IT WAS not until 20th January 1933 that the Straits Settlements Government began asking for tenders to construct the school buildings. The tenders were advertised several times in the local newspapers in January and February of that year and closed on 17th February.
For reasons unknown, the results of the tender were only announced at the end of the year. It would have been very easy to miss out on this brief, one-line story in the Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser of 23rd December, 1933: “The tender of Messrs Swan and Dunn Ltd of Kuala Lumpur ($56,300) has been accepted for the erection of a new English school at Westlands, Penang.”
Because of this, the construction of the school itself was delayed by several months. In the 14th March 1934 issue of the Malaya Tribune, readers finally had an idea of the development:
Government is spending over $50,000 on an English school to occupy the vacant piece of land adjoining the Chinese Recreation Club, Penang. The proposed school will be at Westlands and the area of the site extends to seven and one-third acres.The school was originally to have been built last year but work was not started on it until the beginning of this year. It is expected that the school will be ready for occupation before December.
The new school, which will face due north and south, is to replace the Government English School, the building at Northam Road, being at present empty owing to the students having been moved into Hutchings School. It will therefore be an elementary boys' school.
Messrs Swan and Dunn, Ltd, of Kuala Lumpur, have secured the building contract. The school will be a two-storey affair and the construction will, in the main, be of steel extension and concrete with steel rook trusses.
There will be twelve classes which will accommodate nearly 500 pupils, two common rooms for the boys, two teachers rooms and a headmaster's room. A hall 80 feet by 20 feet will be available for assembly, lectures, exhibitions or speech days by folding the wooden partitions between two classrooms. It is understood that ten teachers, with a headmaster, will complete the staff.
A tiffin shed of ample size will house the students during break hours. Shelter will be afforded the boys' bicycles in a specially-constructed shed. Coolies in the employ of the school will be provided with quarters adjoining the school premises.
There will be two tennis courts, a football field and three badminton courts.
By the end of 1934, the Westlands School had been completed and was ready to receive its first intake of new pupils. FC Barraclough was the first headmaster of the new Westlands School.
© Quah Seng Sun 2018
