Maggie Lim
{{short description|Singaporean physician}}
{{use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Maggie Lim
| image = MaggieLim1936.png
| alt = A young smiling Asian woman, wearing round glasses. Her dark hair is cut to jaw length.
| caption = Maggie Lim, then Maggie Tan, from a 1936 Singapore newspaper.
| birth_name = Maggie Tan
| birth_date = 5 January 1913
| birth_place = Singapore
| death_date = November 1995 (aged 82)
| death_place = Claremont, California
| occupation = Physician, public health official, college professor
| known_for =
| father = Tan Kwee Swee
| spouse(s) = Lim Hong Bee
| relatives = {{ubl|Tan Kim Ching {paternal grandfather)|Tan Tock Seng {paternal great-grandfather)}}
}}
Maggie Lim ( 5 January 1913 – November 1995, {{zh|t=林陈美仪}}{{cite web |title=高山仰止: 50位土生社群先驱的非凡人生 |url=https://www.nhb.gov.sg/peranakanmuseum/~/media/tpm/document/exhibitions/gp%20text%20panel_chinese_compiled_20150521.pdf |website=National Heritage Board |publisher=Peranakan Museum |access-date=13 March 2022 |language=zh-sg}}) was a Singaporean physician and public health official. She was inducted into the Singapore Women's Hall of Fame posthumously, in 2014.
Early life
Maggie Tan was born into a prominent family, the daughter of businessman Tan Kwee Swee,{{Cite news|date=29 January 1937|title=Death: Tan|page=2|work=Morning Tribune|url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/morningtribune19370129-1.2.11|access-date=November 8, 2020|via=NewspaperSG}} granddaughter of businessman Tan Kim Ching, and great-granddaughter of Chinese philanthropist Tan Tock Seng.{{Cite news|date=30 January 1937|title=Father of Two Queen's Scholars|page=13|work=The Straits Times|url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19370130-1.2.90?ST=1&AT=search&k=Maggie%20Tan&QT=maggie,tan&oref=article|access-date=November 8, 2020|via=NewspaperSG}} She attended Raffles Girls' School, and later, by special arrangement, Raffles Boys' School.{{Cite news|date=29 July 1929|title=A Brilliant Scholar|page=8|work=Malaya Tribune|url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/maltribune19290729-1.2.53|access-date=November 8, 2020|via=NewspaperSG}}{{Cite web|last=Lee|first=June|date=2013-08-15|title=Rooted in Service: Legacies of a Family of Old Rafflesians|url=https://rafflesiantimes.wordpress.com/2013/08/15/rooted-in-service-legacies-of-a-family-of-old-rafflesians/|access-date=2020-11-08|website=Rafflesian Times|language=en}} In 1930, she was the first Singaporean schoolgirl to win a Queen's Scholarship. (Her brother Tan Thoon Lip won the same scholarship the previous year.){{Cite news|date=24 January 1931|title=Miss Maggie Tan, Queen's Scholar|page=12|work=The Straits Times|url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19310124-1.2.64|access-date=November 8, 2020|via=NewspaperSG}} She earned a medical degree at the London School of Medicine for Women and the Royal Free Hospital. She returned to Singapore in 1940.{{Cite news|date=19 May 1940|title=Maggie Tan Back from England Now a Doctor|page=11|work=The Straits Times|url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19400519-1.2.122|access-date=November 8, 2020|via=NewspaperSG}}
Career
During World War II, Lim was a camp doctor at Endau Settlement in Johor, supporting the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army. After the war, Lim was an obstetrician and public health official in Singapore. She worked for the Singapore Municipal Health Department at the Prinsep Street Infant Welfare Clinic, especially on promoting birth control awareness, addressing childhood infectious diseases,{{Cite news|date=23 July 1952|title=Diphtheria Cases|page=5|work=The Singapore Free Press|url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/freepress19520723-1.2.75?ST=1&AT=search&k=Maggie%20Lim&QT=maggie,lim&oref=article|access-date=November 8, 2020|via=NewspaperSG}} and expanding maternal and child clinic access.{{cite web|url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19490223-1.2.51|title=Crying Need For Family Planning|work=The Straits Times|date=23 February 1949|page=4|access-date=November 8, 2020|via=NewspaperSG}}
Lim was honorary medical officer of the Singapore Family Planning Association when it began in 1949. In early 1951, she was briefly detained with others, by the government, on charges of spreading Malayan Communist Party propaganda.{{Cite news|date=9 February 1951|title=Freed Doctor Back at Work|page=4|work=The Straits Times|url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19510209-1.2.74|access-date=November 8, 2020|via=NewspaperSG}}{{Cite news|date=6 February 1951|title=Dr. Maggie Lim, 6 Others Freed -- on Conditions|page=7|work=The Straits Times|url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19510206-1.2.114|access-date=November 8, 2020}} In 1963, she became head of the maternal and child welfare department in the Ministry of Health.{{Cite news|title=Dr. Maggie Lim|page=4|work=The Straits Times|url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19620519-1.2.31?ST=1&AT=search&k=Maggie%20Lim&QT=maggie,lim&oref=article|access-date=November 8, 2020|date=19 May 1962|via=NewspaperSG}} She was president of the Family Planning and Population Board, and an advisor to the Midwives' Council.{{Cite web|title=Maggie Lim|url=https://www.swhf.sg/profiles/maggie-lim/|access-date=2020-11-08|website=Singapore Women's Hall of Fame|language=en-GB}} She served on the Singapore Hospitals Board,{{Cite news|title=Hospitals Board Members|page=5|work=The Straits Times|url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19540410-1.2.86|access-date=November 8, 2020|date=10 April 1954|via=NewspaperSG}} and was an officer of the Singapore Paediatric Society.{{Cite news|date=6 March 1958|title=Society Officers|page=4|work=The Straits Times|url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19580306-1.2.44|access-date=November 8, 2020|via=NewspaperSG}}
Later in her career, Lim was a professor of epidemiology and public health at the University of Hawai'i's East–West Center.{{Cite news|last=Hunter|first=Pat|date=1973-05-03|title=Birth-Control Incentives Used in Asia|pages=36|work=The Honolulu Advertiser|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62809602/birth-control-incentives-used-in/|access-date=2020-11-08|via=Newspapers.com}} While in Hawai'i, she served as vice president of Hawaii Planned Parenthood.{{Cite news|date=1972-11-23|title=Group Elects New Officers|pages=42|work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62810027/group-elects-new-officers/|access-date=2020-11-08|via=Newspapers.com}}
Lim was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Physicians of London.
Personal life
Maggie Tan married another Queen's Scholar, political activist Lim Hong Bee.{{Cite book|last=Lim, Hong Bee.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/243477735|title=Born into war : autobiography of a barefoot colonial boy who grew up to face the challenge of the modern world|date=1994|publisher=Excalibur Press|isbn=1-85634-323-5|location=London|oclc=243477735}} They had two daughters; Patricia Lin, a television presenter in Singapore and later a professor in California, and Gillian Lin, a graduate of the Royal College of Music, London who performed internationally as a concert pianist and recording artist for RCA. Lim died in Claremont, California. She was posthumously inducted into the Singapore Women's Hall of Fame in 2014.
Singaporean playwright Stella Kon is Maggie Lim's grand-niece.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.roots.gov.sg/learn/collections/listing/1323280 Photographs of Maggie Lim], from National Heritage Board, Singapore.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lim, Maggie}}
Category:Singaporean public health doctors
Category:Raffles Girls' Secondary School alumni
Category:Queen's Scholars (British Malaya and Singapore)
Category:Alumni of the London School of Medicine for Women
Category:Physicians of the Royal Free Hospital
Category:20th-century Singaporean physicians