My Life - Part 4 - Dr. Mukhtiar Singh

                                                               

The Naval Base I Knew (1941-72)

The need, building and history of Naval Base (NB) at the northern tip of Singapore is well known, and can easily be accessed on Wikipedia, Infopedia etc. My take is more on my own life there from 1941 to 72, as a child, teen and adult, as well as its infrastructure. This section will interest the younger Sembawangites born after 1970s to know about the bygone days of the former NB, as it was closed in 1968, and gradually taken over by Sembawang Shipyard in 1972.

The NB was opened in 1938, and its main functions were Naval defence, supply, and repair of the Far East Naval fleet.

I will discuss: Structure, security, supply, repair, accommodation for staff, utilities, shops and entertainment etc. It was to be a completely self-sufficient “Mini town”.

Singapore was then a British colony and Britain set aside a large area in the North (Sembawang) for its Naval Base. There were other associated facilities such as a naval air base at Simbang (12 milestone) as well as naval army base at Alexandra near the city. I have no knowledge of the air and army bases, except they were policed by the Naval Police force, and visited my uncle once at the air base. So, my comments are limited to the Naval Base (NB).

For security, a steel outer perimeter fence enclosed the whole NB. There were 4 main and three or four minor entrances. Within the outer perimeter fence, there were inner fences around the workshops, ammunition stores etc to which only employees with work passes were admitted. The Gates in the outer fence were: Canberra (the main entrance), Sembawang, Mata and Rotheram. There were 4-5 other smaller gates for special use. Only employees and residents of the base were allowed in, with special identity cards.

My NB pass issued 2/11/1949

I estimate that there were about 10,000 employees at NB and its associated facilities. There were about 400 policemen, of which about 90% were Sikhs from the Punjab. There were a few Muslim Punjabis and a few Malay too. I will say more on the Sikh policemen later. There was an inner fence with a “Main Gate” at end of Canberra Road. Only dockyard employees were allowed to enter this for work. All normal work started at 7AM and finished at 4 PM, (a loud siren started and finished the work day). with break for lunch. It was a 44-hour, Saturday half day and Sunday holidays. All the senior management staff were British. All Singapore national holidays were observed at NB.

The dockyard was divided into various departments such as electrical, construction, supply, civil engineering, service and maintenance, as well as the ammunition and torpedo storage area away from the dockyard with special security etc. The SNSO was the main supply base, and ships came in with oil, armaments, naval equipment, spare parts etc., and were downloaded and forwarded as necessary. This was in the east side of NB. The central area was mainly for the repairs of naval ships, boats etc. The dry dock was the largest in SE Asia. The was also a floating dock for minor repairs. The English sailors were accommodated at HMS Terror while their ships were being repaired. The entrance to this was limited to only a few Asians. HMS Terror had its own swimming pools, playgrounds and other facilities, which were for the use of the sailors only. There was a special security area where the wireless communications were received and transmitted. This was a very secret and secured area, with entry to the core area to persons with special security clearance. It was called Suara Transmission Station. There were large armament depots situated mainly in two areas. Royal Naval Armaments Depot and Torpedo Departments. No smoking was allowed in these areas, and thus were secured by Sikh policemen as they did not smoke. At Senoko, there were huge oil tanks which supplied oil to the ships and aircrafts. Again, security was manned by Sikhs. The NB also had an its own Air Base at 12 milestones. which provided naval air defence needs for the base. There was also an associated naval army facility at Alexandra Barracks near the City, with an army component. Sikh policemen were posted there on rotation. I am not sure the facility was for. (The British Army base was in Alexandra for the main army in Singapore.) Water and sewage treatment facilities were at Waterworks area. Electricity was generated at Senoko. There was a fire brigade as well, situated just inside the Main Gate. The chief was a Sikh, but all firemen (except two Sikhs) were mainly Malays. In fact, one of the firemen became the Minister of Health (Mr Ahmad Ibrahim) in the new PAP government in 1959.

There was also a special riot squad in the police force, but I don’t think was ever used. Crime was very limited, and the police had its own prosecutor (Ins. Naranjan Singh Bansi). The accommodation was divided into two sections. One section for the British, mostly individual bungalows for the heads of departments, and some semidetached for those with lower management positions. The second section for the Asians in blocks. The admiral stayed on a small hill on a few acres along Canberra Road, called various names: Admiralty House, Nelson House, C-in-C house etc over the years depending who was staying there and had two entrances. One from Canberra Road, and another from Sembawang Road, with its own police guard. It had the only private swimming pool in NB.

The Asian accommodation was of three types. The majority were dormitories (as most of the workers were initially single). Upper storey contained the dormitory for sleeping. The lower storey was for the cooks, storage, small shop for necessities, and a community kitchen. The shared toilets, and bathrooms were in separate blocks.  The second type were single room blocks, two storied in an inverted L-shaped type. All these had common kitchen, bathroom and toilet blocks. The third type were two-bedroom blocks with each family having its own kitchen, bathroom and toilet in an attached block. All accommodation, electricity, water and other utilities were free. There were altogether 90 blocks, but having lived there for so long, I could not find two blocks (? 30 and 31).

The workers were mainly Indians, with Chinese and Malay forming a minority. Among the Indians the large majority were from Kerala, mainly single, and in NB to earn a living and send money back to their families. The post office was jammed on Saturday afternoon. The Tamil Indians were mostly with families and they carried out labouring jobs such as cleaning and sweeping roads and cutting grass. Very few Chinese and Malays were single. Over the years the demography changed due to workers getting married.

As mentioned, the British had their own accommodation zone. They had their own school, cold storage building for shopping, swimming pool etc. from which Asians were barred. The Asian children were provided with a small school, with unqualified teachers (initially) opened in 1946., with three teachers and Mr. Veera Singham as principal. At first the school was in one block at Waterworks, containing 3 classes, years 1-3. But in two years more classes were needed and the Admiralty Asian School was transferred to 14^th milestone just inside the boundary fence along Pakistan Road. The first principal died in 1947, and Mr. Thambapillai took over in 1948. We had to sing "God Save the King" at assembly, and every year some English Naval Captain or other came to present the prizes. Two or three old English ladies used to come and teach knitting wool squares, as these were needed to make blankets for the British soldiers after the war. They also taught about life in England, House of Commons etc. I left the school in Jan. 1949 to go to SJI in the city, but the school continued for many years till Canberra and Naval Base government schools opened.

There was also a hospital at NB along Canberra Road. It was in two separate sections, for Asians and British. The British Navy doctors looked after the patients. There were medical and surgical wards, outpatients, pharmacy, radiology, and a small operating theatre and a laboratory. More complex cases were sent to the Singapore General Hospital, with a bus provided free. (The English patients were sent to the Army hospital in Alexandra). There were two Blocks (87 and 88) for female and pregnant patients.  Block 87 were for patients and block 88 for nurses’ quarters. 

 I was admitted to the hospital with rheumatic fever in Dec. 1947 for 6 weeks. I was not allowed out of bed even for urinating or opening my bowels! That’s where I remember meeting Mr Dass, hospital assistant, Alfred Dass father! He even let me listen to my heart with his stethoscope. Later on, when I was a medical student, I got special permission to work at the laboratory to further learn about laboratory work. The wonderful Peter Then and Sandanam really helped me. I also remember Raju, who worked as a “dresser”, and Nambiar who ran at the pharmacy. 

For shopping there was Jalan Kedai, behind which I lived in block 86. There was a row of shops: restaurant, wet market, meat, grocery, barbers, bookstall, bread shop etc. Varied enough to meet our basic needs. The “big smoke” was just outside the Canberra gate. There were two cinemas inside NB. One at end of Jalan Kedai (Canberra Theatre), which showed mainly Indian and Hindi films. The prices were 50C and $1. The other one was at Admiralty Road, running Western films. The main patrons for this were British, but there was no segregation. The only requirement was you had to stand up for the “God Save The King” at the start. There, as children we could see westerns on Saturday afternoon matinees for 25 cents. The trouble was that in those days the films came in 15 Chapters. They would show only chapters 1-7 on one Saturday and 8-15 the next. I was allowed to go only once a month for one Sat. afternoon. So, I only saw half of Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Hop along Cassidy etc. Frustrating! The major Cinema was outside NB at Sultan Theatre.

For sport there was small local grounds for football and badminton, sepak raga etc. The main field was at Deptford Road, where football matches were held between the different NB departments. Hockey was played at the Suara sand pitches, just outside HMS Terror. These were mainly between the police and visiting naval ship teams. Badminton was very popular at NB. Singapore/Malaysia were world champions in the 40s and 50s. The most famous was Wong Peng Soon, who was the All England (world) Champion.

Now coming to the Naval Police Force, which is my favourite topic. This is mainly due to the fact I am a Sikh and was involved (as well as with my other colleagues in NB) with the police youngsters. My uncle and cousin were with the police force, and spent many a week end with them in the police barracks. My father, as mentioned previously valued privacy and independence more than the benefits of a policeman. It was a blessing in disguise, as well as an immense unexpected benefit for me as I grew up. This will be discussed in my next chapter under my scholastic life.

The British recruited the Naval police personnel almost exclusively from the Punjab in India.  They provided policing duties at NB, Senoko, Air base and Alexandra Barracks. This was mainly for their loyalty, size, fighting spirit and they did not smoke. This was critical due to the large amount of ammunition stored at the NB. In return the police had extensive incentives. There were about 400 policemen, mainly single men at the start, but as time went on many got married whilst on leave back in India. They referred to the non-policemen as “coolies” and their accommodation as “coolie lines”. When the NB closed, some of the policemen either went back to India, but the majority emigrated to Britain, as they were given an option to settle there.

The policemen's incentives included the following: S Sikh gurdwara (temple) with a building set aside for this; a paid policeman as a priest with full benefits; accommodation; cooks; monthly rations of sugar, salt, flour, ghee, dhals; paid leave with travel costs for 6 months after each 5 years of service. In the early years they had a paid policeman looking after a few goats, which were slaughtered at Vaisakhi (Sikh New Year), at which celebrations all the British Officers were present.  In the early years I thought my father was stupid no to take advantage of these incentives!

Unfortunately, there were numerous disadvantages the police had to suffer from. Due to the location of the vital ammunition stores, the policemen had to be quartered near these, near the north west of NB, quite a few kilometres from the civilian accommodations of NB, mainly at RNAD and Torpedo and Rimau. These became essentially ghettos. There was no fresh vegetable or meat market.  There was no socialising, inter-mingling with other races. Their children of necessity grew up in in isolation form the rest of NB community. They were bussed to school and then returned home. We in the “coolie lines” had a very fulfilling life. We went to the cinema, played children games like marbles, bottle corks, tops, cards, visited each other at festivals, learnt other languages such as Chinese, Malay and Tamil. Later soccer, badminton and youth clubs were important in building our characters, exposure to the real world. I believe that due to no fault of theirs, they grew up in a cloistered environment. The outlook, values, friends of different races and to life as a result were quite different between the two groups. Of course, as they started working, things became different.

The Asian residents of NB were poor, but happy, and had basics of life. In 1968, the British decided that NB was no more a strategic need, Singapore had become independent. They decided to close down NB in stages. They started handing over the NB to Singapore in stages. All the facilities of a port were handed to Sembawang Shipyard. By 1972 it was completely closed. A small area was leased to NZ and US forces.

Story and photo of Pass: copyright of Dr Mukhtiar Sidhu.
Maps taken from Facebook group: "Old Sembawang Naval Base Nostalgic Lane"