for a year in schools created by the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU). Saul arrived in British colonial Singapore in 1900 around Ramadan to recover from jaundice, but sensed economical success in Singapore and set up a business; he had been inspired by businessman Manasseh Meyer's own trips to Singapore. His business was located in Change Alley, where he sold goods from the Middle East and India. At the time, he spoke Arabic, Turkish, and French, later picking up "fluent if accented English". With business going well, he decided to stay in Singapore and soon brought his wife Flora over, having left her in Baghdad. They had married two years prior.; Chan describes Saul as a "tall, well-built man [who] was an unusual combination of business dynamism and a reticence." In later years, Saul and Flora would separate, and Saul later died in 1953 in Sydney, Australia.

Flora Ezekiel Mashal Marshall's mother, Flora Ezekiel Mashal (died 1948; born Mariam Farha Khan), is considered by the author Kevin Y. L. Tan to have a "rather mysterious past". Tan suggests that her father was named Khan, while the academic Chan Heng Chee in her biography of Marshall states that her father was named Gahtan. According to Chan, Flora came from Isfahan, Persia (present-day Iran). Flora's stepmother was described as "a tall and beautiful lady with blue eyes" by Chan, based on an interview with Marshall. Family legend states that when Flora's stepmother gave birth to her first son, so did the Queen of the royal house of Persia. As the Queen was unable to breast-feed her son, the Crown Prince, Flora's stepmother served as his wet nurse. When the Crown Prince reached adulthood, he gave his wet nurse two 30-carat emeralds in a silk bag. In Chan's interpretation, she believes that Flora's stepmother could have served as the wet nurse to any male offspring of the royal family, not necessarily being the Crown Prince. If Flora's stepmother had given birth to her son around the close of the 1800s, then the Crown Prince would have been Ahmad Shah Qajar, who was born on 21 January 1898. However, this story remains unverified.;

Flora's father, either Khan or Gahtan, was said to have been a bullion trader based in Isfahan. In 1889, the Imperial Bank of Persia was established and given by the Shah of Iran Naser al-Din Shah Qajar to entrepreneur Paul Reuter to manage. The bank issued the first paper currency, but faced struggles as its notes were circulated slowly due to "dealing houses" drawing large sums from their banks and converting the notes into gold and silver. According to Marshall, relating this story to the historian and rabbi Louis Rabinowitz, this led to bullion traders making large profits which threatened to destabilise the economy. This led to eight traders being arrested, among them being Flora's father. The other seven were made to drown in a river, but Flora's father was spared as his wife was recognised as a former wet nurse to the Crown Prince. Therefore, he left to Iraq after being given four hours to do so. Rabinowitz states that this story by Marshall was relating to his paternal grandfather, not his maternal, however Tan notes that Rabinowitz was incorrect in this assumption. Flora's father was known to have escaped to Baghdad, where he continued a successful career.; , cited in

Flora had an elementary education at AIU schools in Baghdad, studying for a year. She had managed to attend school as she came from a prosperous family, with most girls not receiving schooling at the time. She arrived in Singapore shortly after her husband Saul had settled down there, being accompanied by a shoehet on her trip. Flora and Saul would separate, and she died in 1948 in Israel.;

Childhood Upon Flora's arrival, the Mashals began their family. Their first child was Victoria Rachel, who was born in 1907. Tan states she died young from an illness in 1919 or 1920, with Chan writing that it was from a "fatal fever". David Saul Mashal, their second child, was born on 12 March 1908 at 81 Selegie Road, a shophouse; below them was a Chinese business that sold coffins. He was named after the biblical figure David. Following Marshall were his siblings Rose (1909–1963), George (1911–1945), Samuel (born 1913), Meyer, and Rothschild. Tan suggests that there could have been another son who was born in Baghdad sometime in 1920, but died in his infancy from measles.;

In his youth, Marshall lived in a two-storey terrace house at Sophia Road, which was generally a middle class neighbourhood. Saul was known to have moved the family frequently depending on his fluctuating wealth, and he also engaged in selling properties. The Mashals would move to Wilkie Road, then to houses in Marine Parade, Sea Avenue, and Chapel Road.; In 1920, the Mashals anglicised their surname to Marshall at the advice of a family doctor, Sir David Galloway. Saul's brother's family, who were living in England, had similarly changed their surname to Marshall.; He recalled in a 1984 interview that:Marshall 1984, p. 1, quoted in I was in bed with my usual bout of malaria, five days every 40 days. And I remember Sir David Galloway, our doctor, a florid Englishman with a monocle to his eye, saying, "I can't pronounce this outlandish name. Why don't you anglicise it, man? Why don't you anglicise it?" And my poor humble father saying, "How do you anglicise it?" "Put an 'r' in it man. Put an 'r' in it." So from 'Mashal' which means a torch, it became 'Marshall'.

World War I In 1914, Flora had wanted to return to Baghdad after fourteen years of living in Singapore to see her parents and seek out a physician as she had been ill at the time. She brought along her two eldest sons, Marshall and George, and a Chinese amah, Ah See Kah. Upon their arrival however, they were detained by the Turks for holding British passports, as this was during the Mesopotamian campaign. They were then placed under house arrest, where they alternated living between David's maternal and paternal grandparents' homes. During their stay, they had been encouraged by the British to leave Baghdad via ships leaving Mesopotamia. However, these ships were full and they would have to sleep on the decks, which Flora refused to do so. Therefore, they stayed in Baghdad for the next three years, until the British liberated Baghdad in 1917.;

In Baghdad, the Turkish authorities were lax in law enforcement, with David's maternal grandfather frequently bribing officials. Tan believes this is when Marshall picked up malaria, which would affect him later in Singapore. Restricted to town, Marshall played in the streets and attended kindergarten, where he learnt Hebrew and Arabic. Upon British liberation, the Mashals returned to Singapore. When Marshall returned to Singapore, the family was living in a shophouse at Adis Road, which was an area considered more upper class.

Religion

Flora was a deeply religious individual, with her devotion stated to have later estranged her from the family. She was from a sadik family and was more faithful and devoted as compared to Saul.; The historian Melanie Chew in Leaders of Singapore described his parents as ultra-orthodox Jews. Marshall received a religious education at the Talmud Torah Hebrew School, which was located at Bencoolen Street behind the Maghain Aboth Synagogue, where he was taught Hebrew for an hour every week. He also was taught the Old Testament in Hebrew. Additionally, he frequently went to the synagogue and observed the Sabbath. Marshall had his bar mitzvah when he was thirteen-years-old.

It was around this age where he began to question his religious practices, regarding it as "hypocrisy and illogicality". For example, he did not understand why, as the Jewish could not handle money on Saturdays, that instructing their driver to do so on their behalf was allowed. They were also not allowed to use light switches, as it would have been touching fire on the Sabbath, yet it was fine for their servant to do so for them. By fourteen-years-old, Marshall had stopped conforming with Judaism and religion as a whole.; Regardless of this, Marshall continued to be involved with the Jewish community in later years and considered himself a Jew despite not following Jewish practices.Marshall 1984, p. 8, quoted in

Education

Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus Upon David's return from Baghdad in 1917, his parents sought to enrol him in school as he was two years behind his cohort and illiterate in English. They did not focus so much on the type of education their children received, more so that their children were enrolled in schools. He rarely received acknowledgement from his parents for academic prizes. Flora had initially sought out schools similar to that of the AIU, but was unsuccessful. She then sent Marshall to the kindergarten run by the Catholic nuns at the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus by Victoria Street. He spent a short time at the Convent kindergarten, having moved to St. Joseph's Institution (SJI) by 1918.;

On his first day, he received racist and anti-Semitic remarks, with a classmate stating "Jaudi Jew, brush my shoe, bring it back at half-past-two." Marshall punched this classmate in the face and was punished by a nun when he did not express remorse or apologise for his actions.

St. Joseph's Institution