Accommodation crisis

About a century ago, the schools in Penang were bursting at the seams as the Straits Settlements government grappled with a severe accommodation crisis. Something had to be done, and the answer came in August 1922. 

At the end of the inter-school sports meet on the Esplanade, David Alexander Murray Brown, otherwise known as DAM Brown or Dammy Brown, who was a prominent businessman and member of the Legislative Council, hinted that Penang could see at least one new school opening in the next few years. It would be a much-needed development. The town’s main schools—Penang Free School, St Xavier’s Institution and Anglo-Chinese School (now Methodist Boys’ School)—were turning away hundreds of boys each year due to a lack of space. Things got so cramped that the Free School even resorted to holding extra classes at the Chinese Town Hall.

The government stepped in with a temporary solution by leasing a grand building at 11 Northam Road, which had formerly been the Hotel Norman and much later, a Chinese girls' school. This space was converted into the Northam Road Government English School—an extension of Penang Free School, so it seemed—and intended to ease the overcrowding until new school buildings could be constructed. The new school could accommodate up to 600 children in its primary classes. HR Cheeseman, formerly a senior master in the Free School, became the first headmaster. He was well known for his strict but fair discipline, passion for sports and tireless dedication.

The building had a large compound with enough space for drills and even a football match. It was leased from Thye Chee Tean and Tye Shook Yuen, executors of the estate of Tye Kee Yoon, a former Chinese Consul in Penang. In his will, Tye Kee Yoon had left funds for charitable causes, and his estate pledged $50 monthly to the school’s funds as long as the lease was in place.

Tye Kee Yoon's estate wasn’t the only benefactor of the Northam Road school. Four years after its opening, Cheeseman, by then promoted to Inspector of Schools in Penang, wrote a letter to the Penang Gazette and Straits Chronicle (22 June 1926), to publicly thank Lim Gim Kang and Lim Gim Hoe of Gim Lee Estate, Kulim, who had "offered to give annually, in memory of their father, the late Mr Lim Mah Yeow, the sum of three hundred dollars to be devoted to the purchase of prizes and library books for the Government English School, Northam Road, Penang. This generous gift is much appreciated and has been gratefully accepted.”

For a time, opening the Northam Road Government English School helped ease the schooling congestion in Penang. But barely four years later, the government was forced to open more temporary schools to meet the demand. One of these was the Farquhar Street Government English School, which functioned for four years. 

There’s scant information about this temporary school except that the double-storey building was located at the junction of Farquhar Street and Love Lane. When it opened in 1926, it relieved the Northam Road Government English School of some 210 pupils. Initially, there were six classes, consisting of one Standard III, two Standard IV and three Standard V. Three of the classes were upstairs and three downstairs, with 35 boys allotted to each class. The school's most famous pupil was Lim Chong Eu, the future second Chief Minister of Penang. After finishing his Standard IV here, the young Chong Eu went to Hutchings School before eventually joining Penang Free School. When the Francis Light School opened on Perak Road in January 1930, the boys from the Farquhar Street Government English School were absorbed there en masse. The temporary school was then closed, and the building returned to the Roman Catholic Mission.

Meanwhile, the government pressed ahead with its long-term plans. The new school facilities in Green Lane, known today as Penang Free School, its construction long delayed owing to financial depression, finally materialised. The older boys from the Free School were transferred there in 1928, leaving the Farquhar Street premises—now renamed as Hutchings' School by The Old Frees' Association—for the younger pupils. Two additional schools were also constructed for elementary education: Francis Light School in 1930 as mentioned above and Westlands School in 1935. These new schools provided ample playgrounds and gave the boys plenty of space to run, play and enjoy their breaks.

All these efforts, back in the 1920s and 1930s, helped ease the overcrowding crisis that plagued Penang’s schools for years.

© Quah Seng Sun 2024

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This story is based on a newspaper clipping from The Straits Echo (Mail Edition), dated 22 August 1922, plus other inputs, including:

- Pinang Gazette and Straits Chronicle, 1 July 1921
- The Straits Echo (Mail Edition), 19 January 1926 
- The Straits Echo (Mail Edition), 21 August 1929 
- Sunday Tribune, 19 December 1937

Cheeseman and his hall

THIS IS the Cheeseman Hall today, both inside and outside, although I don't remember it being so garishly painted back in the good old school days. I understand that it is still being used for events. However, it was very gratifying to see that despite the Education Department having taken over the former Westlands Primary School and turned it into a Centre for Sports Excellence, the original name for the Cheeseman Hall was retained. The authorities could have quietly renamed it a long time ago and nobody would have been the wiser. There would have been no public hue and cry because hardly anybody today would know who the bloody ’ell this Cheeseman was. In fact, nobody would have noticed it except for us few diehard former Westlands Primary School students on a nostalgic visit to our former primary school. But the fact that they did not change the Hall's name meant that there was still a strong connection with the past.

When I was writing the story on the roads around Westlands, I had inserted an undated map of the area which I discovered in an old book. I surmised the map could have been possibly drawn in 1935 or 1936. Recently, I got lucky again. Just about a fortnight back, I unearthed from the archives of the National Library Board of Singapore an equally old map of Penang. Well, almost as old. This map was also undated but the National Library estimated that it was likely prepared by the Japanese before the Second World War that began in December 1941. Given that the Anglo-Chinese School building (now the Pykett Methodist Primary School building) was opened at the end of 1937 - and shown here as the encircled 21 in red - that would narrow down the date of the map to be between 1938 and 1941. A four-year-window. Like the 1935 or 1936 map I mentioned earlier, the Cheeseman Hall building was still not included in this later map. (Note: In the map from the National Library archive, the encircled red numbers were added by the Japanese – there were 55 numbered buildings in all - to identify the main offices, clubs, school, police stations, hospitals, etc, with each landmark given its Japanese equivalent translation.)

To be sure, the Cheeseman Hall building did not exist when the main school block was constructed in 1934. According to a newspaper report, whenever it was so required, 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.” (Malaya Tribune, 14 Mar 1934)

So when was the Cheeseman Hall built? Before the War or after the War? I’m sorry to say this but records are just not there anymore. But my nagging speculation is that the building could have been erected around or after 1948. You see, Harold Ambrose Robinson Cheeseman, after whom the hall was named, was the Federation of Malaya Director of Education  He retired at the end of 1948 after a long and illustrious career of 41 years in the service of Education. He had spent his entire career in the Malayan peninsula, having started fresh off the boat in 1907 as an assistant master in Penang Free School. After he retired as Director of Education, tributes to honour him went into full swing, such as the establishment of a Cheeseman Fund in October 1949 to commemorate his work in education (Malaya Tribune, 13 Oct 1949) and the naming of a road opposite Penang Free School as Cheeseman Road instead of Greenlands Avenue in July 1950 (Singapore Standard, 28 July 1950). Therefore, I wouldn't be too surprised if the Westlands School had also decided to name their new hall after Cheeseman too. The earliest mention I could find of a Cheeseman Hall in the news was in the 21 May 1951 edition of the Singapore Standard. [An update: I have discovered an earlier mention of a Cheeseman Hall at Westlands School. The Singapore Standard of 6 December 1950 mentioned the "Westlands School Speech Day and Exhibition (Chesseman Hall) 5.30pm.]

© Quah Seng Sun 2018

The roads around Westlands

IN ONE of my earlier stories, A space called Westlands, I had included this map that I traced free-hand from the Kelly Maps that I originally found on the Internet. 

For those not in the know, the Kelly Maps is a collection of historic survey maps made of George Town, Penang Island and Province Wellesley. Between 1891 and 1893, FW Kelly supervised the block surveys of the entire of Penang and in the ensuing years until 1897, his block surveys were put together into a grid and thus forming sheets. These block surveys are now referred to collectively as the Kelly Maps. Thanks to FW Kelly, we now have a pretty good idea of what Penang must have looked like in the early 1890s.

Recently, I uncovered an undated map of George Town which I would place as maybe 1935 or 1936, basing this assumption on the fact that the Westlands School building was already on the map while the Anglo-Chinese School building (later to become the Pykett Methodist Primary School) was not. The ACS building was only constructed in 1937 and indeed, it was officially declared open by the Straits Settlements Governor, Sir Shenton Thomas, on the 11th of December that year.

What’s so fascinating about this meticulously-drawn map is that it still showed the four bungalows which were collectively known as the Westlands Bungalows as well as the Khaw Sim Bee Mansion (aka the Westlands House).

By 1936, there was already a through road that linked from the Westlands Bungalows to the Chinese Recreation Club. Although the CRC was established in 1892, their present grounds were only acquired sometime between 1903 and 1906. Their Victorian-style clubhouse saw light of  day in 1931 and until it was built, the club was using an old wooden bungalow called Eastbourne, located at the corner of Pangkor Road and Burmah Road, where the Queen Victoria memorial statue stands today. Westlands School was located on Victoria Green Road which was named after the Victoria Green of the Chinese Recreation Club. Skirting the southern boundary of the school grounds was Westlands Road. Maybe in 1936, it was still uncompleted or untarred but it was to connect Perak Road to Anson Road. Part of the road was later to be renamed as Khaw Sim Bee Road.

The renaming of roads in Penang probably began from 1941. The sharp-eyed scrutineer of the map would have noticed the presence of another road in the vicinity known as Westlands Avenue. That was indeed the original name of the present-day Pykett Avenue. In a tribute story carried by the Malaya Tribune of 9 Jan 1941, it read:

Westlands Avenue will henceforth be called Pykett Avenue in memory of the late Rev GF Pykett.

This change of name was made possible by an eloquent appeal by Dr Ong Huck Chye seconded by Mr HH Abdool Cader, before the Penang Municipal Commissioners at their first meeting of the year yesterday.

Dr Huck Chye declared that section 109 of the Municipal Ordinance which did not give the Commissioners any power to change the names of streets had been so amended by Ordinance 48 of 1940 that they now have the full discretion to do so as and when required.

He proceeded to give a concise history of the Anglo-Chinese School and the life of the late Rev Pykett, whose contribution to education in Malaya, he said, was by no means small.

Dr Huck Chye said:

“The Anglo-Chinese School Penang, one of the three leading English schools in this settlement, is celebrating its Golden Jubilee sometime in May this year. It is but befitting that such a memorable occasion be commemorated by the erection of a lasting monument in the form of a bust, or statue of its founder or pioneer worker or in the least by the naming of an important landmark or thoroughfare after him.”

© Quah Seng Sun 2018