Grave of Captain John Glass

Captain John Glass (23 February 2009)


The grave of Captain John Glass is credited with helping Francis Light maintain his hold on Penang Island when it was threatened by the Sultan of Kedah.

He arrived in Penang on the HMS Crown in 1791. He was sent by the East India Company from Calcutta after news arrived from Francis Light about the escalating hostility of the Sultan of Kedah.

(The Sultan of Kedah, Sultan Abdullah Mukarram Shah, was getting impatient that the East India Company was not providing military assistance for the threat from Siam. Light, on his part, has written repeatedly on the sultan's behalf to Calcutta, asking that the British help defend the Sultan from his enemies. Instead the East India Company, based at Fort William, Calcutta, had declined to provide military aid "arising from quarrels between any of the Eastern princes."

Furious by the absence of help, Sultan Abdullah enlisted the help from Selangor, Terengganu, Johor, Lingga, Siak in Sumatra, and even Sulawesi, to forcefully eject Light from Penang. When two large war perahus from Mindanao and 25 other fighter boats attacked Malacca, Light wrote an urgent letter to Calcutta, telling the British of what would happen in Penang soon. By then, Sultan Abdullah had stop the flow of food supplies to Penang from Kedah. He had also evacuated the people living along the coastline of Perai. Only then did the British acted by sending the HMS Crown.)

Captain Glass arrived with 400 sepoys. Also under his command were two naval cadets. After consulting with Light, he agreed that they should take the offensive, to attack rather than wait to be attacked. Under the cover of night, Glass landed on the mainland coast and wasted no time in putting down the Sultan's fortresses one by one. He was so successful that the Sultan was forced to send a messager seeking peace. To appease the Sultan, Light offered him 6,000 Spanish dollars annually for him to relinquish claims on the island of Penang for as long as the British remained there.

Glass died on 5 April, 1793 and was buried at the Protestant Cemetery in George Town, Penang.

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