This was the campaign card used by David Saul Marshall during the Anson by-election of 1961, in which he contested – and won – as President of the Worker’s Party that he founded in 1957. A prominent lawyer and diplomat, Marshall was Singapore’s first Chief Minister, a position he assumed when the Labour Front, the political party he belonged to at the time, won the general election in 1955. Although he was known for various contributions and ideas that included initiating the meet-the-people sessions and the promotion of multilingualism, Marshall’s political career was characterised by his vision for a self-governing and, subsequently, independent Singapore. As illustrated by the campaign slogan on this card, Marshall was a fervent believer that Singapore should gain ‘merdeka’ or independence, sooner rather than later. Marshall retired from politics after he lost the Anson seat in the 1963 general election, during which he stood as an independent candidate. He resumed his legal practice and went on to become Singapore’s Ambassador to France, Portugal and Spain.
