Kwa Geok Choo

Kwa Geok Choo (; 21 December 1920 – 2 October 2010) was a Singaporean lawyer. She was the wife of Lee Kuan Yew, the founding prime minister of Singapore and the mother of Lee Hsien Loong, Lee Hsien Yang and Lee Wei Ling. She was the co-founder and partner of law firm Lee & Lee and took the role as the spouse of the Prime Minister of Singapore between 1959 and 1990. Biography Kwa was the daughter of Kwa Siew Tee, former general manager of Oversea-Chinese Bank and Singapore Municipal Commissioner who was a Tong'anese on his paternal side who also had a Teochew mother, and Wee Yew Neo, Geok Choo's Teochew mother was from Shantou. Kwa attended the Methodist Girls' School, Raffles Institution and Raffles College, and was a Queen's Scholar of Malaya. According to Lee Kuan Yew's memoirs, by 1939, Kwa and Lee were both top students in Raffles, often coming first and second in exams. They continued their courtship during the Japanese occupation when their studies were disrupted. After the war, Kwa resumed her studies at Raffles College in 1946 while Lee left Singapore to pursue his law degree at the University of Cambridge. Kwa was admitted to Girton College in 1947, after Lee petitioned for her, saying she was "a very bright girl, brighter than I was". She graduated with first-class honours in 1949 and was called to the bar in the subsequent year. She returned to Singapore and was admitted to the Colony Bar in 1951. Kwa was one of the few female lawyers of the country then, practising at Laycock & Ong.