The Crown Colony of the Straits Settlements
Tuesday, 31st December 1901
The Crown Colony of the Straits Settlements (SS), comprising of Penang, Province Wellesley, Malacca and Singapore. On 1st Jan 1901, Singapore's Local Mean Time (Singapore Mean Time) + 6hr 55m 25s (103 degrees 51.16 seconds East of Greenwich Royal Observatory near London, England) was adopted by the Straits Settlements (SS) and the Federated Malay States (FMS) as the Standard Time. This was introduced because railway, postal and telegraphic services were becoming more common and a single standard time will ease scheduling problems. Singapore was chosen because it was the administrative HQ for the SS and the FMS then.
The Federated Malay States (FMS), which included the modern-day Malaysian states of Perak, Pahang, Selangor and Negri Sembilan. Finally, the Unfederated Malay States (UMS), which was the collective name for the States of Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan, Trengganu and Johore.
Before 1st Jan, 1901, locations in Malaya with an Astronomical Observatory would adopt the local mean time based on the Observatory's geographical position. Penang, Malacca and Singapore all had their own observatories, hence the three Straits Settlements had their respective Local Mean Time, with minutes of differences amongst the three locations.
Background: Back in 1884, 25 governments of the world got together in Washington DC (USA) for the International Meridian Conference and decided upon the adoption of time zones around the world as we know it today. 22 approved, 1 objected and 2 abstained. The longitude passing through Greenwich's Royal Observatory was chosen to be the Prime Meridian, the 0 or starting point for global longitude and time determination. The world was divided into 24 time zones, each 15 deg wide and covers 1 hour of time. Each zone's Standard Time is based on the central meridian of the zone being multiples of 15 deg (= no. of hours) away from the Prime Meridian. 105 / 15 = 7, hence 7 hours ahead of GMT.