This was the campaign card David Saul Marshall used for the Anson by-election in 1961, which he contested – and won – as President of the Worker’s Party that he founded in 1957. A prominent lawyer and a diplomat, Marshall was Singapore’s first Chief Minister, a position he assumed when the political party he belonged to at the time, the Labour Front, won the general election in 1955. Although he was known for various contributions and ideas that included initiating the meet-the-people sessions and mooting for multilingualism, Marshall’s political career was characterised by his vision for a self-governing and subsequently independent Singapore. As illustrated by the campaign slogan on this card, Marshall was a fervent believer that Singapore should gain ‘merdeka’, or independence, sooner rather than later. Marshall retired from politics after he lost the Anson seat in the 1963 general election, which he stood as an independent candidate. He resumed his legal practice and went on to be Singapore’s Ambassador to France, Portugal and Spain.
