PREFACE 



THE death of Sir William Flower in 1899 was a 

 personal sorrow to so many friends in all stations of 

 life, and a cause of almost personal regret to so 

 many of the public, that a memoir of his life might 

 have been expected earlier. But to any one who 

 reads the following pages it will not come as a 

 surprise that the loss of so attached a husband and 

 father made it a task of a trying kind to members 

 of his family to arrange and recall the memorials of 

 a life so deeply regretted. 



His youngest son, Mr. Victor A. Flower, col- 

 lected and classified most of the material available 

 in the form of early letters and general memoranda 

 during a visit to England, before returning to 

 professional work at Singapore, and wrote the 

 first two chapters as they stand here. But as Sir 

 William's necessary correspondence increased, the 

 recipients were naturally more diffused and the 

 matter more condensed ; consequently this source 

 of information became less available as an aid to 

 the setting out of his later and more important 

 years. If in the chapters which ensue the personal 



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