School motto and arms

The Bicentenary Crest of Penang Free School

SCHOOL MOTTO: 

Fortis atque Fidelis (för’tiz ud’kway fï’deliz)

SCHOOL COLOUR: 

Sky blue

ARMORIAL BEARINGS: 

White Tower, Palm Tree, Lion

THE BLAZON OR DESCRIPTION OF THE ARMS: 

Azure, in chief a white tower between the gold numerals 18 and 16; in sinister base a gold lion rampant guardant supporting a flag; in dexter base a gold palm tree proper

MOTTO: 

Fortis atque Fidelis (Translated as: Strong and Faithful)

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SYMBOLS USED:

WHITE TOWER: Signifies the qualities of strength and truthfulness

1816: The year that Penang Free School was founded

LION: Signifies the preservation of the traditions and high ideals of the School

PALM TREE: Signifies Penang and fertility of the mind

HERALDIC DESCRIPTION OF THE FLAG OF PENANG FREE SCHOOL:

Azure, per pale embattled; in dexter argent a lion rampant azure with numerals 18 and 16 on either side

The Free School spirit

While the Occupation of Penang by the Japanese military ended officially on 15 August 1945 with the surrender of the Japanese in the Pacific basin, Penang Free School reopened only on the fourth of October. The first post-War Speech Day passed by without the usual ceremonies associated with the occasion but for the School's 130th anniversary in October 1946, Sir Edward Gent, who was the Malayan Union's first Governor, attended together with Harold Cheeseman who was by now the Director of Education. In his speech, Cheeseman reflected on his experience during the Occupation and delivered an address which could perhaps be his most personal tribute to the Free School:

I am down, on the official programme, to speak as the Director of Education. Twenty years in Penang, 15 of them at this School, forged for me enduring links of service and of affection and during the 19 years that have passed since I was transferred from Penang these links have been strengthened rather than weakened by the passage of years. So I make no apology for addressing you today not in my official capacity but as one who belongs to the Penang Free School.

It gives me a great thrill to be enjoying a privilege. I little thought I should again enjoy, to be speaking once again to Free School boys on a Free School Speech Day. The first 21^st October I had in Penang was the 21^st October 1907 and from that day to this wherever I have been I have never failed to celebrate this anniversary. Wherever I have been. Even in Changi Prison. Old Frees did not forget the 21^st October. And year by year they celebrated it with a never-failing, indeed an ever-growing, confidence that the day would come when the School would again be in a very special sense the Free School with all its ancient rights and privileges restored.

I shall never forget the march of the internees in Singapore to their place of internment. A little group of Old Frees collected, seeking to help me with my baggage. They were fiercely repulsed by our guards. But throughout that march the little group kept appearing and re-appearing on the route, silent messengers of sympathy. And when we were in prison, Old Frees by underground channels effected contact with us and until the Double Tenth in 1943 smuggled in food, money and clothes for us.

And after the Japanese surrender, when visitors came to our internment camp, a contingent of Old Frees arrived and took part in those reunion scenes of indescribable enthusiasm. It seemed to me that every Old Free in Singapore must have come, each one bearing a gift. Some of them had a little difficulty in recognising me: they were looking for 15 stone, not seven.

What accounts for this Free School spirit that so influences and binds together those who have been in this school? It is not due to this building or this site for it existed long before these. It is not due to its large enrolment for we know that mere numbers mean little. It is not even due to its wonderful record of examination success. It is due to a variety of factors that I do not propose to attempt to enumerate. But it is fitting that we should remember today one who exercised a very powerful influence in the creation of the Free School spirit.

We know the driving force, the man who was behind that little school founded on October 21, 1816 in that insignificant building in Love Lane, abutting on the playground of the present Hutchings School. It was the Rev. R.S. Hutchings. He was a man of great educational vision. He wanted not merely an English School but a school in which boys could learn their mother tongue.

He introduced practical subjects into the curriculum and even had a trade school section. He was so far in advance of his times that his programme sounds more like a post-war programme for 1946 than a programme for 1816. Only one part of his programme was fulfilled, only one part was final and enduring – the English school, the Penang Free School.

Years ago as I pieced together from our scanty records, now unfortunately destroyed, the fascinating story of the growth and development of this school, I felt that the influence of this man was beyond measure. It was largely due to him that this school started with a background of high ideals and of a noble purpose. It was so started. It has so continued. We must be worthy of this great heritage and with a purpose born of pride and an effort born of determination seek to ensure for our School a future no less glorious than its past.

Dr Ong Chong Keng

From the Penang Free School Magazine of November 1931 (Old Series, Volume XI Number 4), there was published this speech by Dr Ong Chong Keng, the representative of The Old Frees' Association, who was speaking at the Free School's Speech Day on 21 October 1931. Ong was a medical doctor who later turned politician and sat in the Federal Legislative Council of Malaya, For his very vocal views that the Chinese would be loyal to the future Federation of Malaya, Communist elements ambushed and killed him somewhere in the Perak Road area of Penang island on 31 August 1948. Nine years later on 31 August 1957, Malaya would achieve her Independence from the British. Ong Chong Keng would have been visibly chuffed by that.

About a week ago, when I was invited to be the speaker for the Old Frees, I felt at first that I was not sufficiently distinguished to assume such an important role. But on subsequent thought, I discovered that I possess one great distinction: a distinction which took me a decade of sustained perseverance to earn, and that was, the distinction of having studied at the Penang Free School. (cheers). That distinction of being an Old Free was not the monopoly of a selected few. Our school is exactly 115 years old today. And, as each year, for 115 years, boys passing out of the school into the ranks of the Old Frees, the distinguished company of Old Frees is an exceedingly big one. Indeed, it might almost be said that the sun never set on an Old Free. (cheers). But it is the distinguished company of Old Frees, not the company of distinguished Old Frees, which is a big one. (applause). I am addressing you from that platform - not as one of the distinguished Old Frees, because I am not distinguished, at least not yet, (laughter and applause) - but as one of the distinguished company of Old Frees. 

During this time that I am privileged to inflict my speech on you, I hope to be pardoned if I should show a strong partiality for “those brave old days beyond recall”, and indulge in reminiscences of my old school days. 

I left school one day in March 1923, and as this building was not occupied until 1928, I was one of that last batch of Old Frees who had all our schooling in those old buildings which now house Hutchings School. More than eight years has elapsed since I first became an Old Free, and there is not the slightest doubt that the school has progressed in every direction during the past eight years. Perhaps the great progress was noticeable in the additional facilities now provided for study and for play. 

The school now has a beautiful meeting hall where the boys meet every morning. In the old days the tiffin shed functioned as the meeting hall on those occasions when Mr Pinhorn, the then Headmaster, wanted to address us and to warn us from committing any of the three serious crimes – (1) jeering at our rivals in the Inter-school athletic competitions for the Glugor Shield, (laughter); (2) throwing fruit skins all over the school playground during the fruit season, (loud laughter); and (3) giving vent to our artistic and other less commendable feelings by caricaturing our enemies, usually the masters, on the walls in the seclusion of the closet. (renewed laughter). 

You now have well-equipped laboratories, which you can conduct your experiments in Physics and Chemistry. Those days we had no laboratories and our practical Chemistry was chiefly, if not solely, confined to the mixing together of various coloured solutions in test tubes. Now you have new desks with unblemished tops. The old desks had holes, through which we read surreptitiously those doubtful but exciting classics which had gone, and still went, under the picturesque name of Penny Dreadfuls. 

In the field of sports too, there have been vast improvements. The playing field of today is many times the size of the old one. All the present footballers of the school wear boots, while most of old brigade prided themselves on our invulnerable feet, and played all our games bare-footed. (laughter). The cricketers today present a striking and stylish picture as they go in to bat, complete with cap, gloves, pads, and flannel trousers. Their predecessors wore the thickest sun helmets they could find to give their heads protection from the ball. (laughter) They never had any gloves on, and if they did put on pads at all, they usually put on one only, and more often than not, that one pad was put on the leg farthest removed from the bowler. (loud laughter). 

You may laugh at our backwardness and you may be amused at our primitivity. I have endeavoured to give a few glimpses of what school-life was like in my time. Recollections of pleasant incidents always give rise to a feeling of sadness, of regret that they can now be nothing more than just pleasant memories; and we treasure every little memento which reminds us of those happy days which had been, and every little souvenir which links the present to the past. 

An old boy revisiting his old school take only a superficial, if indeed any, interest in the new building, the new laboratory, and the new gymnasium put up since his day. What he wants to see are the same old building, the same old classrooms, and of course, the same old masters. When he roams round the school, his eyes would want to rove over the school walls in the effort to discover that particular patch of ink smudge for which he was responsible, and for which he received three strokes. 

He would prick up his ears to hear the same old school bell, the tones of which, could he but hear them, would at once recall to his mind that old, almost ancient servant of the school, Imam, who served the school so faithfully and so well for so many, many years. Imam had gone the way of all flesh, and though a snobbish world will not dream of erecting a memorial tablet to the memory of a mere peon, he will always lie enshrined in the heart of every Old Free as the typical example of Loyalty itself.

The heavy hand of death had also removed the most important figure that has ever appeared on the local staff of the school. The number of Old Frees who have sat at the feet of the late Mr Koay Thean Chin must be legion, and the death of one whom we have learnt to regard as a permanent fixture of the school was a great blow to us all. A schoolboy, whilst still attending school, regards his master as a mixed assortment of tyrants and freaks. (laughter). But no sooner had he left school, than the soft haze of retrospect puts a halo round the head of every teacher who taught him.

Mr RH Pinhorn was a terror to us all. Every approaching thump of his foot on the school stairs- it was a characteristic thump to those who heard it – put the fear of death into our juvenile hearts. (laughter). We now know that Mr Pinhorn was a perfect gentleman in every sense of the word. Mr Heng Kok has given you a full account of his services to the school, and I shall not weary you by repeating this year what you heard last year. (applause). 

Mr Hamilton looked so ferocious to us that we christened him the Old Tiger. Whenever we heard hisorder ‘Stand on your hind legs,” we knew that we were in for a grueling mathematical catechism, which was frequently enlivened by resounding slaps on the cheek. Now we marvel at the forbearance and patience which Mr Hamilton showed us, and we likened his slaps unto the kisses of the saint on the cheek of the leper. (applause). 

Mr Eckersall was another forbidding schoolday figure, and his sharp tongue used to lash us like a whip. He taught us mathematics, but I learnt a good many expressive English words from him. For example, I never knew what a “lout” was, until I came under him. He used few words, but he chose them well. (loud laughter). When he wanted to put one of us up on the bench, he merely barked out the one word “mount.” Now, whenever we think of Mr Eckersall, our hearts well over with thankfulness for all the kindness that we have received at his hands. (applause). 

Mr Swaine taught us History and Latin. As a medical man, I have not come across a more potent soporific than Latin, (laughter) and even as a school boy, I was grateful to Mr Swaine for permitting me to slumber peacefully in his class (laughter). What Latin I knew (I know none now) was learnt by my subconscious self. His long association with the Free School was rudely interrupted, we hope not actually terminated, a few years ago. We regard Mr Swaine as the property of the Free School, and we shall deem it a gracious favour if the authorities will return him to us one day, as our Headmaster. (applause). 

Mr Arnold taught us French and Geography. He was always very polite, and his unruffled smoothness was sometimes the exasperation of us all. I was not noted for my punctuality, and one morning I arrived late at Mr Arnold’s French class. He greeted me with these words, uttered with a smiling face and with all the suavity conceivable, “I was afraid that I would not have the pleasure of seeing you this morning. And, if you persist in keeping me in this suspense every morning, I regret that I shall be forced to deny myself the pleasure of ever seeing you again in my class.” (loud laughter). Needless to say, if I ever failed to come early again, it was not for want of trying. Mr Arnold now stands high in the educational world of Malaya, and for every success gained, he has the heartiest congratulations of the Old Frees. (applause). 

What English I know now, I owe to a lean, young Englishman whom we called “Orang Keju.” (cheers). He left us about 10 years ago, but Cheeseman House perpetuates the memory of a name which is synonymous with the progress of the school during the first 20 years of the twentieth century (applause). 

Mr Hamid Khan was another of the old masters who had been taken away from the Free School. His name was always coupled with that of the late M. Koay Thean Chin for honorable mention by Mr Pinhorn at every prize-giving day. He is still going strong, and apart from a slight whitening of his moustaches, he looks today exactly the same as he did 20 years ago. On behalf of all his old pupils, I wish him “panjang umoh.” (applause). 

Two native masters who have taught me, still remain on the present staff of the school. They are Mr Koay Kye Teong and Mr Ng Cheong Weng. It is a source of great gratification to us that they are both drawing super-scale emoluments. These two masters together with a few other native masters of the school provide the only link which connects this Free School of Green Lane with the old Free School of Farquhar Street. 

An old boy who had spent all his school career at Farquhar Street will look in vain for a familiar face in the entire European staff of the present school. “All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.” Father Time has removed a few of them. We cannot help that. The Educational Gods have transferred the rest to other places. 

We are always proud of our tradition. We flatter ourselves that a boy in going through the Free School acquires certain individuality, a certain outlook on life, a certain bearing and behaviour, which is characteristic of the Free School. We believe that every boy who passes through the Free School mill must be impressed with the Free School stamps. But, if the European staff of the school is always changing, if it undergoes a complete metamorphosis every five years, if it is composed of masters whose longest connection with the school is a paltry period of four to five years, when they have boys under them who have been in school for a longer length of time, where is that continuity without which tradition is as empty as a shadow. It is a pity that we could not transplant the old school buildings from Farquhar Street to Green Lane but surely, the authorities can, if they only want to, allow us to retain a fairly constant staff. An absolutely constant European staff, I am aware, is an impossibility due to the exigencies of leave and promotion. 

Our past history of 115 years outshines that of any other school in Malaya and equals that of any other school in the East. We have a unique foundation of tradition and the educational authorities will be failing in their duty if instead of building on it, they destroy it. We studied at the Penang Free School as our fathers and our fathers’ fathers did before us; and this great Free School tradition is as real and means as much to us as the Oxford or Cambridge tradition to Oxford or Cambridge graduates. We consider it nothing short of sacrilegious that this school should bear the venerable, almost sacred, name of Penang Free School, when no attention is paid to its glorious past and no attempt is made to foster its individuality. 

You, boys, are the heirs of this great tradition. You have inherited a ready-made past, more wonderful than any you can have made to order. The responsibility of fashioning the present and to a less extent, the future, lies in your hands. I am confident that you will make a good job of it. In concluding I want to ask every one of you to be proud that you are a Free School boy. “I am a Roman, a citizen of no mean city,” was a proud Roman boast. May everyone of you glow with equal pride when you say “I am a Free School boy, a member of no mean school.” (loud and prolonged applause).

Straits Times, 29 August 1863

This news item is extracted from The Straits Times of 29 August 1863, more than 150 years ago, when the Penang Free School was barely 47 years old then. It highlighted the remuneration of junior teachers (or who were then called Stipendiary Monitors) at the school, who were paid 15 Straits Dollars per month.

We extract the following from the Pinang Gazette, of the 8th instant.

For some reasons, we are sorry to hear that both of the Stipendiary Monitors who accepted service in the Free School a very short time ago, have now left their employment for a more remunerating, agreeable, and promising one, even forfeiting their pay for the period they have served rather than continue at their posts for the twelvemonth. We say we are sorry for some reasons, and chiefly because it is very unsatisfactory for the institution to be unprovided with a permanent staff of teachers. So far as the lads themselves may benefit their prospects, we of course cannot be sorry on their account; and we would remind the subscribers that so long as intelligent youths who may be engaged as teachers in our Free School are not remunerated at least as well as they would be were they employed in Beach Street or Government Offices, they will make but short stay in their uninviting situation. Several lads who leave the Free School obtain employment even here, after gaining a little experience, at $15 and upwards per mensem; while in Singapore, Burmah, China, Saigon, &c., they command yet higher pay. There seems to be no means whatever or supplying our school with anything like willing and proper junior teachers except by offering higher pay or binding the youths by legal Agreement. We are not sorry that the failure of the Stipendiary Monitor scheme (solely on account of the lads services being more highly valued elsewhere), has made it fully apparent that the assistance of a Second Master should no longer be withheld. The Singapore institution will have one in a mail or two, and we think that the time has fully come for the carrying out of the measure of organizing the Free School classes as we have already suggested. The plan, we think, would meet the wishes of many European parents, and would probably tend, in time, to restore the balance in the school funds lessened by the expense of a Second Master from Europe. The Committee, in its Annual Reports, has long recommended the employment of proper assistance: and we hope they no longer withhold it. The school-fees might be raised in the Upper school and the Higher Remove; and as the expenses of the Boarding school are rapidly dwindling away,since Heathens are no longer admitted to it, some further adjustment of the finances may be expected. The community, Native as well as European, moreover, is always willing to respond to a Special Appeal.

The Straits Echo, Tuesday, 10 January 1928

Opening of New Free School

An Historic Ceremony

The new Free School buildings in Green Lane, which have been in the course of construction during the past three or four years, were officially declared open yesterday by the Hon. the Resident Councillor, Penang, in the presence of the Director of Education, S.S. and F.M.S. (the Hon. Mr. R.O. Winstedt, C.M.G., D.Litt.), members of the Legislative council, heads of Government Departments and the leading residents of Penang of all nationalities. It was indeed an epoch making event.

Besides the Hon. Mr. Scott, and the Hon. Mr. R.O. Winstedt there were Mrs. P.J. Sproule, the Hon. Mr. Palgrave Simpson and Mrs. Simpson, the Hon. Mr. Quah Beng Kee, O.B.E., the Hon. Mr. and Mrs. P.M. Robinson, the Hon. Mr. P.K. Nambyar, Mr. G.L. Hain, Mr. and Mrs. F.T. Kinder and Miss Kinder, Mr. and Mrs. J.D. Fettes, Mr. and Mrs. N.A.M. Griffin, Mrs. H. Welham, Mr. Khoo Sian Ewe, the Rev. Keppel Garnier, Mr. Watson (Chief Inspector of Schools), Mr. M.H.M. Noordin, Dr. A.O. Merican, Dr. J. Emile Smith, Mr. Yeoh Cheang Aun, Mr. Lim Boon Haw, Mr. and Mrs. H.H. Abdul Cader, Mr. and Mrs. R.L. Buckwell, Mr. T. Rogers, Mr. C.R. Samuel, Mr. N.A. Sedwick, Mr. C.W.A. Sennett, Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Pedlow, the Siamese Consul and Mrs. Varavadi, Mr. H.C. Bathrust and numerous others.

Formal Opening

By the time the Hon. Mr. Scott arrived the long verandah of the school was packed. Boys of the school lined up two sides of the portico. Mr. Scott was received by Mr. D.R. Swaine, Acting Headmaster, and then went to inspect the Guard-of-Honour of School Cadets, under the command of Capt. A.W. Frisby, and the Boys Scouts, under Mr P.G. Boyd.

Mr. Scott then returned to the portico and received a key from the hands of the Deputy Colonial Engineer, Mr. F.T. Kinder, with which he formally opened the building.

Assembled in the main hall, with the principal officials and guests on the stage, proceedings commenced with the playing of the National Anthem.

Mr. Swaine, Acting Headmaster, then spoke as follows; Sir, -- On the programme I appear responsible for giving a short history of the school. I have thought it preferable to have my notes together with some notes written by Mr. Pinhorn in 1916 printed and distributed. I shall not therefore delay these proceedings by reading this account. I need hardly say that I regard it as a very great honour to be acting as Headmaster of the school at the commencement of this new era in its history and I trust that the gates which were closed on a glorious part have this day been opened to a more brilliant future.

Messages Of Congratulation

Messages of congratulation have been received from H.E. Major-General C. Van Straubenzee, the Hon. the Colonial Secretary, the Hon. the Resident Councillor, the Hon. Mr. E.C.H. Wolffe, the Hon. the Director of Education, Mr. G. Hall, Mr. A. Voules, Dr. Wu Lien Teh, the Hon. Mr. Quah Beng Kee, Mr. W. Hargreaves, Mr. R.H. Pinhorn, Mr. W. Hamilton and Mr. F. Sands.

The following had sent telegrams of congratulation: Dr. Wu Lien Teh, (Calcutta), Hon. Mr. Peel (Woking), Mr. Honnell (Vice-chancellor, Hong Kong University), (Hong Kong), Mr. Hamilton, (Brighton), Dr. Mustapha b. Osman, (Hong Kong), Mr. M.A. Noordin, (Kelantan), Mr. Lim Paik Hong (Trengganu), Old Frees, Kedah, (Alor Star), Mr. Zainul Abidin (on behalf Old Frees), (Sungai Patani), Mr. Ooi Chye Hock, (Johore), Capt. N.M. Hashim, (Parit Buntar), Mr Lim Eu Goh, (Bangkok), Mr. Goh Sam Eong, (Bentong, Pahang), Dr. Saw Ah Choy, (Taiping), Mr. Foo Wha Cheng, (Ipoh), Mr. Yeoh Cheow Beng, (Singapore), Mr. Saw Ghee Hong, (Kuala Lumpur), Mr. Leong Hoe Yeng, (Kuala Lumpur), Mr. Davies, Victoria Institution, (Kuala Lumpur), Che Ismail b. Haji Puteh, (Kulim), Mr. Lim Chong Hum, (Tveradja, Java), Mr. Ooi Hun Teong, (Kapitan China), (Medan).

“To the distinguished gentlemen who have sent us these messages of congratulation, to the loyal old boys who have sent telegrams, to all well-wishers and helpers of the school and to those who are gracing this opening with their presence, on behalf of the school I express my sincerest and warmest thanks.” (Applause).

Dr. Winstedt’s Speech

The Hon. Mr. R.C. Winstedt, Director of Education, S.S. and F.M.S. next addressed the gathering as follows: It gives me great pleasure to be here to-day the see the Resident Councillor open the old Free School in these new buildings. Penang sometimes thinks it is ill-treated by Government, sometimes envies its younger bustling sister, Singapore. But it need not feel the inferiority complex today. This building is the finest school building in Malaya, and I should like to congratulate the architect on his design. There is one other matter on which I should like publicly to convey my congratulations. I should like to congratulate the architect on his design. There is one other matter on which I should like publicly to convey my congratulations. I should like to congratulate Mr. Swaine and his staff on winning both the 1927 Queen’s Scholarships for the Free School. Some years ago when at last the Free School was taken over by Government, pessimists foretold an end of its brilliant career, they talked of frequent transfers of staff, of red tape and all the other claptrap pessimists love. Well, Mr. Cheeseman was on the staff for years, gave of his best to the school, and had its interests very near his heart, and Mr. Cheeseman tells me that in his opinion the school has never had so good a staff as it has to-day. Certainly it has never had a better building or larger funds. And I the wicked soldier at the centre of the Education Department’s tangle of red tape have had no complaints that the Free School is more restricted in its activities now than it was under the old Committee.

I have said that Penang folk need not suffer from the inferiority complex over this school. Nor need they feel it over the general standard of education in the settlement. It is apparently higher here than anywhere else in Malaya. The reasons for this are debatable. My friends the Christian Brothers who have schools throughout the Peninsula declare that Penang boys win the Queen’s Scholarships because unlike the urchins of that immoral cesspool, Singapore, they keep themselves unspotted from the cinema and other such amusements. I have even heard it said that there was one home-keeping Queen’s Scholar who had to be shown the way to Weld’s Quay! I doubt that story but on the whole I fancy that the people of Penang lead quieter and staider lives than the people of the larger port and bring up their children to go willingly to school. We must not forget however that the Free School have had a succession of able headmasters like Mr. Hargreaves and Mr. Pinhorn to frame a continuous policy and a succession of zealous form masters like Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Eckersall to train its pupils.

The Three Main Problems

Mr. Swaine had related the history of this school. An administrator’s chief concern with history is to tear from its pages lessons for the present and the future. We have three main educational problems in Malaya, one moral and intellectual, one practical. We give probably the best English education in Asia. Colonel Needham, who reported for the Medical Council of Great Britain, thinks so. But ideally we ought to teach children in their own language till the age of 12 or 13, letting them learn English as a foreign language up to that age. However, if we tried to do that, I am assured by headmasters that their pupils’ knowledge of English would suffer incalculably. Nor is it practicable for us to teach all the vernaculars of China, India, Ceylon and Japan: It would not be possible to get enough trained teachers and without trained teachers children’s minds would be dulled and retarded.

The second great problem of education in Malaya is the provision of technical education. A start is being made in this direction. Malaya will soon, I hope, have a technical college and an agricultural college, both of them near the capital of the Colony’s wealthy younger sister, the Federated Malay States, but both open to Straits boys who have passed the Senior Cambridge. Singapore is to have a trade school for boys who have studied only the vernacular or left an English school without reaching the secondary forms. I trust that the next considerable educational work provided for Penang also will be a Trade School. I am glad to think that sports and changed circumstances have modified the supercilious attitude of the East to manual labour.

Higher Education

The third main local problem is higher education, and on this may I present myself to you as a beggar, perhaps so far as Penang is concerned I have been rather an ‘absent-minded beggar’ not as persistent or clamant as I might have been. Raffles College is nearing completion. It is a noble building on a noble site. The College syllabus should be published in March or April. The College will open in June. We want more money. We want double the endowment we have to-day if it is ever to have a staff of Professors and Readers and Lecturers worthy of a University. Especially, therefore, we want money to establish professorships. It costs about $300,000 to endow one professorship in perpetuity but I shall be very happy to take it by instalments. Our next want is more scholarships. It will cost roughly $1,000 a year to maintain a boy or girl at the College. That means a capital sum of only $20,000 or thereabouts. There must be many sitting here before me who have had their sons and daughters educated in the Government schools of this country for a mere trifle compared with what parents of their means would have to pay in England.

Appeal For Funds

There must be many parents sitting here before me who could sign a cheque for $20,000 without any self sacrifice. If they cannot afford so much, $2,000 will defray the initial cost of the library of English literature, $2,000 for the cost of a History section, $2,000 for the cost of a Science section, $2,000 for the cost of a Mathematics section. And each of those sections of the College library will be named after the donor who pays $2,000 for it. I appeal to-day to the people of Penang, who have shown as much appreciation of education as any people in Malaya. I ask them not to let Raffles College, the centre of Malaya’s highest education, languish for lack of funds. I ask them to form a Committee again as they did before to collect fresh funds for the College to which their sons and daughters will go after leaving schools like the school we open to-day. They will be serving the interests of their children and of those that come after them. They will be enabling the citizens of this settlement to compete with the world of the future in the battle of life. (Applause).

The Resident Councillor

The Hon. Mr. Ralph Scott, who spoke next, at the outset said he wished to endorse what Mr. Winstedt had said with regard to the generosity of Penang towards the Raffles Institution. He did it with the full assurance that Penang would benefit more than any other place by that generosity. Mr. Scott next referred to a few points of the school’s past history, and said he had no doubt that the change to Green Lane would prove equally successful. The site selected might be thought out of the way but just as the school in Farquhar Street, he felt certain that the new school would be surrounded with buildings in time to come. Fine buildings did not make a school: other factors were the staff and boys. Mr. Scott paid a high tribute to the present efficient staff and said he hoped the boys will carry on the high tradition of that school.

Dr. K.L. Teng

Dr. Koh Lip Teng, Queen’s Scholar, 1894, said it was an honour to speak on an occasion like that. The Penang Free School was the oldest educational Institution in British Malaya. One hundred and eleven years ago it was founded and, like all great things, began in a humble way. From the time of Mr. Hutchings, to the time Mr. Hargreaves took over, was a period of steady growth and development for the school; from the time of Mr. Hargreaves to the present date was a period of great prosperity to the school, a period characterised by records of great successes unparalleled in the history of education in British Malaya.

In conclusion Dr. Teng read out the following gifts made to the school in celebration of the opening that day:

1. Capital sums to endow Scholarships:- $3,000 from the Trustees of the Cheah Chim Yean Estate; $2,000 from the Estate of Choong Cheng Kean per Messrs. Choong Lye Hock & Choong Lye Hin; $1,200 from Lim Liew Saik Neoh (Mrs. Choong Lye Hock).
2. From Mr. Khoo Sian Ewe a capital sum of $1,300 to be used as follows:- (a) $1,000 for books for the School Library; (b) $300 to endow a School Prize for Chinese.
3. From the Kedah Old Frees per Mr. M.I. Merican, Mr. Sheriff, Che Kassim and Tuan Syed Omar, a capital sum of $400 to endow a “Kedah Old Frees Malay Prize”.
4. A capital sum of $200 to endow prizes from each of the following: (1) Old Frees’ Association, 1^st school prize; (2) Dr. Ong Huck Chye, Form Prize to be known as the Ong Hun Siew Prize; (3) Mr. Ong Huck Eng, Form Prize to be known as the Khoo Kwee Kee Neoh Prize; (4) Subscribers to the Hamilton Fund, Prize to be known as the Hamilton Mathematics Prize; (5) Trustees of the Estate of Tye Kee Yuen, English Essay Prize; (6) Old Frees of Young Muslim Union per Mr. Hamid Khan, Prize to be known as the Y.M.U. Mathematics Prize; (7) Local Masters who have served under Mr. Pinhorn (per Mr. Koay Thean Chin), Prize to be known as the Pinhorn Eng. Literature Prize; (8) Dr. Lim Guan Cheng, School Latin Prize; (9) Old Frees of Penang Malay Association (per Dr. A.O. Merican), Prize to be known as the Penang Malay Association Science Prize; (10) Mr. H.H. Abdoolcader, School Geography Prize; (11) Mr. Lim Keong Lay, School Science Prize; (12) Mr. Khoo Heng Kok, School History Prize; (13) Dr. C.Y. Wu, School Hygiene Prize; (14) Mr. Khoo Sian Tan, Form Prize.

Other gifts: (1) Mr. Koh Leok Hup, Challenge Cup for yearly competition between School and the Old Boys; (2) Mr. M.H.M. Noordin, Badminton Challenge Cup; (3) Mr. Lim Kean Leong, Furniture including marble-topped tables for School Tuck Shop; (4) Teh Sey Leong, Honours Boards for School Hall; (5) Boon Pharmacy (per Mr. Chew Boon Ee), Medicine Cabinet.

Vote Of Thanks

Mr. Cheeseman proposed a vote of thanks, thanking in the first place the generous donors whose gifts had just been announced. The Old Boys Association, and Dr. Ong Huck Chye, in particular, was to be congratulated in arranging for that admirable commemoration of the Opening. In connection with those buildings Mr. Cheeseman mentioned the following who had assisted in one way or another: Dr. Winstedt, Mr. Wolff, Mr. Ralph Scott, members of the Legislative Council, Gammon & Co., Mr. Kinder, Mr. D. Ward, Mr. Ogle and Mr. Watson, Chief Inspector of Schools. The driving force behind this great undertaking however had been Mr. R.H. Pinhorn to whose foresightedness, determination, and personality, the Free School during the past 20 years had maintained its high position. The school had been reaping the harvest of Mr. Pinhorn’s efforts.

In conclusion Mr. Cheeseman said: “Boys of the Penang Free School! My last words on this memorable occasion I address to you. You have entered upon a goodly heritage. You belong to a school rich in traditions, inspiring in record, wonderful in possibilities. See to it that you prove true to your high trust.”

Proceedings terminated with three cheers for the Resident Councillor after which a tour of the buildings was made.

Sesqui-centenary, 21 October 1966

The morning of 21 October 1966 at the Protestant Cemetery in Northam Road. Sequi-centenary visit to the grave of the Rev. Robert Sparke Hutchings, founder of the Penang Free School, by representatives from the Board of Governors, Old Frees' Association, staff, prefects and other well-wishers. Commemoration presided by the Rev. ACH Peatfield, the Archdeacon of North Malaya.

Back at the Penang Free School later that morning for the Sesqui-centenary Speech Day: