Generations of connections

Lim Ewe Lee (1894-1957): Chief Clerk of the

Chinese Protectorate who had extensive

connections within the civil service in Penang.

TEIK EE was admitted into the Wellesley Primary School in January, 1929, when he was aged 5 years and 10 months. Being very young, he was rather nervous when he was ushered, together with other boys, into a room on the top floor on his first day in school. He therefore constantly went to the window nearest to him to see if Madam Cheng Sim, who very kindly undertook to take him to and from school, and I were there. For six months he was in Primary IC after which he was sent to Primary IA for another six months in which form he was awarded a prize for good conduct. After a year in Std I he was transferred on promotion to Std II, Francis Light School, whither he went on a rickshaw. Our quarters were then at Lorong Salamat. He was for a year in Std II; at the final examination in Std III, he was second boy for which he received a prize and was recommended by his teacher, Wong Ah Gnow, for double promotion to Std V. I consulted Tan Kiar Lew ([who was to become] the Headmaster of Westlands School) and Mrs G R Phipps (formerly a lady teacher in Wellesley Primary School and now [in the late 1940s] a pensioner) whom I met at the Junior Civil Service Association as to the advisability or otherwise of accepting the tempting offer. Kiar Lew replied in the affirmative but Mrs Phipps said that in her experience some boys who received such promotion turned out to be good while in other cases progress was retarded in the upper classes. I sifted the pros and cons and came to the conclusion that the Headmaster-to-be and the teacher would not have made the recommendation if the boy had not merited it. He went to Std V under Cheah Teong Lip. On the second day of the first moon I was surprised to see him crying and I asked him the reason. He said, “I don’t want to remain in Std V; I want to go down to Std IV.” He added he was spanked for not knowing elementary algebra as this subject was taught without reference to any book. I told him to see what kind of book the teacher was using so as to buy a copy. To me algebra was the worse subject. I read the examples given and taught him as far as I was able to. He got no further spanking and at the first term examination he came out with credit in algebra. The teacher was surprised and queried, “Did you copy?” Three months later I asked him if he would like to go down to Std IV and he smilingly said no. He was absent at the second term examination on account of illness. At the third and final examination he was placed, to the satisfaction of Teong Lip and myself, in the 11th position out of 144 boys and second in his class, Std VD. On 22nd January, 1934, he went to Std VI, Penang Free School. [Underlines in the text by editors.]

The anecdote above was written by my grandfather, Lim Ewe Lee (1894-1957), who retired as Chief Clerk of the Chinese Protectorate, Penang, when it was part of the Straits Settlements. It was about the primary schooldays of my father, Dr Lim Teik Ee (1923-2014), who was a well-known dentist in Penang. It is very revealing in many ways:

Ch’ng Tatt Teik: Founder of Union School
and one of the two founders of the
Hokkien Hooi Aun Association.

• First, many of those mentioned in the anecdote had some bearing on the lives of the Westlands Primary Class of 1965. Tan Kiar Lew was one of the first Asian headmasters of Westlands School. He lived in the area and sent many of this children and grandchildren to WPS. Wong Ah Gnow served as headmaster of WPS until 1960 when he was succeeded by K Balram. A Mrs Phipps, with her daughter, operated a three-class kindergarten at one of the small roads off Victoria Green Road. The last house of a block, the double-story link house was next to Union Primary School or Heap Hoe. There was access to its canteen via an opening in the fence. Among the students who studied there were Lim Chien Cheng, Yeo Guan Khim and me (from WPS), and Ooi Teong Siew (Wellesley). Later in Free School, a few of us became friends with Ch’ng Oon Tian who was and still is a keen photographer. Unknown to us, he had spent his primary school days at Union Primary nearby. It was a school his grandfather, Ch’ng Tatt Teik, founded. Ch’ng was also one of the two founders of the Hokkien Hooi Aun Association. At that time, in the early 1960s, Oon Tian’s aunt, Ch’ng Aun Jean, was the headmistress of Union Primary.
• Second, the civil service members, via the Junior Civil Service Association, had a lot of interaction – to the point of asking each other about intimate family matters like school promotion of their children.
• Third, corporeal punishment was treated as a matter of course. No parent would rush to school to complain or contact the media, as long as the motive of the teacher was sincere, with the welfare of the child in mind. 
• Fourth, the school system was very different then: (a) students were eligible for double promotion on the recommendation of teachers, (b) Free School admitted children for Standard VI, (c) one could enter school at “5 years 10 months”, and (d) students could be transferred from one school to another. We have been told this is part of a feeder school system for the Penang Free School. More needs to be done to uncover the system. 

© Lim Siang Jin 2018