Member Profile: Marjorie Doggett

by Shirley McGreal, IPPL Chairwoman
December 2004

I first met Marjorie Doggett in 1975. I was visiting Singapore to investigate the activities of smugglers moving endangered primates from their homelands in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia via Singapore to the West. This smuggling pipeline became known as the "Singapore Connection." I called the local SPCA as soon as I got to my hotel. Marjorie picked up the phone and met me later that same day. I didn’t know it at the time, but Marjorie had already been fighting for the protection of Singapore’s wildlife and domestic animals for decades.

She was a great asset to our investigation and we worked together on many additional projects, including successfully blocking the efforts of a British university to establish primate laboratories in Malaysia.

Over the years Marjorie (now in her 80s) has become frail. But she is still vibrant. Dianne Taylor-Snow, Louis Ng, and I had a wonderful visit with her at her home on 15 October. We had long chats about our shared adventures. Dianne comments,

For years I had heard "the legend of Marjorie Doggett" and for the longest time kept telling Shirley that I had to meet this remarkable woman. Finally, and I can’t even remember what it was that put me in Singapore, I met her. There, on her porch, stood this tiny woman with a HUGE reputation. She welcomed me into her home as if we were old friends and what was to have been an hour long meeting turned into six hours. From then on each of our visits has hit the six hour mark...time flies by and before you know it, the day is over...and we could have kept on chatting...were it not for traffic.

Over the years Marjorie has become frail, her eyesight has failed and she moves from room to room in a wheel chair. A true testimonial to Marjorie is that young people still drop by for visits. Her wealth of informational history weaves into the on-going fabric of the problems of today. It is unfortunate that more "government officials" don’t take advantage of her knowledge. Should we forget the past - and that includes the "connect the dots" from smuggling operation to smuggling operation - we are doomed to repeat our mistakes or, in our case, overlook the bad guys! It was such a thrill for me to once again be welcomed into her home in October...but this time with Shirley in tow. It had been such a long time since they had seen each other. Marjorie had Louis and me digging through file cabinets, pulling all this history out and spreading it before us. As Shirley and Marjorie reminisced I sat back and saw two young women giggling over some shared secret. It was a wonderful visit.

Thank you, Marjorie, on behalf of all the animals you have saved over half a century of time. Let’s make Marjorie’s holiday season happier by sending her holiday greeting cards that I know she will enjoy. Send them to Marjorie Doggett, 1 Toh Heights, Singapore 507802, Singapore.