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memorial event for
professor geoffrey wilson bartholomew
23 july 2005, Moot
court
Speakers
(from left to right) Attorney-General Chan Sek Keong ’61, Dr Kevin Tan
’86, Prof R.H. Hickling,
Mrs Hendon Bte HJ Mohamed ’62 and Dr Philip Pillai ’71
 
On 23 July 2005, the Faculty
commemorated the late Professor Geoffrey Bartholomew, 6th Dean of the
Faculty and launched a campaign to establish a Professorship in his name
Many distinguished individuals gathered at the Faculty’s Moot Court to
pay tribute to a great teacher, scholar and former Dean of the law
school – the late Professor Geoffrey Bartholomew who passed away on 10
March 2005 in Sydney.
The event also saw the launch of a campaign to raise at least
$1.5million for
The Geoffrey Bartholomew Professorship. Through the Professorship, the
Faculty hopes to further the inspirational legal scholarship and, as
Attorney General Chan Sek Keong described at the memorial, the
“refreshing, provocative and stimulating” teaching best exemplified by
Professor Bartholomew. Thanks to generous contributions including those
by Principal Donors - Shook Lin & Bok, Drew & Napier, Rajah & Tann
and Allen & Gledhill, more than $450,000 has been raised so far.
Professor Bartholomew taught many prominent alumni including former
Deans Professor Tommy Koh ’61, Ambassador-at-large; Dr Thio Su
Mien ’61 and Professor S. Jayakumar ’63, Deputy Prime
Minister, Co-ordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for
Law who all attended the memorial.
Sharing their memories of Professor Bartholomew at the event were Dr
Kevin YL Tan '86; Attorney-General Mr Chan Sek Keong ’61;
Dr Philip Pillai ’71 and Professor Hugh Hickling who used to
teach at the Faculty and representing Professor Bartholomew’s former
students from Malaysia, Hendon Bte HJ Mohamed ’62.
Legendary contributions to Singapore Legal History
Dr Tan spoke of Professor Bartholomew – the Scholar. He recalled the
profound impact that the “exceedingly kind, generous, open and friendly”
Professor had on his own legal scholarship through their years of
correspondence and collaboration. Professor Bartholomew’s final
published article was a joint work with Dr Tan on the history of law
reporting in Singapore in Essays in Singapore Legal History (2005).
In the late 1980’s when the Attorney General was looking at various ways
to reform the notorious s.5 of the Civil Law Act, he invited the
Professor to write an article for the Singapore Academy of Law Journal.
The Professor produced a ‘magisterial’ work on English statutes in
Singapore law which contributed in no small part to the Application of
English Law Act 1993.
Inspirational teaching “like a tornado that hits you”
An extremely versatile teacher, Professor Bartholomew taught a wide
variety of subjects though he is best remembered for teaching Legal
History, Legal Systems, Comparative Law and Jurisprudence.
Recollections of Professor Bartholomew’s teaching style brought laughter
to lighten the mood. The Attorney-General reminisced upon his first
encounter with the Professor at his lecture on “Hermaphrodites & the
Law” in 1959 which left him and many others wondering when they would be
“assailed again with and stimulated by such a speaker on another exotic
legal topic.” Dr Pillai ‘complained’ about the Professor’s “unwelcome
but ultimately beneficial” style of teaching which involved no lecture
notes or suggested reading list which understandably greatly
discomforted his Conflicts of Law class. Dr Tan had asked many of his
former students what it was like to be taught by Professor Bartholomew
and all described the Professor as one who always spoke spontaneously in
lectures, often with a beer in hand! “His mind was encyclopaedic, his
memory formidable.”
As Dr Pillai put it, “his contributions to generations of lawyers in
Singapore and Malaysia should not pass unmarked.” The memory of this
inspiring man led Dr Pillai to spearhead the drive to establish a
Professorship at the University where Professor Bartholomew made seminal
contributions. To this day, the Professor’s teaching of Jurisprudence
has left the Attorney-General with “a life-long habit of thinking about
law in a jurisprudential way”.
Professor Bartholomew left us with his legal legacy and we should also
leave one for the law students of the future.
“[He had] an irrepressible joy and passion for the law, legal literature
and learning... he was the sunlight whose light both nurtured as well as
penetrated the minds of junior faculty” – Dr Philip Pillai ’71,
former student and later colleague of Professor Bartholomew
“He made light of everything, but behind that, there was a certain
profoundness” – Hendon Bte HJ Mohamed ’62, on the “fun sessions”
during Professor Bartholomew’s Family Law classes
“[He was] the most gifted academic lawyer I have ever met in my life” –
Professor Hugh Hickling, former teacher at the Faculty and the
first Parliamentary draftsmen and Law Review Commissioner of Malaysia
If you wish to make a contribution to The
Geoffrey Bartholomew Professorship, please contact Ms Fiza at
lawrmr@nus.edu.sg
or call 65-6516-1305
For more information on The Geoffrey Bartholomew Professorship,
please click here
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