Dear Narelle Catling,
Thank you for your message. Captain William Lingard (aka Rajah Laut) was my great great grandfather, or at the very least the adoptive father of my great grandmother, Caroline Lingard. If this sounds odd, I think Caroline was William's "natural" daughter. I am well aware of the Singapore Newspaper websites. My family had at least four generations there - my mother left in 1927. However, a great aunt - mentioned below - died in the 1980's, in Singapore
You are correct with the Joseph Conrad connection. He did not know William Lingard but did know my great grandfather (husband of Caroline), Frederick Havelock Brooksbank (1858-1914). Almayer is an alternative spelling of Olmeijer. It is fair to say that William Lingard (Tom Lingard in three of Conrad's books) set up a trading post in (then) NE Borneo, now Kalimantan, which was managed by Charles Olmeijer. ( The books are Almayer's Folly, The Outcast of the Islands and most prominently (for a description of Lingard), The Rescue.)
The difficulty comes with separating fact from fiction. Joseph Conrad was a great novelist and a mariner as indeed were my great and great/great grandfathers above. He was also, of course, a storyteller, not a historian. It has been the subject of many debates in our family, not to say disagreements!
You have been kind to offer your advice. However, there have been more recent books. If you have an interest, and your knowledge does suggest that, there is Norman Sherry's, "Conrad's Eastern World", (CUP 1966) which mentions my great grandfather and some interviews Sherry had with my great aunt, Lena Brooksbank, in Singapore. More recently the author Gavin Young wrote "In Search of Conrad". I have also contacted Professor Hampton of Royal Holloway College , London University and Dr. Andrew Francis both of the journal, "The Conradian". It seems I know some things that even academics do not, especially when it comes to my own ancestry... irrespective of their knowledge of Conrad!
Should you wish to communicate further then I'm all ears. My email is
totaludditte@gmail.com and my name is Richard. I'm planning to go to Singapore and Kalimantan later this year which shouldn't be too difficult because I live in Thailand!
I shall be looking at the links of One Hundred Years of Singapore. I can also recommend, Singapore, A Biography by Mark Frost, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow, EDM/National Museum of Singapore 2009
With best wishes and thanks for all the trouble you've taken to inform me
Richard Bartholomew