Tan Cheng Lock was born on 5 April 1883 in 111, Heeren Street, a stone’s throw from the Malacca River and the famous red Dutch Stadthuys. Cheng Lock father was Tan Kheng Ann. He married Lee Seck Bin, Cheng Lock’s mother at the age of nineteen years old. They had three sons borned between 1880 and 1883 and they were Cheng Siang, Cheng Siew and Cheng Lock. They later on had four more children, that is daughters Guat Choo, Guat Kee and Guat Poh, and another son, Cheng Juay.
	His father, Kheng Ann was an alcoholic and thus with a large family and a meagre allowance, young Cheng Lock grew up in a stern school of learning. Poverty also spurred Cheng Lock to make a success of his life.
	Cheng Lock completed his Standard VII in Malacca High School in 1899 and in the process won the Tan Teck Guan Scholarship which was awarded to the first or second boy in the school.
	Since Cheng Lock was unable to win an overseas’ scholarship and without finance to pursue his ambition to do law in the United Kingdom, Cheng Lock took up teaching at the Raffles Institution from 1902 to 1908.
	In 1908 at the age of twenty five years old Cheng Lock left Raffles Institution. His years in Raffles Institution which provided the apportunity for interaction between his European collegues, had matured his pro-British loyalty. It also imbued in him a Westerner’s sense of civic consiousness which laid the foundation for public office in the colony.
	With the help of his mother’s cousin, Lee Chin Tuan, Cheng Lock joined the rubber industry. He was the Assistant Manager of the Bukit Kajang Rubber Estates from 1908 to 1910. Cheng Lock quickly mastered the intricacies of rubber planting and was coruptence in the rubber business. He was subsequently appointed visiting agent to Nyalas Rubber Estates in 1909.
	He then with the help of Chan Kang Swi, a prominent Malaccan businessman, he floated the Malacca Pinda Rubber Estates, Ayer Molek Rubber Company and the United Malacca Rubber Estates. Cheng Lock was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Malacca in August 1912. A few months later, he was appointed Commissioner for the Municipality of the Town and Fort of Malacca from 1912 to 1922.
	In 1913, Cheng Lock married Yeo Yeok Neo, the daughter of Yeo Tin Hye, who was the leader of the Hokkien community in Malacca. They had five children, namely Lily Tan Kim Tin Hye, Wee Geok Kin, Tan Siew Sin, Alice Tan Kim Yoke and Agnes Tan Kim Lwi. On 1 January 1923, Tan Cheng Lock at the age of 40, was appointed an Unofficial Member of the straits settlement legislative Council and from 1933 to 1935, an unofficial member of the S.S. Executive Council. During his term of office, he championed for social causes such as the Chinese marrige laws, opium smoking, Chinese vernacular education and immigration issues.
	On 26 September 1935, Tan Cheng Lock retired being on Unofficial Member of the Straits Settlements Executive Council. In 1949, he was elected as the first President of the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA). Tan Cheng Lock, more than any Chinese of his generation in the 1920s and early 1930s, contributed to the foundation of present-day Malaysia. For nearly 40 years, Cheng Lock took on active part in public affairs. He passed away following a heart attack on December 8, 1960 at the General Hospital in Malacca.

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