Sophia Cooke

Sophia Cooke (27 February 1814 – 14 September 1895) was a British missionary and schoolmistress at what is now St. Margaret's Secondary School in Singapore. She arranged church services in Chinese and helped distribute bibles in Malay and Arabic. She founded the YWCA in Singapore. Life Cooke was born in Hilborough in Norfolk and for twenty years she worked as a governess before she was sent to Singapore. The (now) oldest girls’ school in Singapore and the Far East was founded in 1842 by Maria Dyer, a missionary of the London Missionary Society. In 1853 the Society for Promotion of Female Education in the East sent Cooke to Singapore to become the Principal of what was then called the "Chinese Girls' School". The school provided a basic education for girls as well as a home for orphans. Cooke would use her influence to persuade the Anglican chaplain to begin a mission there. The society paid Cooke's salary but she had to rely on fund raising to keep the school viable. She arranged for Christian services to be conducted in Chinese in the school grounds. This demonstration is said to have encouraged the local churches to also offer worship in Chinese.