The historical reputation of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, owes more to his second wife, Sophia Raffles, than to any other person. Lady Raffles's Memoir traces Raffles's remarkable career from its humble beginnings as a junior clerk in the East India Company's offices in London, to his becoming Lieutenant-Governor of Java and its dependencies during the Napoleonic Wars, and of West Sumatra during 1818-24, when he founded Singapore and laid down the regulations for its government.