Extract from Charles Burton Buckley's An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore 1819-1867, p. 581

It was in this year (1853) that Miss Sophia Cooke came to Singapore. The Society for the Promotion of Female Education in the East had been extended to Singapore in 1843. It had been founded in 1834, the first Society for sending Woman Missionaries to the women of the East, and Singapore was one of its first Stations and was the last to be transferred, when the Society came to an end on the 9th January, 1900, to the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society. In Singapore the School has always been known as the Chinese Girls School, and perhaps better known; is Miss Cooke's School, as she was so much respected in the work which she carried on for forty-two years. The work was begun by Miss Grant, who reached Singapore in 1843, and took over the School which Mrs. Dyer of the London Missionary Society had begun. In 1853, Miss Cooke came out. The house was built in 1861, and the School was supported by half-yearly sales of work sent out from England and of other gifts. For some years there was a mortgage on the building which was finally paid off about 1898. In September, 1895, Miss Cooke died in Singapore. Her name is still a household word with many in the place, as she did a great deal of work among the European Police force and Soldiers and Sailors. After her death Miss Ryan, who had been for very many years associated in the work with Miss Cooke, carried on the School for two years until November 1897, when Miss Gage-Brown came from England. In the beginning of 1901 there were sixty-two Chinese Girls in the School. (581)