Maurice Baker - Growing Up In British Malaya And Singapore: A Time Of Fireflies And Wild Guavas

Growing Up in
British Malaya
and Singapore

A Time of Fireflies and Wild Guavas

Maurice Baker

World Scientific

NEW JERSEY LONDON SINGAPORE BEIJING SHANGHAI HONG KONG TAIPEI CHENNAI

Published by

World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224

USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601

UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE

National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Baker, Maurice, 1920 , author.

Growing up in British Malaya and Singapore : a time of fireflies and wild guavas / by
Maurice Baker. -- Singapore : World Scientific, 2014

pages cm

ISBN: 978-981-4623-77-3

ISBN: 978-981-4623-78-0 (pbk)

1. Baker, Maurice, 1920 Childhood and youth. 2. Singapore -- Description and
travel. 3. Malaysia -- Description and travel. I. Title.

LA2383.S552

370. 92--dc23

OCN881605469

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Copyright 2015 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the publisher.

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Typeset by Stallion Press

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Printed in Singapore

For my grandchildren Andrew,
Andrea, Leonard and Erin

Foreword

This book was conceived with one aim in mind, that is, to convey to younger readers, particularly in the lower levels of secondary school, what it was like to grow up before the Second World War, to live through the Japanese Occupation of both Malaysia and Singapore up to the return of the British. It is hoped that readers will feel and see a not so distant past recreated in vivid prose and rare photographs, and will be inculcated with a sense of national identity and pride.

I approached Maurice Baker to write his memoirs, knowing that he had lived through such tumultuous times and was willing to share the rich experiences of his youth with us. Through prose and poetry, his autobiography hopes to inspire more people to pursue this genre of writing, a genre which is relatively undeveloped.

Given the vast and accelerated change in every facet of our lives, we tend to focus narrowly on forging ahead, but perhaps should be reminded of a time before we called Singapore home; a simpler and more uncertain time. As we celebrate Singapores 50th year of independence in 2015, I know that Bakers intriguing personal accounts of a vanished past will provide a valuable signpost for 21st century Singapore.

Robert Yeo

Preface

This is the story of my childhood and school-days in the Malayeninsula (19201937) and my time in Raffles College, Singapore from 1938 to 1941. It is entitled Growing Up in British Malaya and Singapore as both countries were part of the British Empire then.

I have tried specially to depict what schools were like and generally what life was like for the young in those days. We led happy, carefree lives studying a little and playing a lot in a far less competitive environment than what prevails today. Most childrensually walked or cycled to school. Bullock carts were perhaps more common than motor vehicles. The pace of life was placid and none seemed in a hurry to get anywhere until the Japanese army stormed into our lives. We then moved fast enough to get out ofhe way of the brutal invaders!

I wish to thank Mr Robert Yeo of the National Institute of Education for urging me to write this book. I am indebted to Miss Jill Quah, Librarian of the National University of Singapore, for her invaluable assistance in making available all the facilities in the library. I am grateful to Mrs Daisy Hwang for typing the final version of this manuscript and Ms Susan Tan for typing an earlier draft . My thanks also go to Mr Wong Yeng Choon who was in school with me and who supplied the photographs of ACS Ipoh andorley Hall; my sister Margaret for photographs of our parents, our brother and herself; and special thanks to my wife, Barbara, for her help and encouragement.

Life has changed so much in Singapore and Malaysia that I thought my recollections of the past might be of some interest to the youth of today and perhaps even to older readers.

MAURICE BAKER
Singapore

Contents

Chapter 1

Beginnings

I do not know the exact date of my birth and no one else knows either. This may sound strange to a Singaporean as I am sure everyone here, has a birth certificate. I have none. Why? This is because I was born in 1920 in a remote village in Kedah, a northern state in Malaysia or British Malaya, as it was then called. My English father was away on home leave in England and my Tamil mother, who was illiterate, knew nothing about registering the birth of a child. Anyway, records of births and deaths were not kept in villages and no one bothered about it. It was not until I had to go to school that my father obtained a Statutory Declaration from a magistrate fixing 24 March 1920 as the date of my birth. This was just a guess, but if correct, I fall under the birthsign Aries in the astrological calendar. According to my mother, I was delivered by a Malay bidan or midwife who cut the umbilical cord with a sharp bamboo knife which must have been germ free. It was 10 am on a bright, sunny day, she said.

I must tell you something about my unusual parents. My father was a brilliant but eccentric civil engineer who had won the top Professors prize in engineering from Kings College, London University in 1908 at the age of 20. As he was of an adventurous nature, he came to Malaya to work. He had to pass examinations in Malay and Tamil like other British civil servants. He picked up Malay easily but he had difficulty with Tamil which is much more complicated. I suspect one of the reasons he married a Tamil girl was to acquire proficiency in that language! Anyway my parents conversed in Malay, so my sister and I grew up speaking Malay and Tamil before we learned English in school.

My father, a well-built six-footer, kept a full reddish beard and a moustache which inevitably tasted his soup first! When he grew old, his beard and full head of long hair turned grey. He looked like a saint. He was living with me at the age of 70 in a two-storey university house in Lornie Road. I was then a lecturer in the university. One day we had a childrens party to celebrate my sons fifth birthday. Lots of the neighbours children were playing in the garden when one of them looked up and saw my bearded father standing in the balcony. The excited boy rushed indoors in amazement and shouted to his mother, Mummy, Mummy, I have seen Jesus Christ! He is upstairs! He was known wherever he lived as the bearded tuan or