Benjamin Henry Sheares

Benjamin Henry Sheares (12 August 1907 – 12 May 1981) was a Singaporean physician who served as the country's second president from 1971 to 1981. He retired in 1960 and worked in private practice before being chosen president by Parliament on November 23, 1970, following the death of President Yusof Ishak. On January 2, 1971, Sheares was sworn in as President. He had planned to retire after his second term because he did not believe he had the energy for another term, but Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew encouraged him to stay, and Sheares was elected president for a third time. From 2 January 1971 until his death on 12 May 1981, he was president for three terms.

Sheares pioneered the lower Caesarian section during his service as head of O&G at Kandang Kerbau Hospital during the Japanese occupation, which resulted in a lower mortality and morbidity rate in pregnant women than in the upper Caesarian section. The procedure is now the most often utilized Caesarian section method. Another of Sheares' major achievements in medicine was the development of a procedure for creating an artificial vagina for persons born without one. Its variant is still utilized for sex change procedures today.

Sheares was diagnosed with lung malignancies in November 1980, while serving his third term as president. He went into a coma on May 8, 1981, and died four days later on May 12, 1981. He was laid to rest in Kranji State Cemetery. He is commemorated by the Benjamin Sheares Bridge, Sheares Avenue, and Sheares Link. The National University of Singapore's student dormitory Sheares Hall, the Benjamin Henry Sheares Professorship in Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Benjamin Sheares Professorship in Academic Medicine, and the Benjamin Sheares College of the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School are all named after him.