Dr Lee Wei Ling, the daughter of Singapore’s first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, has died at the age of 69.
She died at home on Wednesday, according to a Facebook post by her brother Lee Hsien Yang. Her death was announced by her brother shortly before 6am.
Lee was known to live at 38 Oxley Road, the family home of Lee Kuan Yew, who died in 2015.
She was also the sister of former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Describing her as “fiercely loyal to friends”, the senior minister remembered her as someone who “sympathised instinctively with the underdog, and would mobilise actively to do something when she saw unfairness, or suspected wrongdoing”.
He noted her academic prowess and how she was eventually awarded the President’s Scholarship and became the director of Singapore’s National Neuroscience Institute.
For a time, Dr Lee was a regular columnist, writing about her personal life and on topics such as society and religion, her brother noted. Her columns were compiled into a book, A Hakka Woman’s Singapore Stories: My life as a daughter, doctor and diehard Singaporean.