The minister mentioned is Mr Wong Kang Seng.

Mr Nair’s son was, I believed, from ACS.

One of Devan Nair’s sons will be Janadas Devan, an Editor with Straits Times.

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another prominent Old Victorian, the late Mr Devan Nair.) Years later, when he was a Guest of Honour at one of VS Speech Days, the minister was said to have to have disclosed that his two sons (?) were students of the school or had studied there. Those were the good old days! Nil Sine Labore

In fact, VJC has continued the strong football tradition of Victoria in the National Schools A Division. Both boys and girls teams are coached by ex-VS/VJC Victorians. The boys team has entered 9 out of the last 10 finals, winning 5 of them. The girls team has entered 4 out of the 5 finals, winning 3 of them.
A few years ago, an ex-VS/VJC player, Fabian Tan, was in the national under-23 team and the only NUS undergrad playing in the SLeague.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Junior_College_Football
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Btw, Alwi, VS has continued on its fine tradition of being a school soccer powerhousee up to today. Our former school’s ‘B’ and ‘C’ boys were runners up to the “professional” Singapore Sports School last year.

This is very valuable. But the only way is to check with the schoool. This is the first time I have heard of this.

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One other thing just crossed my mind. The National Library has a microfiche of the Kg Glam School, Vicoria School diary from 1890s. I used to go there to copy the diary and type them out – hoping to have a copy for the library. I guess during those days it was not possible to print them – or we did not have the money to copy them any other way. I guess the school should have a copy of this diary today?

Archives of Straitis Times are now available online at the National Library too.

On the academic front, the 1970s saw some of the current most prominent Singaporean administrators and professionals studying in Victoria School. Among them were Mr Chiang Chie Foo, now the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence and the Prime Minister’s Office who completed his entire six year secondary and pre u education at the school. A rare breed indeed as top students of those days including those of other premier schools were mostly enrolling themselves at the then newly opened National Junior College, the first junior college to be set up in Singapore, then the supposedly elite place of study for the best GCE A level students. Another two promient Victoria School boys who followed the path of Mr Chiang by doing their O and A level education of at VS were Dr Wong Kais, a top GCE A level student in Spore in 1975 and Dr Suresh Sahadevan who topped the 1975 GCE O level for all Singapore schools. Presently Wong Kais is private medical practitioner and Suresh Sahadevan is an Associate Professor/Senior Consultant in Geriatrics Medicine at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital. He is also one of the doctors attending to MM Lee (PMO Press Release dated 1 Dec 2008), These three top students were fullfuling the Victorian Spirit by completing their full secondary education in Victoria School inspite of the lure of NJC, as epitomised by Mr S Dhanabalan, Chairman of Temasek Holdings, who was reported in the press some years ago to have disclosed that he was reluctant to leave VS after completing his School Certifcate in VS in the early 1950s and managed to canvass (?) for the school to start a Post School Certificate class (now GCE A Level) for arts students so that he could continue his studies at the school!

In the 1970s VS also had a student who was later to become the Singapore Chief of Defence Force from 2003 to 2007. LG (NS) Ng Yat Chung was a student at VS from 1974 to 1977 and continued his Pre U education at Hwa Chong JC. He was awarded the prestigious SAF Overseas Scholarships in 1980 to study at Cambridge University. He is now a Senior Managing Director in charge of Portfolio Management at Temasek Holdings. He continues to render his services to his alma mater by currently serving as Chairman of the Victoria Executive/Advisory Commiitte.

On the sports front, VS continued its traditonal prowess. Among the well known sportsmen were Song Koon Poh and Goh Lai Hoa in the school rugger team of the early 1970s. Song Koon Poh was later to captain the Singapore national team and subsequently as national coach. His playing career reached its zenith when he was awarded the Sportsman of the Year in 1978 after spearheading the Singapore national team to its ever first third place in the 1977 Asian Rugby Championships behind Asian perenhial power houses in the game ie Japan and South Korea, a feat not to be repeated thereafter by any of our other national team in the sports.

Two star athletes graced the school grounds in the early 1970s. They were Goh Pi Tuan, one of the finest all round school athletes of all times. He excelled especially in pole vault and the high hurdles events in which he was the national schools champion. He represented Singapore in the 1973 SEA Games held in Singapore in the decalthon. He is now the General Manager of the Jurong Country Golf Club, having served a short stint as the golfing manager at the Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenzen, the biggest of its kind in the world.

Following Goh Pi Tuan, there was Noor Mohd Merican, who was the national schools middle distance champion in the early 1970s. Popularly nicknamed Singapore’s Sammy Davis Junior (he has close resemblance to the late legendary American entertainer), Noor is now a senior lawyer in private practice well known for his contributions to society by offering his services on a number of legal cases on a pro bono basis. Incidentally Goh Pi Tuan and Noor Mohd Merican were “foreign talents” who joined Victoria School for their pre u education from Gan Eng Seng School and Siglap Secondary School respectively.

Hope that the above information on the school in the 1970s is of interest and Old Victorians especially those who were students then would come forward to give their recollections of the school and share the moments of triumphs and travails of the school during that era. I am sure that there are many. Thank you.

There seems to be a dearth of information on the school during the golden era of the 1950s when VS was indisputedly one of the top schools in Singapore and the then Malaya, in both academic and sporting achievements. Perhaps Old Boys of that generation may want to share their recollection of the school then by postings the infomation on the OVA blog.

In the 1950s, up till about the latter part of the 50s, VS had two very dedicated British headmasters. The first was Mr R F Bomford who designed the first Science Block in Singapore in 1951. A very popular headmaster, the Bomford Memorial Science Awards for the top students were created by old boys of the school in memory of him and the awards continue to be given out till these days. Also in 1951 the first batch of Post School Certificate Sixth Form classes was started in the school and VS also saw its inagural intake of female students. The “Red Brigade” as they were known (because of their distinctive maroon skirts)had contributed much to the success ofthe school then. Famous alumni include Dr Kanwaljit Soin who topped the medical course at the then University of Singapore and Emeritus Professor Wong Kim Ping of the Medical Faculty of NUS.

In 1954 another Bristish educationist Mr Michael Campbell was appointed VS’ headmaster and he continued on the achievements of Mr Bomford. Under his leadership the school continued to be one of the premier schools and in fact in 1955, it topped the School Certificate results for boys in Singapore.(Mr Campbell donated the cup for the inter house cross country champions and I remember that the Campbell Cup continued to be the symbol of cross country supremacy in the school. Wonder if the Campbell Cup is still being continue these days?) The school also produced the fastest schoolboy in Singapore and Malaya in 1956 in the person of Kesavan Soon. He represented Singapore in the 1956 Olympic Games thus becoming the first Malayan schoolboy to do so. In 1957 VS won two of the three Queen’s Scholarships given out that year. The scholars were Teh Ee Kheng for arts and Yap Choon Teck for science. In 1958 a VS student surnamed Sitoh was also awarded the Queen’s Scholarship.

During the 1950s, VS did not only excel academically, it was one of the top schools in the sports arena, including in all the major sports – athletics, football, hockey, cricket, rugger and even swimming.

Btw, besides Messrs Bomford and Campell, VS also had several outstanding British teachers in the 1950s. The most famous of them were Mr Shamus Frazer who composed the ever rousing VS School Song. He was a literature teacher and he wrote the book ” The Crocodile Dies Twice” which became a popular Sec One textbook in Singapore schools until the early 1960s. It was interesting to learn from one of his former students that Mr Frazer was so earnest in his teaching that he would even lie down on the table while he was teaching the class Shakepeare’s plays. Then there was Mr West, the geography teacher who also wrote textbooks on the subject which were used by Singapore schools even up to the 1960s.

Thank you. Nil Sine Labore

Aug 29, 2009
Teachers’ Day treat
By Nur Dianah Suhaimi

IT IS arguably the only primary school in Singapore which can boast three Cabinet ministers and a state president among its former pupils.

Former minister S. Dhanabalan, current ministers S. Jayakumar and Wong Kan Seng as well as the late president Devan Nair all studied at the now-defunct Rangoon Road Primary School.

On Saturday, Mr Dhanabalan, now chairman of Temasek Holdings, together with 24 other old boys, gathered to throw their former teachers an early Teachers’ Day party. Teachers’ Day is on Tuesday.

Read the full report in The Sunday Times.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Singapore/Story/STIStory_423076.html

Date: Fri, Mar 12, 2010, 1600Hrs
Venue: Republic Polytechnic sports complex

Lee Eng Bok – presently Asst Auditor-General, Auditor-General’s Office

Jita Singh – thought he was from St Andrew’s School