St. Patrick's School, Singapore:. An Album of Past Images. Page 5. by Terry Foenander.

The following three images were contributed by senior member, Mr. Terry De Souza, who attended the school between the years 1933 and 1940. Mr. De Souza now resides in Antioch, California. Some of his memories of the school can be seen at page 3.

Members of the School Cadet Corp, in 1939, showing then principal, Brother Henry Jaussaud, with cadet captain, teacher Arthur Phillips, at his right, and cadet lieutenant, teacher, Bernard E. Nicholas (brother of Dr. Wilfred Nicholas, who served in the Singapore Volunteer Corps - thanks to Julian Nicholas, resident of Canada, for this data), at his left. The five non commissioned officers, seated in front, have been identified as, left to right: lance corporal Yeo Hoon Thong, corporal Ceasar Consigliere, sergeant Clive De Souza, lance corporal John Pestana and lance corporal John Doriasamy. Sergeant Clive De Souza later served in the Singapore Volunteer Corps.
Others identified are:
Kneeling, left to right, second row: to the left of Captain Phillips are, unknown, and Anthony Grosse; to the right of Lieutenant Nicholas are Francis Fernandez and Douglas Van Der Beck.
Standing, third row, left to right: - Satyapal, unknown, Arthur Merrels, Guy De Cruz, unknown, unknown, unknown, Anthony McIntyer, unknown, Roland Fernandez, unknown and unknown.
Last row, standing, left to right: - Siddons, -McBreen, unknown, Godfrey Carnegie and - Ryan. (Contributed by Terry De Souza).

Members of the school soccer team, in 1938, shown with team coach, teacher, Mr. Bernard E. Nicholas (brother of Dr. Wilfred Nicholas, who served in the Singapore Volunteer Corps - thanks to Julian Nicholas, resident of Canada, for this data). Identified as follows: standing, back row, left to right: unknown, Arthur Merril, John Doriasamy (who was also a member of the cadet corps), Roland Fernandez, Phillip Young, unknown, and Yeo Hoon Thong (also a member of the cadet corps).
Kneeling and seated, front row, left to right: Dudley De Cruz, Clive De Souza (also a member of the Cadet Corps), Matthew Young, Steven Liew and John Pestana (also a member of the Cadet Corps). (Contributed by Terry De Souza.)

The first graduating Senior Cambridge class, 1936. Seated at center is Brother Stephen Buckley, the school's founder, and first principal; the seated teacher in the striped shirt is Mr. Frank James. Three students are numbered, 1 to 3; they are, respectively, Frank Pestana (1), with arms outstretched, seated in front, Clifford Rayney (2), who lived in the kampong area shown in the background, which was situated across the canal, and Hubert Bordwyn (3). Note the coconut trees in the kampong area, which area was later to become the Sea View Hotel. (Contributed by Terry De Souza).

An edited version of the following memoirs by Mr. De Souza is included in the history of the school, published 2003 and titled 70 Years of Teaching Minds and Touching Hearts.

Some thoughts of St. Patrick's Early Days By Terence de Souza January, 2003. I can't quite remember the exact date (March or April 1933) that my family moved from Queen Street to 489 East Coast Road, enabling me to go to St. Patrick's School, which was situated just a few hundred yards away from home. I was nine years old at that time, and I entered St Patrick's at the level of what was then called the "Second Standard." I left the school in 1941. This brand new school, just a few feet from that lovely sea with cool breezes, was a sharp contrast to St. Joseph's School, which I had just left. The shining new desks and the general ambiance of the St Patrick's was a delight to all of us new pupils. We just loved this school. There were about 30 in my class, made up of mostly Eurasians, a good number of Chinese, and a few Indians, Jews, and Europeans. Brother Richards, a Burmese, was our first teacher and what a kind a lovable person he was to all. The principal at that time was, I believe, Brother Stephen, soon to be followed by Brother Henry in 1937. The teaching Brothers were from Ireland, France, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Wales, Burma, and within Singapore, all who taught us at one time or another. I remember the lay teachers a Mr. Nichols, Mr. Arthur Phillips, Mr. Snodgrass, and Mr. Frank James, all fine and dedicated teachers. Two resident Spanish Priests, Fr. Lopez and Fr. Martinez, attended to our spiritual needs. The school consisted of two three-storied buildings, one devoted to classrooms and the other for the brothers' and boarders' living quarters. In between these two buildings was a two-storied building that housed the school chapel (where my mother attended Mass every morning at 5:30) and the study hall, where the boarders studied and did their homework every night before bedtime. For recreation, we played soccer, field hockey, and handball after school hours. We were very sports minded at that time and great rivals of St. Joseph's, which was a much larger school. But our jewel was that beautiful sea and the white sandy beach that most of us enjoyed very much. Now at 79, and seventy years later, I would love to know that the school will still be there for at least another seventy years, as it continues in the De La Salle tradition of producing fine upstanding citizens of its pupils.

A copy of this next image was purchased at the National Archives by the author on his trip to Singapore in June, 2002.

This excellent photograph, dated October 7, 1966, shows teachers and pupils in the old school hall (now demolished), during a speech and prize giving day attended by Minister Rahim Ishak, shown seated at left in the front row. Several of the school staff can be identified at this point in time, including Brother Justinian (see part 1 of this web site), who is seated next to Mr. Ishak in the front row. In the second row, just to the right of Brother Justinian's head, is Mabel Tan, who was quite a fan of many of the young lads at school. Seated to the right of Mabel Tan is Stephen Png. In the third row, two seats to the right of Mr. Stephen Png, is Michael Loh. Directly above the head of Mr. Ishak, and slightly to the left can be seen the face of Brother Joseph Kiely (in the fourth row), whose expertise with the cane was quite well known at the time. A number of other faces are familiar, but the names escape me at this time. Any help in identifying other faces in the crowd will be greatly appreciated. (Photograph used through the very kind permission of the National Archives of Singapore).

St. Patrick's School's Sports events, as reported in the Straits Times of Thursday, July 24, 1947. Note the use of color "houses" for different teams. Such teams were still divided by color in the late 1960's.

Please continue on to Page 6 .

Names, current residences and contact information of 'old boys' can be found at the Register of Past Students, St. Patrick's School, Singapore page. To include your details, please contact the author, Terry Foenander.

Links to some of my other web pages:

On the American Civil War Navies.

A brief bio with additional links to pages on Singapore, etc.

The following web site includes some profiles of past students of the school, and is an attempt to connect 'old boys' with their former buddies: St. Patrick's School Alumni

Check out The Patrician Society, a group of our fellow "old boys," now restrengthened through the efforts of former students such as Vice President, Vincent Low.

The Eurasian Company of the Singapore Volunteer Corps. The Singapore Volunteer Corps was a militia unit formed in this British island colony in the 19th Century. At a later stage, island residents were permitted to enlist in the unit, resulting in the formation of Chinese, Malay and Eurasian Companies. This particular site relates to one of those Companies.

© Terry Foenander.

December, 2001.