Fort Canning was given its colonial name as we know it today because of Lord Canning who in the early years of the East India Company's rule of the island of Singapore , the governor of British India , of which Singapore was originally part of till the mid-1800s. Singapore subsequently became a crown colony under direct rule from London as part of the Straits Settlements.
The British believed that a fort should be built to allow for the colonial towns' folk to retreat to in times of an invasion from a foreign power or should a rebellion by the local populace take place.
A fort was therefore built upon government hill as it was known to the British then. Soon enough the hill acquired the name of the fort after whom the governor of British India was named.
Today , all that remains of the fort walls is a small section of the wall barely above the knee-level.
