James Lornie
{{short description|British colonial official in Malaya}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = James Lornie
| image = James Lornie.png
| order = 14th British Resident of Selangor
| office =
| term_start = 1927
| term_end = 1931
| predecessor = Henry Wagstaffe Thomson
| successor = Geoffrey Cator
| birth_date = 1876
| occupation = Colonial administrator
| death_date = 30 March 1959
| honorific_suffix = CMG
}}
James Lornie CMG (1876 – 30 March 1959) was a Scottish colonial administrator who became the 14th British Resident of Selangor, Federated Malay States, serving from 1927 to 1931.
Early life
James Lornie was born in 1876 and educated at Edinburgh University where he received a BSc and MA.{{Cite news |date=4 April 1931 |title=A Journal in the Federal Capital |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19310404-1.2.94 |work=The Straits Times |pages=16}}
Career
In 1899, Lornie joined the civil service of the Straits Settlements as a cadet and was sent to Malacca. After being appointed as acting head of Malay College in the town he occupied various administrative posts in government including Acting Assistant Registrar of the Supreme Court, magistrate and sheriff in Malacca, Acting District Officer Penang (1904–05) and Sitiawan, Perak (1908 –1910).{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/whoswhoinfareast00hongrich |title=Who's who in the Far East, 1906-7, June |date=1906 |publisher=Hongkong, China mail |others=University of California Libraries |pages=206}}
In 1911, Lornie went to Singapore to join the Land Office as Collector of Land Revenue and remained there for the next 11 years eventually becoming its head. During his tenure he became the leading authority on land values in Singapore stating in a case before the Supreme Court, as proof of his experience, that he had valued many millions of property for the Municipality and the Commissioner of Stamps.{{Cite news |date=18 May 1922 |title="Chinese Millionaires' Palaces." |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/singfreepressb19220518-1.2.21.1 |work=The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884-1942) |pages=7}} His largest undertakings included purchasing the land for the new Singapore naval base for $1.1 million for the government, and the acquisition of the land for Singapore municipality's new power station for $900,000. In 1925, he was appointed Deputy President of the Singapore Municipal Commissioners.{{Cite news |date=3 January 1931 |title=The New Year Honours. |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/maltribune19310103-1.2.42?qt=james,%20lornie&q=James%20Lornie%20 |work=Malaya Tribune |pages=8}}
In 1926, Lornie left Singapore and went to Selangor to become the state's British Resident.{{Cite journal |last=Lees |first=Lynn Hollen |date=2009 |title=Being British in Malaya, 1890-1940 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25482963 |journal=Journal of British Studies |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=76–101 |jstor=25482963 |issn=0021-9371}} This surprised many as he had spent very little time during his career in the Federated Malay States. One of the measures which he introduced was the Alien Ordinance which banned male migrants from mainland China from coming to the state of Selangor.{{Cite journal |last1=Wen |first1=Wei |last2=Wong |first2=Tze Ken Danny |date=2020-11-20 |title=The Development of Cantonese Chinese Community in the Klang Valley, 1860-1941 |url=https://ejournal.um.edu.my/index.php/JCLC/article/view/28226 |journal=Journal of Chinese Literature And Culture 馬大華人文學與文化學刊 |language=en |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=1–24 |issn=2821-3580}} After spending four years in the position he retired in 1931 to Buckinghamshire, and died on 30 March 1959.{{Cite news |date=29 November 1934 |title=Malayans in London. |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitsbudget19341129-1.2.45 |work=The Straits Budget |pages=7}}{{Cite news |date=31 March 1959 |title=Obituary |work=Times |pages=10}}
Writings
Lornie wrote a paper on Land Tenure which appeared as a chapter in the book One Hundred Years of Singapore (1921).{{Cite book |last1=Braddell |first1=Roland St John |url=http://archive.org/details/onehundredyearso01braduoft |title=One hundred years of Singapore : being some account of the capital of the Straits Settlements from its foundation by Sir Stamford Raffles on the 6th February 1819 to the 6th February 1919 |last2=Brooke |first2=Gilbert Edward |last3=Makepeace |first3=Walter |date=1921 |publisher=London : Murray |others=Robarts - University of Toronto |pages=301–313}}
Honours and legacy
In 1931, he was awarded the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG).{{Cite book |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C10220524 |title=Catalogue description The Order of St Michael and St George: Colonial Office |date=1930}} The road Lornie Drive (now Jalan Syed Putra) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was named after him.{{Cite book |last1=Isa |first1=Mariana |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FuHkjwEACAAJ |title=Kuala Lumpur Street Names: A Guide to Their Meanings and Histories |last2=Kaur |first2=Maganjeet |date=2015-09-15 |publisher=Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd |isbn=978-981-4721-44-8 |language=en}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lornie, James}}