25 Facts About Choor Singh

Choor Singh Sidhu, known professionally as Choor Singh, was a Singaporean lawyer who served as a judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore and, particularly after his retirement from the bench, a philanthropist and writer of books about Sikhism.

Choor Singh completed his secondary education in the top class at Raffles Institution in 1929, then worked as a clerk in a law firm before becoming a civil servant in the Official Assignee's office.

Choor Singh was appointed a district judge in 1960 and a judge of the Supreme Court in 1963.

Choor Singh contributed to educational charities and causes, both Sikh and non-Sikh, and wrote several books on Sikhism.

Choor Singh Sidhu was born in Kotteh, Punjab, in India, on 19 January 1911.

Choor Singh came to Singapore at the age of four years with his mother and sister to join his father, who was already employed there as a night watchman in a godown near Boat Quay by the Singapore River.

Choor Singh attended Pearl's Hill Primary School and Outram Road School, at various stages walking 5 kilometres to school, sleeping along a five-foot way, bathing at a roadside pump and studying at night under a street lamp.

Choor Singh completed his secondary education and took the Senior Cambridge examination at Raffles Institution in the top class in 1929.

Choor Singh read law books in his leisure time and began saving money to study law in England.

In December 1949, Choor Singh was elevated to the post of magistrate, becoming the first Indian to hold such a position in colonial Malaya.

Choor Singh continued his law studies at Gray's Inn, and in 1953 was granted leave on a government scholarship to dine at Gray's Inn.

Choor Singh was one of the founding members of the Sri Guru Nanak Sat Sang Sabha, registered on 26 June 1953.

On 11 July 1960, Choor Singh became a district judge.

Choor Singh was the first judge in Singapore to impose the death penalty on a woman, Mimi Wong, a cabaret singer who murdered her Japanese lover's wife in 1970.

Between 1967 and 1979, Choor Singh was Commissioner of the Land Acquisition Appeals Board.

Impatient with nothing to do following his retirement, for about four and a half years from 1981 Choor Singh acted as a personal consultant for Tan Chin Tuan, the Chairman of the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, and other companies in the OCBC group such as Great Eastern Life and Overseas Assurance Corporation.

For many years, Choor Singh was chairman of both the Probation Committee which supervises the work of probation officers, and the Detention Board, and vice-president of the National Kidney Foundation Singapore.

Choor Singh was a member of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights and the Disciplinary Committee for advocates and solicitors.

Choor Singh participated as the chairman of a disciplinary committee set up to investigate complaints against a lawyer named Kalpanath Singh in 1989.

Choor Singh continued his close involvement with Indian and Sikh affairs.

Choor Singh was a trustee of the Singapore Sikh Education Foundation that was inaugurated in 1990 to teach Punjabi to children, and a life member of the Singapore Indian Education Trust which provides financial assistance to Singaporean Indians for their education.

On 18 January 1999, to celebrate his 88th birthday the next day, Choor Singh donated S$25,000 to the National Institute of Education.

For two years before his death, Choor Singh had found it difficult to walk.

Choor Singh died in his bed on 31 March 2009 aged 98.

Choor Singh was cremated at Mandai Crematorium after his funeral on 2 April 2009.