island. It is a transliteration of . Its Chinese name was later officially replaced with a translation of its English name, ‘St John's Island’ (Chinese: 圣约翰岛; pinyin: Shèngyuēhàndǎo). History Early colonial history On 28 January 1819, the British delegation led by Stamford Raffles anchored off St John's, a day before they arrived at mainland Singapore to establish a British trading port. After the port was established that year, a signal station was constructed on St John's Island, along with a signal flagstaff. The signal station informed passing ships in the Straits of Singapore of the new port. It was also tasked to operate the flagstaff to report ship sightings to the signal post on Government Hill in mainland Singapore. By 1830, the facilities on St John's Island, including the flagstaff, were reported by the officer in charge of public works to be in a dilapidated state. They were not repaired because the government did not plan to continue the St John's signal station. The flagstaff on St John's was moved to Mount Faber in 1833. Visitors to the island in subsequent years such as George Bennett (naturalist) and Dr Robert Little found it to be virtually abandoned, with only one Malay inhabitant. Quarantine centre As the number of immigrants to Singapore increased from the late 19th century onwards, the risk of epidemics heightened, leading to the establishment of a Quarantine Centre on St John's. Initially, the Quarantine Ordinance (No. 7 of 1868) was implemented to prohibit all infected ships from docking at port. However, in July 1873, a boat from Bangkok caused a cholera epidemic that lasted two months and resulted in 857 infections and 448 deaths, despite the orders of Governor Harry Ord to quarantine all ships from Siam. Consequently, Acting Master Attendant Henry Ellis proposed that a quarantine station be constructed on St John's Island. Governor Harry Ord officially approved the proposal in a speech at the Legislative Council on 21 March 1874. The St John's Island quarantine station opened in November 1874 and served not just immigrants to Singapore but also Muslims returning to Malaya after their pilgrimage to Mecca. Although Ellis had plans for a police ship, a hospital on St John's, a steam cutter, and a cemetery on Kusu Island to support the quarantine station, it consisted largely of attap huts when first completed. The month it opened, the station quarantined more than 1,000 Chinese