Lee Chin Koon (Chinese: 李進坤; 1 June 1903 – 12 October 1997) was a Singaporean storekeeper, manager, and salesman who was formerly employed with the Shell Oil Company. Prominently, he was the father of Lee Kuan Yew and the paternal grandfather of Lee Hsien Loong, the third Prime Minister of Singapore respectively.
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Early life and career
Lee was born on 1 June 1903 in the port city of Semarang, Central Java, during Dutch colonial rule. He was from an upper-class family of Straits Chinese descent and was raised in an English-speaking household. His mother, Indonesian-Peranakan Ko Liem Nio (1883–1959), was local to Semarang while his father, Hakka-Peranakan Lee Hoon Leong (Chinese: 李雲龍; 1871–1942), was born in Singapore. Lee Hoon Leong, worked as a pharmacist and later became a purser at Heap Eng Moh Shipping Line. Lee's paternal grandfather, Li Muwen, was a merchant who had previously done business in Singapore before returning to the Lee family's ancestral home in Tangxi village, Dabu County, where he built the Zhonghandi house.
When Lee was five, his family moved to Singapore, where he studied at St. Joseph's Institution. During the Great Depression, Lee's family was affected but, in the 1930s, he managed to secure a job as a storekeeper for Shell Oil Company, later becoming a manager after World War II. He later worked at the B.P. de Silva jewellery store on High Street, selling watches and jewellery.
In 1957, he helped his son Lee Kuan Yew campaign at the Tanjong Pagar by-election.