Known today as the Istana, Government House was built in 1869, serving from then on as the official residence of the colonial governors in Singapore, beginning with Sir Harry St. George Ord, the first Governor of the Straits Settlements as a Crown Colony who commissioned its building. This armchair was used by the first Governor of the Straits Settlements after the Japanese occupation, Sir Franklin Gimson, in the Victoria Room, today known as the State Room. It featured during the many ceremonies of investiture held there in the late 1940s where war veterans or civilians who had contributed to Allied interests were conferred honours by the Governor.
