Westlands’ Northam Road connection

LET ME relate to you the story of the Northam Road Government English School and how Westlands School could trace its roots to this government English school and inter alia, to the much respected Harold Cheeseman after whom the Cheeseman Hall at Westlands was named.

For a long while, I had just a passing interest in this government school. The only information I had previously was that it was located at 11 Northam Road, Penang. However, right after my friends and I began this blog on Westlands School, I realised the historical connection between the two institutions. I needed to find out where exactly was this Number 11 Northam Road, especially since it didn't show at all in the present maps of George Town.

The Northam Road Government English School (NRGES, left), with 400 students, was run by Harold Cheeseman for a few months in 1922 before he became Penang's Inspector of Schools. It operated for slightly over a decade after that. In 1933-34, the students were moved to Hutchings School before ending up in the new Westlands School in 1935. The premises of the NRGES were occupied by the Shih Chung Branch School from 1938. It is now in a dilapidated state (right) awaiting its next renewal.

I started searching elsewhere and Hey Presto! guess what, here it is. Number 11 Northam Road is now where the Shih Chung Branch School once operated from. Realising that it was once the Shih Chung Branch School stirred in me an old memory. I remember that 10 years ago, I had written something about this school in my personal blog. I had even mentioned in passing that it was also used as a government English school. But it escaped me that it was THE Northam Road Government English School. It is only lately that I've managed to tie almost all the loose ends together.

What more do we know about this building? Its history is known but it is incomplete. Originally belonging to the two Cheah brothers, Tek Soon and Tek Thye, the building was bought up by Tye Kee Yoon. Between 1908 and 1920, the building was used for various purposes. At the start, it was used as the Chinese Consulate but later, the Tye family leased it out for use as the Bellevue Boarding House. In 1910, RN Brunel-Norman took over the boarding house and called it as Raffles-by-the-Sea, or simply Raffles for short. However, due to constant confusion arising from the hotel bearing a name similar to that of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, Brunel-Norman was forced to re-name his establishment as Hotel Norman in Sept 1912. He was to continue the hotel business for another two years. By Dec 1914, having made up his mind to leave Penang, he put up his hotel under the auctioneer's hammer. Maybe Brunel-Norman was not able to find a buyer because within a few months, that is, in 1915, the building had entered a new phase as the P'i Joo Girls School until 1920.

According to Dr Kim Phaik Lah, former Associate Professor at the School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang: “P’i Joo Girls School was a pioneer Chinese girls school in Penang. Established in 1915, its three principals were educators from China. At its height, there were more than 250 students. The school, however, closed down in 1920. The same year, Fuchien Girls School (now Bin Hua or Penang Chinese Girls High School), was founded. Mdm Chee Yuet Wah, the first principal of Fuchien Girls, was a student of P'i Joo Girls.”

This report below comes from the Penang Heritage Trust website:

The once-stately mansion of Goh Chan Lau, which means “Five-Storey Villa”, was built by the brothers Cheah Tek Soon (Xie Deshun) and Cheah Tek Thye (Xie Detai). Cheah Tek Soon’s daughter Cheah Liew Bee (Xie Liumei) was married to Goh Say Eng (Wu Shirong), a fervent supporter of Sun Yat Sen. It was said that Goh Say Eng had persuaded the Cheah family to sell off the villa to financially fuel the revolutionary activities of Sun Yat Sen.

In 1908, the villa passed into the hands of Tye Kee Yoon (Dai Xiyun), the Chinese Consul in Penang, who turned it into the Chinese Consulate. After the 1911 Revolution, his son Tye Phey Yuen (Dai Shuyuan) became the first Consul of Republican of China in Penang.

In 1915, the brothers Leong Eng Kean (Liang Enquan) and Leong Yin Kean (Liang Yingquan) rented the upper floor of the bungalow as the premises for the P’i Joo Girls’ School, which was forced to shut down when the Education Bill of 1920 was put into effect.

The Shih Chung Branch School, founded in 1938, occupied these premises until 1994.

I shall now attempt to fill in this blank with the unknown history of Goh Chan Lau from 1920 to 1938 but first, I shall reproduce this excerpt from a news report in The Straits Times of 19 Aug 1922:

PENANG SCHOOLS: Solving the Accommodation Difficulty

The Government has now taken over the fine-looking and commodious building, No 11 Northam Road, that was formerly the Hotel Norman and more recently, a Chinese Girls' School, on a three years' lease, in order to provide accommodation for children for whom no room can be found in the other schools at the present time. This arrangement, we are informed, is only a temporary one pending erection of permanent Government buildings.

This new establishment which is styled "Government English School" has accommodation for 600 children if necessary, but if that number is admitted arrangements will have to be made for extra teachers, etc. At present the number in attendance totals about 400 and there is, we hear, accommodation for 30 or 40 more children. The boys are all in the primary classes and under the charge of Mr HR Cheeseman, formerly of the Free School, who is as everyone knows a fine disciplinarian, and keen sportsman and indefatigable volunteer. The site and building are admirably suited to the purpose, indeed a better location in Town could not have been selected. The house stands in a large compound, one side of which is sufficiently spacious for drilling and even a football match.

The Towkays from whom the place is leased to Government are Messrs Thye Chee Tean and Tye Shook Yuen, the executors of the estate of the late Mr Tye Kee Yoon, Chinese Consul in Penang. In his will the late Mr Tye Kee Yoon bequeathed certain sums for charitable and other purposes. The executors of his estate have consequently been able kindly to promise to subscribe $50 a month towards the school funds as long as the Government holds a lease from them, as a token of respect for the memory of the late Chinese Consul and in accordance with his wishes.

The Government, we learn, intends to erect new school buildings in Green Lane, and when these have been completed, in about a couple of years' time, the older boys in the Free School will be transferred to them, leaving the present buildings (i.e. the Free School) in Farquhar Street for the elementary classes. It is also under contemplation to erect a new school in Perak Road about a year hence which will also be devoted to elementary education. There will be sufficient playgrounds at these schools for the boys' recreation.

So you can see here the connection of Harold Cheeseman with the Northam Road Government English School. However, Cheeseman stayed with the school for just a mere five months as he was soon transferred to become the Settlement's Inspector of Schools. The Government English School used the 11 Northam Road premises right until the end of 1933. On 11 Dec 1933, the school organised its last annual prize giving ceremony, which was reported thus in the Malaya Tribune of 14 Dec 1933:

The Government English School, Northam Road, held its annual prize giving on Monday when a very creditable entertainment was staged by the pupils. 

Mrs O'Sullivan gave away the prizes, and was thanked by Mr Hamid Khan, the headmaster, who said that during the year work had commenced on a new school to be built at Westlands to take the place of the present school and it would be ready for occupation next year.

Besides recitations and action songs, Mr Tan Thean Seng's squad gave a fine exhibition of ju-jitsu and boxing. Five second-year Malay boys appeared in a short play entitled "Ja'afar and The Thief" and acquitted themselves with distinction, their enunciation being exceptionally good.

Despite Hamid Khan's confidence about the Westlands School being ready for occupation in 1934, we now know that the intake of new boys into Westlands School only began in 1935. During the one-year interim period between the Northam Road Government School closing at the end of 1933 and the Westlands School opening in 1935, the boys were transferred to Hutchings School to continue their education. This short news item in the Singapore Free Press And Mercantile Advertiser of 10 Mar 1934 related what happened:

NEW ENGLISH SCHOOL: $50,000 Scheme Launched in Penang

The Government are building a new Elementary English School at Westland (sic), Burmah Road. The approximate cost is to be $50,000. Work has been started and is expected to be finished by the end of December next. The school will have accommodation for 600 pupils. A cricket pitch, tennis courts, badminton courts, etc, will be laid on the site, which is seven and a half acres.

The new school will replace the Government English School at Northam Road, which is now empty, as the boys are transferred to Hutchings school.

After the Northam Road Government English School moved out, it was not known what exactly had become of the building in the next few years except that the executors of the estate of Tye Kee Yoon would have retaken control of the premises.

In Oct 1937, it was reported by the Malaya Tribune that the building was under-going demolition. Actually, the five-storey building was not being demolished but just under-going renovation work in preparation for its next phase as the premises of the new Shih Chung Branch School which was established in 1938. The Shih Chung Branch School has an equally interesting history but researching this must be someone else's project, not mine. I won't cover it here.

Below is the earliest image of the Westlands School that I could find, taken in February 1935:

© Quah Seng Sun 2018