Gan also founded a school for the poor in the village of Sam-toh in Fujian, China, where his forefathers were born, and helped to finance and maintain the Tranquerah Chinese Free School in Melaka. He also enabled young men of promise to realise their potential by paying for their university education. An example was the case of Wee Theam Tew, who gave up a clerical post with Macalister & Co. and proceeded to England to further his studies in law and qualify for the Bar in 1911.