Great British playwright, novelist and actor, Noel Coward's first visit to Raffles was in 1931 and his last, almost 40 years later, in 1968.

On his first visit, he was travelling with Jeffrey Holmesdale, Lord Amherst, and en route finished "Private Lives". When the two men arrived in Singapore, Lord Amherst was taken seriously ill and had to be hospitalised.

Coward stayed at Raffles for a month. He recalled in his autobiography, "Present Indicative" his first night at the Hotel, sitting on the verandah and sipping a Gin Sling. "There was a thunderstorm brewing and the airless heat pressed down on my head. I felt as though I was inside a hot cardboard box which was growing rapidly smaller and smaller, until soon I should have to give up all hope of breathing and die of suffocation...Presently, the thunderstorm broke and raged violently for about an hour. It was a most through going storm I had ever seen".