From Johor Bahru Directory
Sultanah Fatimah (d. 1891) was the favorite consort of Temenggong Sri Maharaja Abu Bakar who became the Sultanah when the Maharaja became the Sultan of Johor. Very little is known of Sultan Fatimah before her marriage.[1]
2. Fatimah was a Cantonese by descent, her original name being Wong Ah Gew. "Gew" in the Cantonese dialect means "beauty and elegance". Fatimah was highly regarded by the Maharaja who consulted her on everything [2] and even named the town of the Muar district, Bandar Maharani (Maharani City) in her honour.[1]
3. Fatimah has been credited as being one of the few personages to have helped Wong Ah Fook rose from rags to riches. The Cantonese community in Singapore was not very large and it was not long before Wong Ah Fook was introduced to her. Among the Chinese, persons having the same surname are regarded as being related to one another and Fatimah treated Wong as a kinsman. As she addressed Wong as "Elder Brother", her year of birth must therefore be after 1837.
4. A story that is told among the people in Johor is that Fatimah felt sorry for Wong Ah Fook because he was so poor that he could only afford a mat to sleep on.[1] She therefore sent him a mattress. Wong, however, found the mattress very lumpy and far too uncomfortable to sleep on and when he tore it open to remove the lumps, he was astonished to find pieces of gold inside. This was how Wong obtained the capital to start his business. But whether this story has any truth in it, it is almost certain that Fatimah did persuade the Maharaja to assign Wong some of the construction work that was then going on in Johor.
5. In 1890, Tyersall House was demolished to make way for a new building, planned by both Sultan Abu Bakar and Fatimah. It had been described back then as "one of the grandest homes built in the Victorian Eclectic idiom, combining not only gothic and classical motifs, but also some Indo-Saracenic elements into the design".[3] The house, previously owned by Sultan Abu Bakar's legal adviser, William Napier, was purchased sometime in 1860 after it was advertised for sale in March 1857 by Boustead and Co. The house stood on 26 hectare of land in the Tanglin area in Singapore. Fatimah however did not see the house completed in 1892, as she died in 1891, a year before its completion.[4]
