[Singapore Police] The Gurkhas of Mount Vernon

"Kaphar Hunnu Bhanda Marnu Ramro" (It's better to die than to be a coward)

One of the first photos of the Gurkha contingent taken in 1950. (3) Source: https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/photographs/record-details/8a990c5c-1162-11e3-83d5-0050568939ad

Brave! Super Fit! Humble and Shy! Ask any Singaporeas about this unseen community and these are some adjectives that will come to mind.


The Gurkha contingent was brought into the Singapore Police Force in 1949. (2)

It was said that the first batch 147 recruits (who were ex-army personnel) did tremendously well that the Gurkha numbers was brought up to 330 members by 1954. (7) It then grew to 400 members in 1979. (9), 650 members in 1985 (5) and then 760 members in 1989. (4) By 2008, there were about 2,000 members. (1)

Interestingly, the Gurkha Contingent in Singapore had been managed by the British.

The Straits Times (1953) first reported about the tender to be called for the building of the Gurkha cantonment at Mount Vernon. The cost was estimated to be around S$3million. (10)

Prior to 1955, the Gurkhas were based at Cantonment Road. (11)

In the 1960s, the Gurkhas were deployed to fight in the gang lands of Geylang. (5)  

The closest public school to the Gurkha cantonment is Bartley Secondary School. In 1985, it was reported that more than 30% of the school-going students in their school were Nepalese. (5)

In 1979, Mr Douglas Moore, from the British 7th Duke Edinburgh Gurkha Rifles, took over the command of the Gurkha contingent from Mr J. O. Donnell. The latter had served in the contingent for 15 years. (12)

In 1981, the Prison Gurkha Unit formed two years back was subsumed under the Gurkha Contingent that was led by Superintendent P. Niven, a secondment from the 10th Gurkha Rifles based in Hong Kong. (8)

Issues Faced in Singapore and Nepal
There were issues faced on the ground - Disputes over pay (1)

The story did not end there. The alleged leader of  the dispute, Sanman Limbu, was disgracefully dismissed and sent back to Nepal together with 16 other Gurkhas. To take it out on his previous colleague, he masterminded a kidnap of a then-retired colleague, Mr Bahadur Garung. The Nepal Police managed to free Mr Garung, whilst at the same time, apprehend the kidnappers. (13)

Rituals

In the early days, the Gurkha contingent practiced their ritual called "Phul Pati" or head-cutting ceremony - "At the Phul Pati rite, a goat, a buffalo, and two ducks" were sacrificed. Four pigeons were also released. (9)



References

1. Leong, W. K. 2008, June 21. 'Scuffles' in Gurkha camp over pay issues. Today. P13.
2. New Nation. 1973, July 27. Uphold traditions, Gurkhas told. P7.
3. National Archive of Singapore. Retrieved on 2020, April 25. https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/photographs/record-details/8a990c5c-1162-11e3-83d5-0050568939ad
4. Ong, C. C. 1989, March 18. Panel suggests redeploying HK Gurkhas to Singapore. P40.
5. Sam, J. 1960, February 21. 'Red van' toughs bring war to gang hideouts. P7.
6. Singapore Monitor. 1985, April 19. Bartley School's Gurkha. P4.
7. Sidhu, K. S. 1973, February 18. Singapore's Gurkhas still do a great job. The Straits Times. P8. 
Sidhu, K. S. 1981, March 30. Prison Gurkha unit to join police force. The Straits Times. P8.
8. The Singapore Free Press. 1961, October 20. Gurkha sacrifice at Mount Vernon: A goat, buffalo and two ducks. P7.
9. The Straits Times. 1953, November 21. Children take over when aircraft leave. P2.
10. The Straits Times. 1955, February 3. Police boss sees the riot squad. P4.
11. The Straits Times. 1979, April 5. New chief for the Singapore Gurkha unit. P11.
12. Today. 2009, April 7. Kidnappers' motive was revenge: Police. P4.



Other Resources

The Invisible Force. https://www.singaporegurkhas.org/ Retrieved on 2020, May 4.



Further research area:-

There was another group of Gurkha - the 2nd King Edward XII's own Gurkha Regiment from 1949 to 1971. They were based at Slims Barrack.
https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/printheritage/image.aspx?id=110888fe-93fd-4b98-89d5-31a15134c8df

Gurkhas were involved in Singapore 's National Day in 1966 -1969. They also changed their uniform from kakis in 1968 to their blue uniforms from 1969.

The Gurkha Pipe and Drums were also involved in National Day from the 1960s to 1990s.

It was said that Gurkhas were hired to become Prison guards due to poor response from Singaporeans. The prisons that they took care of included Queenstown Prison.

The Gurkha Prison unit was formed in 1968
https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/private_records/record-details/e792c320-115b-11e3-83d5-0050568939ad

[Movies] The Way of the Dragon - In Singapore

Original Hong Kong Movie Poster
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29650656

Bruce Lee's movie produced in 1972 - The Way of the Dragon - was Lee's debut into movie directing. It was a big deal in Singapore. It was shown simultaneously, midnight on Saturday, November 11, in only THREE cinemas - Odeon, Cathay and Orchard (Currently Orchard Cineleisure). (1) The movie was shown later in the open air Jurong Drive-in. (2)

Tickets were all sold out on its premiere night and the movie was so popular that the government had to warn the public against buying movie tickets from touts (3) All these happened even before its launch. But still, you can't stop the desire of the public. The public stood in line for hours but unfortunately, many could not get hold of the tickets. The tickets at the box office were sold at S$1, S$2 and S$3 and each member of the public was only allowed the purchase of 4 tickets.(4)

"Touts sold the movie tickets at DOUBLE the price and people were still buying off them", shared my father.  

This martial arts movie reached out to people of all ages, gender and races and was shown in the cinemas for about two months.


References

1. The Straits Times. November 9, 1972. World premiere of new Bruce Lee film in S'pore. P15. 

2. New Nation. December 19, 1972. Miscellaneous Column 2. P2.
3. The Straits Times. November 11, 1972. Bruce Lee Film Tickets Warning. P20.
4. New Nation. November 10, 1972. Advertisements Column 2. P15.

[Housing Estate] Living in Dakota Crescent

I had a chanced meeting with Uncle Vincent Chan. He was doing his weekly 'chi gong' at the open space close to the iconic playground and I was just cycling . I stopped my bicycle and waited for the bare-chested uncle to finished his exercise. He was totally immersed in his exercise and I didn't want to distract him. So I continued to cycle around to capture the last pictures of Dakota Crescent before the entire estate is demolished in 2017.

Tian Kee Provision Shop

After his warm down, we walked over to Tian Kee cafe for a morning tea.The current owner of the cafe, Mr CK Foo - came up with a brilliant idea of keeping the nostalgia of this former provision shop by decorating his cafe with old memorabilia and even kept the old sign board of the old provision shop.

Prior to this being a cafe, Tian Kee and Co. was a provision shop run by Mr Lim Tian Kee. The provision shop loyally served the Dakota residents for 54 years before its owner called it quits in 2013. (1) He cited rising rental and aggressive competition from large supermarkets such as NTUC. Age has also caught up for this 84-year old shop owner. 

Uncle Chan had taken his morning tea together with his fried fritters over at the Old Kallang Airport Market. Still, he was extremely kind to spend two hours with me to chat about a wide array of topics - from the history of housing estate, to his life and life lessons that he has learnt.

Uncle Chan, 68, is one of the first pioneer residents of Dakota Crescent. Together with his father, Uncle Chan moved into his rental flat at Block 50 in 1958. He was 12 years old then. 

In 1980, he was asked to move out as the government had wanted to develop that piece of land. He was then given another rental flat at Block 20. which he has been staying in with his son.

Uncle Chan went on to share -

1. Dakota Crescent was an ulu place in the 1950s. There were no public buses serving this area and in order to go to town, he had to take walk to Mountbatten to take the public transport

2. The blocks are generally even-numbered. The odd-number blocks have all been torn down   

Updated December 31, 2016

References

1. Cheong, K. October 19, 2013. Shutters for 54-year-old provision shop. The Straits Times. 

Further Reading

 Yeo, S. J. December 31, 2016. Some haven't moved out of Dakota Crescent. The Straits times. B1. http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/some-havent-moved-out-dakota-crescent