#9052, Harvey CHEVALLIER

Youngest son. Died unmarried.

Harvey was the second qualified Chartered Surveyor in Singapore - he qualified in 1883 and trained as a surveyor under Alfred William Lermit (1850-1929) who was practising in Chancery Lane.  Harvey lived with Alfred and Emily Lermit and followed them out to Singapore in 1886 where he worked for Lermit as a surveyor.  However, shortly after the formation of Swan & Lermit we find Harvey working for the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company in Singapore.  He was a District Officer in Kuala Pilah from 1891 and this is the most likely reason why he did not continue as a member of the Institution and ceased to be a Chartered Surveyor.

At times, he covered the duties of the (Acting) District Officer for Singapore, so his time in Singapore from 1891 onwards was limited.  He played an active and progressive role in his time in Kuala Pilah.  In 1900 he was in Government Service at Sungei Ujong and then as District Officer in Perak (where he was held in high regard by all those who came into contact with him, including the Sultan of Perak), he became the British Governments Administrator to British Brunei from May to December 1907 in an acting capacity, and then permanently (Brunei and Labuan) from November 1909 to November 1913.

Towards the end of his career in Brunei, his surveying and legal skills combined with his administrative skills, were put to use in November 1913 when he was involved in a disputed river rights case relating to the Sibuti river and a claim for Perpetual Cessation Money deriving from the river rights, amounting to $500 per year.  The defendants appealed against his decision in favour of the claimants, and the Supreme Court decided in favour of the appellant, which would have disappointed Chevallier, who held his own during a long cress-examination period during the appeal.  It was a fascinating case pertaining not just to land law but to the rights of inheritance of "anak gundik" ie., the morganatic or illegitimate children of a Sultan.

His surveying knowledge did receive some criticism in the The Straits Times on 28th July 1913, when he issued a Government report on the island of Labuan.  The report was descrbed as a simple array of facts and figures missing the "illuminative descriptive touch" of reports from earlier years, possibly due to a lack of time on Chevallier's part.  The only point of interest in his report was that Labuan was not stagnant and that the PWD (Public Works Department of Singapore) had carried out valuable infrastructure works in the past year for the benefit of the island.

However, his annual Reports during his time in Brunei demonstrated his strong abilities as a Government administrator, and his knowledge of land and property matters enabled him to administer matters such as land tax and the Survey Department's activities with great skill - he oversaw the transition from poll tax to land tax as well as oversight of the land demarcation effort of the Government Survey Department, which was quite intense due to efforts (driven by Chevallier in partnership with the Sultan and others) to put a zoning structure in place for future land uses such as agriculture, rubber production and mining.  He also administered prospecting licences and resulting fees for the likes of British Borneo Petroleum.  Indeed, Chevallier said in 1913 that the "prospects of finding oil are favourable, and future developments are awaited with eagerness."

Upon retiring from his position in November 1913, newspapers of the time covered his farewell (as a "hearty send-off") and departure from Labuan.  However, by November 1914 he was back in Labuan, this time as District Judge, where he had previously been District Judge back in 1904.  He retired soon after to England and died in Trimley St. Mary in Suffolk on 2nd September 1923.  He was described as a "man of kindly, quiet disposition and yet firm and just in his decisions and tactful in his dealings with the Malays."

Help is acknowledged and appreciated from Bill Jones, The History of Chartered Surveyors in Singapore (2023)