Tunku Abdul Rahman - Personal Life

Personal Life

Tunku married at least four times. It was in Kulim that Tunku married his first wife, a Thai Chinese woman named Miss Chong Ah Yong, a friend's daughter who converted to Islam and became Meriam Chong. Soon after Meriam's conversion to Islam, she learnt to pray, and when the fasting month began, she persuaded Tunku to do so too. A year after their marriage, Tunku's daughter Tunku Khadijah was born. A year later, a son Tunku Ahmad Nerang was born. A month after Meriam gave birth to her second child, she contracted a severe attack of malaria and died from a medical blunder, an injection of undiluted quinine.

On Meriam's death, Tunku wrote a letter to his former landlady in England, Violet Coulson. When the news of Meriam's death reached Violet, who dropped everything and turned up in Singapore. They were secretly married by the Kadi in the Malay mosque in Arab Street according to Muslim rites. After conversion, Violet's Muslim name was Puteh Bte Abdullah. Violet went to live in Penang because they had no approval of the Ruler or Regent. Tunku Ibrahim, the Regent, was strongly apposed to mixed marriages, but when he died unexpectedly in 1934 and was succeeded as Regent by Tunku Mahmud, the Sultan's younger brother, he consented to the marriage. Though their marriage went well, Tunku's responsibilities in the public service were all-consuming and after a separation where Violet returned to London, they were divorced amicably in 1947.

He then married Sharifah Rodziah Syed Alwi Barakbah, with whom he had no children but they adopted four, Sulaiman, Mariam, Sharifah Hanizah (granddaughter) and Faridah.

Wanting to have more children of his own, he secretly married another Chinese woman named Bibi Chong, who converted upon marriage. He had two daughters with her, Tunku Noor Hayati and Tunku Mastura.