Chief Justice Wee Chong Jin thanked the public for supporting efforts to build a rehabilitation and vocational facility in Woodlands for ex-offenders this week in 1965.

He was speaking at the annual general meeting of the Singapore Aftercare Association, of which he was president.

The Penang-born judge studied at Raffles Institution and Cambridge University and later moved to Singapore to work as a lawyer.

In 1963, he became the first local Chief Justice in Singapore and the youngest to be appointed, at the age of 45.

In 1987, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in civil law from Oxford University for his contributions to Singapore's judiciary during its formative years.

He went on to be Singapore's longest-serving Chief Justice, and was in office for 27 years before retiring in 1990.

He died in 2005.