The Naughty Boys

The Raffles Institution Buildings 1823-1972 On the 5 June 1823, the foundation stone for the Singapore Institution, later renamed Raffles Institution, was laid on a plot of land beside the beach in the south of the island of Singapore. Raffles Institution has celebrated the 5 June as its Founder's Day ever since. This was a rectangular plot of land bounded by Beach Road, Bras Basah Road, North Bridge Road and Stamford Road. The site became known as the Bras Basah Campus. It remained on that site for 149 years from 1823 to 1972. Sadly in 1972, the school vacated the Bras Basah site and moved to spanking new location in Grange Road and celebrated its 149th Founder's Day there. Our Sec 3B Science classroom at the Annex E building which was built in 1883 suddenly disappeared. The whole school was demolished, not one brick was left behind and in its place rose the Raffles City Shopping Centre. The location of the Annex E building was replaced by the tall tower of the Fa...

One can understand why soccer took on a feverish pitch in Sec 3B Science when one realised that 1966 was the year of the 8 th FIFA World Cup.  England hosted the tournament from 11 to 30 July 1966. The final match was played at Wembley Stadium between England and Germany. Rafflesians rooted for England since we were at that time, quite anglophile. Players like Bobby Moore, Bobby Charleston, Geoff Hurst, Gordon Banks, Martin Peters and their manager Alf Ramsey were household names. When England beat Germany 4 to 2 to lift up the Jules Rimet Trophy, our class went ballistic. The 1966 World Cup probably triggered a life long penchant for soccer among many of the boys in Sec 3B Sc. Even today, some of us continue to follow the English Premier League on TV. We have rivalries between supporters of different clubs, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and others among us and these rivalries sometimes become vocal during our reunion parties. Chen Wen remembered the 1966 world ...

2101 Raffles Scout Troop (Sitting from Left Amos Koh Ah Meng 1st, Chey Chor Wai 3rd, Lionel Lee 4th, Tay Wee lee 5th Kwok Wai Keong 6th, Tan Poh Puay 7th, Kwek Siew Jin 8th, Kwek Teng Khoon 9th, S Puhaidran 10th Sitting from Right Lim Kim Quee 1st, Leong Teep Khee 3rd Siva Kandiah 4th, Chong Hong Leong 5th Chua Seng Chew 6th. Standing Last Row from Left Denis Tan 1st, Koh Chee Wah 2nd, Liow Siew Choon 5th,  Teo Guan Chye 8th, Khoo Teng Chye 11th. Standing Last Row from from Right Chia Chee Keong 1st Ho Lim Eng 4th) 2101 Scouts Patch There were two scout troops in Raffles Institution in 1966, the 2101 Scout Troop, formerly the 32 nd Raffles and the 2102 Scout Troop, formerly 2 nd Raffles. From Sec 3B Sc, Chey Chor Wai was Senior Patrol Leader of 2101 Scout Troop and Chan Bok and Lionel Lee, who were both Patrol Leaders of Eagle and Hawk Patrols respectively. The other patrols in 2101 were Kestrel, Owl, Kingfisher and Falcon. Unless we are patrol leaders, most were gra...

Mr Lee Kuan Yew, founder Prime Minister of Singapore  In his National Day Speech, in 1966, then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew introduced ‘The Rugged Society’. This meant having the physical and mental stamina and discipline imbued into all Singaporeans to engender a commitment to Singapore, its dreams, aspirations and to ensure its success as a new country. According to an article in Today’s newspaper published  on the 23 August 2015, Lee Kuan Yew had urged time and again that Singapore had to become a “rugged society”, noted Mr Lee, “Our people must still be robust and tough, able to take hard knocks, always striving to be better,” Raffles Institution took these injunctions in its stride always setting the example for Singapore schools. Our school had always provided an all rounded education with sports and extracurricular activities other than just the excellent academic pursuits. With the introduction of the rugged...

Cheong Moon Foo was our class monitor of Sec 3B Science. He was slightly older than most of us and had an elder brother disposition to the extent that he was elected monitor of his classes from Sec 1-3. Unfortunately, Sec 3B was so incorrigible and up to so much mischiefs that it got the better of him. By Sec 4 and beyond Moon Foo refused to be class monitor anymore. Poor Moon Foo, he was hauled up by teachers and principal umpteen times to answer for the class’ misbehaviors. Most times, he was told to take control of the class but secretly, he was enjoying our pranks. The worst was when the class was detained and not allowed to attend the RI-Saints Rugby Match. During that detention the class made such a ruckus including offending Asst Principal George Sobreilo for doing a slow match towards the flag lowering ceremony that Moon Foo gave up entirely. Chen Wen recalled a secret that Moon Foo pledged him to keep and now exposed for the first time in 54 years. It belied the ki...

We like to say that those mischiefs the boys of Sec 3B Science did to our teachers are now looked back with fondness.  Upon deep reflections about why we did what we did to our poor teachers, we rationalise, having now grown much older, that  playing practical jokes, including verbal jokes, on the teacher was a way expressing our affection for that teacher. If it was, it is 1966 Reverse Psychology! Since we were so used to playing verbal jokes on him, Mr. Egypt treated every remark by students who had a habit of arguing with him with suspicion, even when remarks were meant to be serious. There was a amusing interaction between Chan Yau Seng and Mr. Egypt. During one lesson, Egypt said bridges were typically made of wood or metal.  Yau Seng added a very innocent comment "they can also be made of ropes" - second nature for some of us to pass comment either out of convoluted friendliness or out of love of giving him a jab every now and then.  Mr. Egypt th...

A very innocent question asked many times by the Chinese Language teacher of those who took Chinese as their second language conducted in the Sec 3B Sc classroom.   He could have asked about other places with the same outcome but he chose Egypt each and every time.   Perhaps he was fascinated by ancient civilizations especially one like Egypt that dated well before even the Chinese civilization. Mr. Egypt told interesting and purportedly true stories to students when he was not teaching or after he had finished what he intended to teach for the period.   The authenticity of his stories was often met with skepticism followed by the question, How do you know? It became a standard routine.   His answer would invariably be “Do you know Egypt?”   When the inevitable answer “yes” was given, he would ask “How do you know Egypt?” The expected standard answer was “I read about it.” Mr. Egypt would then end the standard routine with “I knew it the sa...