This jacket belonged to Mrs Benjamin Sheares, the wife of Singapore’s second President, Mr Benjamin Sheares. Mrs Sheares was born Yeo Seh Geok (b.1917-2014) in Quanzhou, a small town near Xiamen in the southern Fujian province of China. She came to Singapore in the late 1930s to escape the Japanese invasion of China. Soon after, she started training as a midwife at the Kandang Kerbau Hospital (KKH). In 1939, she married Dr. Benjamin Sheares, an established surgeon who later became the president of Singapore from 1969 to 1981. This jacket bears similarity to the Peranakan kebaya, but was worn by Mrs Sheares over her cheongsam for more formal events. She wore this jacket to receive dignitaries at the Istana, including the Singapore High Commissioner to Malaysia in 1973, the Ambassador of the Khmer Republic to Singapore in 1974 and the Indian High Commissioner in 1975. Mrs Sheares also wore this jacket to some of the public events she attended, such as the 15th annual sports meet of the Spastic Children’s Association (now known as Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore). Wearing Western-style jackets over the cheongsam to provide a more formal look was a trend starting in the 1960s.
