Had a head office in London [W05p674-6]

Adamson, Gilfillan and Company were at Collyer Quay in Singapore. Began in 1867 as Gilfillan, Wood and Company a merchant firm. Became Adamson Gilfillan and Company in 1904 and Harper Gilfillan before WWII and were trading under this last name in 1989. [G01]

Samuel Gilffillan retired to London in 1881. [M04p181]

Adamson, Gilfillan and Co.: began as Gilfillan, Wood and Co. in 1867 (Wood was a lawyer who was in the middle of liquidating the Asiatic Banking Corporation). Adamson became a partner later, coming over from McEwen and Co., founded 1842, where he had worked with Gilfillan. By 1895 it held agencies for the Pacific Mail, Occident and Oriental Steamship Co., P and O. Co. at Penang, est. circa 1884, sicx insurance agencies, the China, Japan and Straits Bank, and Sungei Ujong Railway. All three principals were still Directors in 1914! The name was changed to Adamson, Gilfillan and Co. when registered in 1904. [Information from John Wilson 20 November 2006. [M04]]

In 1886 Archie Charles Harper arrived in Selangor. He was its first European trader. He started the firm of A. C. Harper & Co. At the started he was an importer of horse feed. He retired in 1907 but the firm continued. Between 1930 and 1935, A. C. Harper & Co. and the Gilfillan group merged. The resulting firm was called Harper Gilfillan. The buisness activities spread form the base in Singapore throughout Malaysia and Brunei.

Expoters of local produce [W05p674-6]

Importers of European manifactured goods and mining equipmenmt [W05p674-6]

Agency for a number of shipping & insruance companies including the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and the Oriental Steamship Company [W05p674-6]

In 1884 they established a Penang branch. [M04p182]

In October 1904 they became a limited company [W05p674-6]

Penang: Adamson Gilfillan & Co. Ltd. shipping, P&O, Burma oil 1908.

PERFINs 1904 to occupation [G01] Tin and export 1908, Singapore. tin ore in Penang 1908

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