BUKIT BROWN : Living Museum of History and Heritage

The clerk that saved the prison's death register

Brownie 0 Featured, News, Stories Sunday, May 06, 2018

There was once a gaol clerk who risked his life to secretly record and save the name list of those who are executed or died in Outram prison, and even let POWs copied the name list secretly on the pages of the Bible. 
 
Today we would like to pay tribute to this man and publish this name list of the 1470 deaths who are buried in mass trenches in Bukit Brown. 
 
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On 12 Sep 1945,  not so long after the war ended,  The Australia Morning Bulletin published the prisoners' stories of Singapore Gaol Horrors, describing Outram Gaol as the Blackest Spot of All" 
 
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It was reported that Pte A. K. Mitchell, of Seymour (Victoria) and a British doctor copied death records on the pages of a Bible belonging to a friendly Chinese gaol records clerk. 
 
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Pie Mitchell said that in the 15 months from May, 1944, up till July this year 1136 natives died 
of starvation and disease. In the two years up till July this year 142 Chinese were hanged. 
Pte Mitchell described the hanging of the Chinese as shocking. 
Their courage, he said, was amazing. Most of the Chinese were men and boys. Some were hanged for listening to Chungking broadcasts. One lad of 17 was hanged because he had donated 50 
cents to the British Spitfire fund before the Japanese invaded. 
 
Who was this friendly Chinese gaol record clerk who let the POWs copy death records on the pages of his Bible at the risk of his life? 
 
 
On 23 Feb 1946,  there was an important article published in Straits Times.   It was a name list of 1470 prisoners who died in the Outram Road Gaol (Civilian) during the Japanese occupation. 
 
This list was secretly by two people employed in the gaol.  The list was kept in English and it is possible that some of the names differ slightly from their Chinese equivalents as there is a variety of ways in which Chinese names can be romanised.   As the Japanese did not let relatives or friends know the fate of those who are arrested, it is probable that most of the people in this list are among those posted as "missing, fate unknown" 
 
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Some time later during the war crimes trial for the Outram Road Civil Gaol Crimes, the name of the prison clerk who had saved the register of the prisoner with its grim record of 1,000 deaths was make known and complimented.  He was Mr Benjamin Cheah, Chief Records Clerk at Outram Road Gaol, before and during the occupation. 
 
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Who was this Benjamin Cheah who risked his life to secretly saved the name list of those who are executed or died in the prison, and even let POWs copied the death records on the pages of the Bible? 
 
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It was a Death Notice published on Straits Times. 22 Aug 1951.  It reported the death of Benjamin Cheah Chun Hoi, age 60 years, who passed away at 24, Pearl's Hill Terrace, on the 20 Aug 1951, leaving his beloved wife, 4 sons and 4 daughters. 
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Pearl's Hill Terrace used to house government servants.   Benjamin Cheah held the post of chief clerk of Outram Gaol and also acted as interpreter. 
 
Benjamin must have rose through the ranks.  On 1 Apr 1908, when he was just 17 years he joined as an Extra Clerk in the Chinese Protectorate.  At that time Ho Siak Kuan was the Chinese Translator and Interpreter. 
 
Benjamin first wife died in 1924, and he married again in 1931 to Ms Lee Ah Moi who taught in St Andrew's School from 1947 till her retirement in 1960. 
 
On 24 May 1990, Mrs Cheah, Benjamin wife,  passed away at age 88 and was survived by her sons Dick and Andrew and daughters. 
 
Dick Cheah (Benjamin's son), a nursing officer, married Kate in 1976, and together they have 2 sons. 
Mrs Kate Cheah is actually the daughter of the founder of Polar Cafe, Chan Hinky 
(Now Polar Puffs and Cakes). 
 
They have met each other as early as 1950/51 whereby the Chan family was staying temporarily in Pearl's Hill Terrace, where Kate eldest sister 's husband was working as an interpreter in Outram Gaol. 
 
According to Mrs Kate Cheah's book "Sweet Memories, Sweet Success",  Dick forefathers had been part of a minority Chinese exodus that went to British Guiana to seek a better life.   Benjamin, Dick's father was born there but came to Penang when he was still a teenager. He then came to Singapore to work. 
 
The Name List secretly recorded in English by Benjamin Cheah 
 
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End of Name List

The clerk that saved the prison's death register

There was once a gaol clerk who risked his life to secretly record and save the name list of those who are executed or died in Outram prison...

More war graves beneath grounds of Bukit Brown?

Brownie 0 Featured, News Wednesday, May 02, 2018

The Straits Times May 2, 2018 
by Melody Zaccheus, Heritage and Community Correspondent 
 
Bukit Brown may have been dumping grounds for Outram Gaol prisoners who died during the Japanese Occupation 
 
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Tomb researcher Raymond Goh (back) with tomb keeper Soh Hung Seng at a valley at the Block 4 area of Bukit Brown Cemetery, where some people believe war victims might lie. More research and archaeological work need to be conducted.ST PHOTO: SEAH KWANG PENG 
 
Hidden beneath the dirt of Bukit Brown Cemetery are the remains of thousands of men, women and children unceremoniously dumped into unmarked graves, the victims of a brutal war. 
 
Historical records tell of trucks with bodies piled high in the back, and witnesses described how medicos would lift the bodies on stretchers, one by one, before tipping them over into open pits. 
 
But this was known to historians. Now one man's obsession with clawing through old records to tell the stories of the forgotten has unearthed another tragic tale. 
Somewhere in Bukit Brown Cemetery are dumping grounds for almost 1,400 civilians who died in the lesser-known Outram Gaol prison during the Japanese Occupation. 
 
Tomb researcher Raymond Goh made the discovery after matching the names of the 1,400 people, mostly civilians, who were executed or died from diseases at the Outram Gaol prison, to Bukit Brown's burial registry. Their names were published over three days in The Straits Times in February 1946. 
 
His finding is supported by other records which note the existence of mass graves at the site, and dovetails with other research and accounts. 
Bukit Brown burial records show that during the Japanese Occupation, Singapore Municipal Commission lorries used to dump the bodies of the war dead there. 
 
And in a 2012 book on his war experience, an Outram Gaol survivor, Australian prisoner of war Billy Young, said he and a friend saw 30 or 40 corpses piled together in a truck at the cemetery in 1942. The workers told the pair that three to four such trips were made to the cemetery daily. 
 
If Mr Goh's finding is confirmed by archaeological evidence, it would be the first major discovery of a war grave since more than 400 urns holding the remains of war victims were found in the Siglap area in 1962. 
As of now, no remains have been dug up yet and more research needs to be done to to locate where the 1,400 are precisely buried. 
 
The Outram Gaol prison stood at the foot of Pearl's Hill before it was demolished in 1963. 
 
Archaeologist Lim Chen Sian said that to narrow down the site of the mass grave or graves, more archival work and interviews with witnesses need to be conducted. Mr Lim said: "It would only be respectful to account for the people who died in the war and lay the victims to rest properly." 
 
Some clues suggest the graves may be at Block 4 at the cemetery. 
 
One of Bukit Brown's tomb keepers, the late Mr Soh Gor Tong, witnessed bodies being dumped into communal trenches around that plot of land. Born in the 1920s, Mr Soh worked in the cemetery all his life. He died in the early 2000s. 
 
Last month, Mr Soh's son, also a tomb keeper, took The Straits Times to Block 4. 
 
Mr Soh Hung Seng, 65, said: "My father saw the lorries with the bodies... he would run and hide. 
 
"After the war, when people asked why these plots weren't better utilised for other burials, he would say it was because they held the bodies of the war dead who were dumped into trenches." 
 
Bukit Brown volunteer Simone Lee, 36, said the burial registry indicates that mass burials took place at the cemetery from 1941 to 1946, and Blocks 1, 2 and 3 were presumably full by the time World War II came around. The next available area for mass trenches would be at Block 4, she added. 
 
The burial registry indicates that from Dec 9, 1941 to Feb 8, 1942, the total number of the war dead buried in communal trenches at the cemetery stood at 848. The Japanese formally surrendered only in September 1945. 
 
Mr Goh said: "In the chaos, many bodies were dumped, and families who were themselves incapacitated by the war could not always claim the bodies." 
 
The researcher's 2016 discovery of a war memorial in Choa Chu Kang Cemetery, which housed the remains of several Chinese who died during the Occupation, resulted in the authorities working to document, retain and relocate it. 
 
Battlefield archaeologist Jon Cooper said it is still possible to find evidence of grave cuts and temporary grave markers. 
 
Mr Goh urged the authorities to dedicate resources to strengthen World War II research at Bukit Brown and its surrounding areas "so that the deaths of the thousands of victims, many of whom were tortured brutally, are not in vain". --------------- 
Reports of torture and hangings 
Some Chinese prisoners in Outram Gaol were hanged just for listening to broadcasts from mainland China, said Australia's The Morning Bulletin on Sept 12, 1945. 
 
In another incident, a 17-year-old boy was hanged for donating 60 cents to the British Spitfire fund before the Japanese invaded. 
 
According to the same report based on an account by Australian private A.K. Mitchell, who had survived imprisonment in Outram Gaol, hangings were "clumsy affairs". 
 
The report said that many bodies were mutilated as the Japanese could not properly work the triple gallows. Executions were always watched by Japanese officers "seated on chairs laughing and joking". 
 
Private Mitchell said the Outram Gaol echoed daily with the screams of natives being thrashed with heavy rattan. Prisoners were tied across a rack and the "backs of many of them were cut to ribbons". 
 
The guards would also drag prisoners into cells and practise jujitsu on them, "slamming them into unconsciousness on the stone floors", said the article. Men were bashed on the slightest provocation and "every man who died was murdered". 
 
The report further stated that at least 14 British, Australian and Dutch soldiers either died or were executed in the prison. 
 
The Gaol's prisoners were described as being in bad shape. "Their eyes gazed blankly from their sockets and their skin was stretched tightly over their skeleton frames. They had ghastly tropical ulcers and unkempt, matted hair, and bearded, yellow faces." Video Link https://youtu.be/DVm2o6lCbRc 
 
Source : https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/more-war-graves-beneath-grounds-of-bukit-brown

More war graves beneath grounds of Bukit Brown?

The Straits Times May 2, 2018 by Melody Zaccheus, Heritage and Community Correspondent Bukit Brown may have been dumping grounds for Outr...

Who Do You Think You Are? Episode 2: Charlie Teo

Brownie 0 TV Media Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Apr 24 2018 
 
Internationally renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Charlie Teo has extended countless lives performing risky brain surgery on patients who have often been turned away by other doctors. In doing so, he's been ostracised by parts of the medical establishment. 
 
Searching out his family's past, Charlie Teo will find an ancestor who left an enduring landmark, another life extinguished too soon, and looking for his warrior blood, he'll come to see himself in a brand new light. 
 
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Who Do You Think You Are? Episode 2: Charlie Teo

Apr 24 2018 Internationally renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Charlie Teo has extended countless lives performing risky brain surgery on patients ...

3,400 remains at Bukit Brown, Seh Ong unclaimed as of final deadline: LTA

Brownie 0 News Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Staff Writer, Singapore 
Editorial Team 
Yahoo News Singapore17 April 2018 
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UPDATE: There was one claim by next-of-kin for the human remains since 12 January 2018, the Land Transport Authority said. 
 
About 3,400 unclaimed human remains exhumed from the Bukit Brown and Seh Ong cemeteries will be scattered at sea next Thursday (26 April). 
 
“There were no claims by next-of-kin since 12 January 2018,” said a Land Transport Authority spokesperson (LTA) on Sunday in response to queries by Yahoo News Singapore. 
 
A brief religious ceremony to offer prayers before scattering the ashes at sea will be arranged by the LTA. 
 
In a series of final notices published on 12 January in The Straits Times and Lianhe Zaobao, the LTA had called for descendants or next-of-kin to claim the remains by last Thursday (12 April). 
 
These remains were not claimed by descendants or next-of-kin at the time of exhumation and during the storage period of three years, according to the notices. 
 
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(A notice by the LTA published in Lianhe Zaobao on 12 January, 2018. Source: Raymond Goh/Facebook) 
 More About 4,700 graves were exhumed from both cemeteries between January and December 2014 to make way for the construction of Lornie Highway. 
 
The construction of the highway, which was announced in September 2011, was delayed twice due to various reasons, including financial difficulties faced by its main contractor and a public exhumation exercise that completed a year later than projected. 
 
First slated to be completed by 2016, and then end-2017, the development of the dual four-lane road also faced strong objections from heritage groups and members of the public. 
 
Set to connect MacRitchie Viaduct to Adam Flyover, it affected parts of the Bukit Brown and Seh Ong cemeteries, which had been closed off to burial since the early 1970s and were areas deemed to have rich heritage value. 
 
Lornie Highway will now be progressively opened from the third quarter of this year, starting with the southbound highway towards Adam Flyover, said the LTA in a press release issued in November last year. 
 
The northbound highway towards MacRitchie Viaduct will open in the first quarter of 2019

3,400 remains at Bukit Brown, Seh Ong unclaimed as of final deadline: LTA

Staff Writer, Singapore Editorial Team Yahoo News Singapore17 April 2018 UPDATE: There was one claim by next-of-kin for the human remai...

Unclaimed cremated remains from Bukit Brown, Seh Ong to be scattered at sea in April

Brownie 0 News Friday, January 19, 2018

Yahoo News Singapore by Wong Casandra 
Senior Reporter 
19 January 2018 
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 Unclaimed cremated remains from parts of the Bukit Brown and Seh Ong cemeteries will be scattered at sea on April 26 this year, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) wrote in a series of final notices posted on national broadsheets. 
 
As of 12 January, remains from about 3,400 out of 4,700 graves – exhumed from both cemeteries between January and December 2014 to make way for the construction of Lornie Highway – have not been claimed, said an LTA spokesman on Wednesday (17 January) in response to queries by Yahoo News Singapore. 
 
These remains were not claimed by descendants or next-of-kin at the time of exhumation and during the storage period of three years, according to the notice published last Friday in The Straits Times and Lianhe Zaobao. 
 
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(A notice by the LTA published in Lianhe Zaobao on 12 January, 2018. SOURCE: Raymond Goh/Facebook) 
 
Those who wish to claim the cremated remains of their ancestors have been asked to submit their claims by 12 April. They can contact the LTA at 63962500 or feedback@lta.gov.sg for details on the submission of claims. 
 
The LTA said it will arrange for a brief religious ceremony to offer prayers before scattering the ashes at sea. 
 
Groups and individuals have called for alternative measures, such as building a memorial that houses the unclaimed cremated remains. 
 
Chua Ai Lin, vice president of non-profit Singapore Heritage Society, called the suggestion “timely”, and one that the group, together with members of the public and the Bukit Brown community, had proposed “a few years back”. 
 
As “some of the earliest graves exhumed to make way for the highway date back to as early as the 1830s, less than 20 years after the founding of Singapore by Raffles”, a memorial would allow “current and future generations to pay their respects and remember the contributions of what remains of the earliest pioneer generation”, explained Chua. 
 
A memorial would play a big role in allowing the closure of a “chapter in (one’s) family history”, said Catherine Lim, a volunteer with All Things Bukit Brown, a community group that conducts regular guided walks for the public in the Bukit Brown area. 
 
“The possibility that descendants may still come forth should not be discounted,” added Lim. 
 
Dr Terence Heng, lecturer in sociology at the University of Liverpool, who was part of a research team that documented the Bukit Brown cemetery, noted that building a memorial “would be an excellent gesture on the part of LTA”. 
 
“The memorial for Bukit Brown could be simple, placed near the recently relocated gates, listing the individuals who had ‘given up’ their space for the living,” he added. 
 
Plagued by delays 
 
The construction of Lornie Highway, which was announced in September 2011, was delayed twice due to various reasons, including financial difficulties faced by its main contractor and a public exhumation exercise that completed a year later than projected. 
 
First slated to be completed by 2016, and then end-2017, the development of the dual four-lane road also faced strong objections from heritage groups and members of the public. 
 
Set to connect MacRitchie Viaduct to Adam Flyover, it affected parts of the Bukit Brown and Seh Ong cemeteries, which had been closed off to burial since the early 1970s and were areas deemed to have rich heritage value. 
 
Lornie Highway will now be progressively opened from the third quarter of this year, starting with the southbound highway towards Adam Flyover, said the LTA in a press release issued in November last year. 
 
The northbound highway towards MacRitchie Viaduct will open in the first quarter of 2019. 
 
The road is expected to alleviate congestion along Lornie Road and the Pan-Island Expressway during peak hours. 
 
Back in 2011, LTA said that “traffic demand along Lornie Road is expected to increase between 20 per cent and 30 per cent by 2020 and well beyond what the current Lornie Road will be able to handle”.

Unclaimed cremated remains from Bukit Brown, Seh Ong to be scattered at sea in April

Yahoo News Singapore by Wong Casandra Senior Reporter 19 January 2018 Unclaimed cremated remains from parts of the Bukit Brown and Seh...

Commentary: Cemeteries should be more than where the dead reside

Brownie 0 News Sunday, January 14, 2018

Channel News Asia 14 Jan 2018 by Terence Heng 
In land-scarce Singapore where taller columbaria have replaced cemeteries that used to take up large tracts of land, the University of Liverpool’s Terence Heng discusses if we’ve lost something in the process. 
 
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The filial come back every year to do their duty. (Photo: Terence Heng) 
 
SINGAPORE: When I tell people that part of my research involves photographing exhumations in cemeteries and their accompanying rituals, the inevitable question I get is: “Have you seen or felt anything?” 
 
To be honest, I have not. 
 
However, I once thought I heard a child crying outside my bedroom. Thinking that something had finally followed me home, I jumped out of bed to confront the spectre. 
 
It turned out to be my foster cat, throwing up under the dining table. I almost wished it had been a ghost. 
 
Aside from ghostly-feline shenanigans, the time I spent in Bukit Brown Cemetery between 2011 and 2014 has shown me just how alive cemeteries can be. 
 
As part of the team documenting the social and cultural life of the cemetery, I was witness to a multitude of rituals, festivals, events, memories and emotions. 
 
Many of these memories and emotions were personified in the determination of the people I met along the way. 
 
Take for example Qing Ming Jie – the Chinese version of All Saints Day, when families gather to pay respects to their ancestors. 
 
I once photographed a man who went by Mr Taijuddin, who now mostly resides in Indonesia. At the age of 73, he still climbed the slippery, moss-covered slopes in business shoes and a long-sleeved shirt to do his filial duty. 
 
BEING PHYSICALLY CLOSE TO A LOVED ONE’S GRAVE 
 
The ability to be physically close to a grave is one advantage that cemeteries have over columbaria. Even if you paid for a niche at eye-level, there is nothing quite like having your own space to say a few words or conduct religious rites. 
 
Cemeteries also provide a more personal way of interacting with loved ones. 
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Cemeteries afford a certain kind of personal space for families to gather and remember. (Photo: Terence Heng) 
 
One friend commented that when visiting his grandmother’s niche, he was never sure if she could “receive” his offerings on the ground since her ashes placed were far above eye-level. Waving his hands, he mimicked pushing the spiritual essence of offerings up, saying “we hope ah ma gets these lah”. 
 
The destruction of cemeteries has become a contentious issue in Singapore. What was once a norm to see entire swathes of graves cleared for malls, MRT depots and housing estates can be a fiercely contentious issue, especially for those that have significant cultural and historical value, like Bukit Brown Cemetery. 
 
More recent exercises like the Government’s plans to clear 80,000 graves to make way for Tengah Air Base’s expansion have been met with a range of reactions, from a mere shrug to disappointment that national development is coming at a cost to the dead. 
 
Many argue that cemeteries are impractical – there is no way to leave that much space for the dead when the living are already squeezed into ever smaller pigeon holes. 
 
We are told that we cannot be sentimental, that we must be pragmatic. 
 
In place of cemeteries we have ever-more intensifying columbaria, designed to accommodate the most number of remains using the least amount of space. The recent announcement of a funeral complex in Bidadari to replace the columbarium complex at Mount Vernon is an example of this. 
 
Such arguments and actions are less about cemeteries, and more about what constitutes a “useful” and “efficient” space – planners are always looking for ways to make spaces more livable, effective and beneficial to the population. Dead bodies and remains don’t seem to figure in this equation. 
 
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Maybe all people need are simple places to sit and reflect. (Photo: Terence Heng) 
 
The other side of the argument is that cemeteries are alive with memories, rituals and personal stories, that they are an important connection to our past in ways that single memorials or buildings could never act as. 
 
Again, these are less about cemeteries and more about what makes a space meaningful, and what kinds of spaces can anchor us to our social, cultural and national identities. 
 
Both sides of the argument make good points. We have limited land but to eliminate seemingly inefficiently used spaces that are material anchors leaves us empty and undefined. What then do we do? 
 
NOT A “DIRTY” SPACE 
 
We can begin by not seeing cemeteries (or indeed any space that houses the dead) as places that are spiritually off-limits or set-aside for most of the year. 
 
Colloquially speaking, they cannot be framed as “dirty”, "inefficient" or "useless" spaces. 
 
Intensifying a columbaria suggests that we see no use for such spaces other than a repository and somewhere to visit once or twice a year. 
 
To do this, it means we need to collectively think of and talk about death more candidly. As long as death is taboo, so too will be the spaces associated with death. 
 
Death needs to, in millennial-speak, be disrupted in ways that allow us to more fully engage with it as a process of life. 
 
If we go ahead and clear all cemeteries, the alternative needs to be more imaginative than simply stacking us one on top of the other in the easiest and most cost-effective way possible. By this I do not mean fancy air-conditioned country-club style designs with lasers. 
 
Rather, constructing spaces that encourage contemplation and give a sense of refuge would be a good start. Somewhere we can think about what life really means to us, far away from the hustle and bustle of life, as we take time to visit those who have gone before us. 
 
 
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/commentary-cemeteries-should-be-more-than-where-the-dead-reside-9834742

Commentary: Cemeteries should be more than where the dead reside

Channel News Asia 14 Jan 2018 by Terence Heng In land-scarce Singapore where taller columbaria have replaced cemeteries that used to take u...

Singh In The Lion City

Brownie 0 News, TV Media Wednesday, January 03, 2018

Singh In The Lion City

Jan 3, 2018 by Uptake Media ‘Singh In The Lion City’ is a short documentary about a Singaporean Sikh man's personal quest to decode hi...

Tan Soo Bin's family album at Panglima Prang

Brownie 0 Featured, Stories Thursday, November 23, 2017

Tan Soo Bin's family album at Panglima Prang 
 
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1920s LEE BROTHERS STUDIO (Picture from National Archives 
 
Back row standing left to right: Lim Kian Beng (husband of Tan Sun Neo), Tan Eng Wan, Tan Eng Chiang, Tan Soo Bin  
 
Front row left to right : Tan Yew Neo, Tan Cheok Neo, Lim Geok Neo, Tan Sun Neo, Tan Peng Neo (Soo Bin's sister), Tan Eng Ann (baby), Ang Geok Lan (Mrs Tan Jiak Kim), Yeo Yam Neo, Yeo Lim Neo, Tan Kee Neo (will updated corrections if necessary). 
 
Tan Sun Neo and Lim Kian Beng was married on 24 Jul 1917 at Panglima Prang. Lim Geok Neo would be their first daughter standing besides her mother. 
 
Thanks to Anthony Sng, Matt Tan and Tan Koon Siang for assistance. 
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Tan Jiak Kim third wife Geok Lan (also daughter of Ang Kim Tee) and 2 grandsons Eng Wan and Eng Chiang (pic from G.R. Lambert & Co)

Tan Soo Bin's family album at Panglima Prang

Tan Soo Bin's family album at Panglima Prang 1920s LEE BROTHERS STUDIO (Picture from National Archives Back row standing left to ...

Tan Kim Seng's descendants buried in Singapore

Brownie 0 Featured, Stories Thursday, November 23, 2017

Tan Kim Seng's descendants buried in Singapore

Link to tombs : https://www.flickr.com/gp/bukitbrown/ck626P Link to spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-eC1zd...