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| Wittering Airbase, UK |
In June
this year, I brought my family to the UK for a holiday. I took the opportunity
to visit my friends Brian Mitchell in Cambridge and John Harper in York.
Enroute from Cambridge to York, we drove past the RAF airbase at Wittering. The
sight of a fighter jet – I think it was a Harrier Jump Jet – at the entrance brought
back some memories of the Changi that I used to know as a boy; especially the
RAF Airbase at old Upper Changi Road.
Memory No. 1 – No Highway
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| Wittering Rd in Changi |
When I was
in Secondary 4, we had to study the book No Highway by Nevil Shute for our
Senior Cambridge (equivalent of today’s O-Level) English Literature paper. The
year was 1968. The name Farnborough was frequently mentioned in the book and I
was rather curious as to why we had a road in Changi with the same name. I only
found out years later that the roads in the Changi Airbase vicinity were all
named after famous RAF airbases in the UK. Naturally, there was also a
Wittering Road in Changi.
Memory No. 2 – Old Upper Changi Road
My memories
of this part of Singapore are documented in my book Good Morning Yesterday. Here’s an excerpt from pages 147 and 148.
“The occasional trip to Changi Beach
was always a great delight for us. From our home in Lorong Chuan, we used to
travel to Changi via Upper Serangoon Road and Tampines Road. The sight of the
solemn grey walls of the Changi Prison which greeted us as we came to the end
of Tampines Road meant that we were nearing our destination. After that it was
a straight stretch of road along Tanah Merah Besar which ran along the
perimeter of the prison followed by a left turn into the coastal road called
Nicoll Drive before arriving at Changi Point. My own favourite activity at
Changi Beach was rowing the rented wooden sampans for an hour or two.
An alternative route that we took to
get to Changi Beach was via Upper Changi Road. Until just a few years ago, this
road led right up to Changi Village. We liked this route because we could see
the combat aircrafts sitting at what I now know was called the Dispersal Area
of the British Royal Air Force.”
Unfortunately,
in recent years that stretch of the road had been closed to the public. Hence,
it was a great disappointment that I could not bring John Harper and other UK
friends to this part of Singapore which they so fondly remember.
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| Final stretch of Upp Changi Rd closed to the public |
Visit to Changi Airbase (West)
A few weeks
ago, I received a pleasant surprise in my inbox. It was an invitation from the MINDEF
NS Policy Department to visit old SAF military camps; one of them being the
Changi Airbase. Thus it was that on Saturday, 14th of September, a
group of bloggers boarded a coach at Spore Expo MRT Station which brought us
to, first, Selarang Camp, home to SAF’s 9th Division, and then to
Changi Airbase (West). I learnt that this visit was mainly extended to bloggers
who had ‘done time’ at these camps and could share their memories of these
places with future generations of NSmen. I am not sure why they included me in
this privileged group because my NS days were spent in Safti, Gillman and
Mandai and not these two places. Could it be that it was because I was such a
famous blogger and that many people have read my posts about my ‘army daze’?
Anyway, the
highlight of the visit for me was the visit to the
stretch of Upper Changi Road I mentioned above. Our guide, RSM Yip, told us
that this stretch of road used to be a popular lover’s haunt after Changi
Airport was built.
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| SAF Display 1978 on reclaimed land for Changi Airport |
Former Changi Grammar School
Another
highlight of my visit to Changi Airbase was to the blocks that once housed the
Changi Grammar School. This was because my friend Brian Mitchell used to study
here. Like John Harper, he too was disappointed during his visit to Singapore in
2009. When I brought him here, we could only view the buildings from outside
the camp along Loyang Way. And we did not even dare to take any photos because
of the warning signs on the fence prohibiting photo-taking. Anyway, I shared
some of the photos with Brian and this is what he commented:
The area is obviously a bit smarter than in the 60s and the old attap
huts are removed; but it’s all very recognisable. These blocks obviously go
back to the 1950s and must rate as very old buildings in Singapore! I was
surprised in a way to see that they survive in much their original form with
the open corridors around the outside. I assume the rooms within are now closed
in and air-conditioned, but of course, when they were used as barracks or then
as a school building, our classrooms had large open doorways into the
classrooms - this was after all the only source of light. There were very few
air conditioned places in our lives in the 1960s.
The large tarmac area was where all the gharries or schools buses
delivered us in the fairly early morning - so if I was on a bus that arrived
early I would be looking up at the block and wondering if anyone had got to the
coke machine on the ground floor - the cokes were often frozen first thing in
the morning and were for some reason particularly prized. At the end of the
school day, the gharries would draw up in lines in the tarmac area (actually a
playground) and we would all board them. The end of the school day was for most
days at lunchtime - the heat and humidity led to a different pattern of
schooling from the UK.
When I was there, this area held the Grammar School (using two of the
blocks - I think there was a third that was still a barrack block for airmen)
and then around the tarmac area the Secondary Modern School and the Primary
School - I think this is right although we hardly noticed the presence of these
other schools. Then shortly after I left in August 1962, the Grammar School
moved to the site on Upper Changi Road. This is the site remembered by many of
the UK
Conclusion
I
thoroughly enjoyed my visit to these two old military
establishments and seeing places that I knew about from decades ago; and which
I thought I would never have the chance to see again. I thank Ms Stephanie Chia
and her colleagues at the MINDEF NS Policy Dept for arranging the visits.
Thanks also to the staff at these two places for their warm hospitality and
presentations; and also staff from MINDEF Centre of Heritage Services. I look
forward to future visits. The one place that I would really love to visit is
the former Mandai Camp where I spent the last ten last months of active National Service.
Related posts
1) ArmyHeritage Tour by James Tann
2) A Lightwhere there was Darkness by Jerome Lim
5 comments:
I love that old photo of the grammar school with the attap huts just visible to the left of the photo. My first classroom when I arrived in early 1960 was in those attap huts. I had come from a very large and very modern secondary school in south London to an attap hut with chicken wire for windows - what a culture shock!
Had enjoyed reading this post. Missed the stretch of Changi Road that is now closed to public. That's where I would bring my then young son to view aeroplanes taking off and landing.
More importantly, is knowing that SAF is making an effort in preserving their very own & their British ancestry heritage.
Further to what CS has mentioned about the naming of roads in RAF Changi, I have looked up a 1933 map signed off (dated May 5, 1933) by a certain Dobson Chief Engineer of Malaya showing the old names before the RAF names took effect.
For example;
Quarry Road = Cranwell Road
Barrack Hill Road = Hendon Road
New Road = Netheravon Road
Fairy Point Road = Cranwell Road towards Andover Road
Battery Hill = Biggin Hill
It's so great to communicate with people who actually understand and remember things like attap huts with chicken wire windows! My memory of Changi Grammar school pupils was that we were a pretty undisciplined lot at times. I distinctly remember making paper 'water bombs' and filling them with the chocolate or strawberry milk that we had at breaktime and lobbing them over the top floor balcony onto unsuspecting targets below! And who else recalls the favourite playtime pastime of monsoon drain running - as fast as you could from side to side along the one which separated the main block from the playground/garri park? (At the bottom of the green bank running across the centre of the photo with the two large trees. The sports field was off to the left - hockey in the midday sun was quite a challenge to a newly arrived girl from England!) The extra jutting out portion without windows on the two classroom blocks I believe were the toilet/showers. As the classrooms were open to the corridors and the toilets gave off from the corridors opposite the classes, our lessons had the constant background sound of the regular, automatic flush of the mens' urinals! Oh and the frozen Coke bottles from which the first inch of ice slowly oozed upwards as the metal cap was prized off - I think that experience was why they were prized and the fact that they stayed cold for so much longer, even though they didn't taste so good.
So sorry, like John and Brian to have been unable to see the old school at first hand, but very grateful to know the buildings are still almost unchanged and that the memories I have held in mind for over 50 years are so accurate in their detail.
Thank you, I'm so pleased to find this picture of the old Changi grammar school. I started there in 1962, just before the move to the new, luxury building with air conditioning. I was just 12 then so very junior and my memories are hazy but I remember the water bombs too, and the powdery flavoured milk. Also we used to go to a cafe in the village for lunch, beans on toast and a coke float.
And who can forget the 6 monthly cholera vaccinations and trying not to get hit on the sore arm. And hockey in that heat.
I was trying to describe the building to my grandchildren, they struggled with the concept of a school with no doors or windows!
Regards to all who passed through the doors, or rather the openings.
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