This birth certificate was issued to Mr Goh Kiew Wee on the birth of his son Goh Eng Seng on 13 May 1946 by the Singapore Municipal Registration Centre. The registration of births and deaths was not compulsory in Singapore until 1938, when the Registration of Births and Deaths Ordinance was introduced. The pre-war census in 1931 had recorded a total population of 557,745. By 1947, this figure had shot up to 938,079—a 68 per cent increase over 16 years.
