Thomas Dunman

Thomas Dunman (1814–1887) was an Englishman who served as the first Commissioner of Police in Singapore, Straits Settlements from 1856 to 1871. Born in the United Kingdom in 1815, Dunman had Anglo-Saxon origins from the town of Dunham in Norfolk, England. Dunman came to Singapore in 1840 as an assistant in the merchant firm Dyce & Co. He entered the police force in 1843. He was made Superintendent of Police in 1851, and Commissioner of Police in 1856. During his time heading the police force, Dunman was known for being on good terms with the people of various classes and communities within Singapore, and thus able to gain assistance and first-hand information regarding what was happening in the city. He was respected by leaders of the European community, and supported by influential Muslim Malays leaders, Straits Chinese leaders and the local Indian community. During this time, Singapore was flooded with new immigrants who often got to the then British Crown Colony though illegal means from non-British controlled part of Malaysia such as Kuala Lumpur, and also snuck in from hidden cabins in ships from India and Southeast Asia, often hiding illegal and contraband items such as drugs especially opium for sale in Singapore then with the colonial British government profiting off colonial slaves called "coolies" making them work for free by addicting them and selling them high-priced opium in opium dens. Because of this liberalization of the vice trades, many opium merchants saw Singapore as a seaport of vices where they could become rich overnight or hide their illegal gains. As a result, there were many secret societies known as "Triads". In Chinese, the underworld of criminal activity is known as "Black Society". Thomas Dunman witnessed Singapore as a colonial hotbed of crime, including sex trafficking, murders over human trafficking debt bills, known in Singapore as the slave trade of the Chinese coolies, which the Chinese referred to under the euphemism of "selling piglets" (Chinese: 卖猪仔, "Mai Zhuzai").