One of a Kind (2nd Edition)

APPENDIX I

350

APPENDIX I

participation was tepid. By 1887, the SVRC had dwindled to a half-company.

At this point,

Mr. W.G. St. Clair, the editor of the Singapore Free Press, persuaded the authorities to consider

reconstituting the SVRC as an artillery corps. He argued that as guns had been emplaced

in many of the ‘forts’ which formed the defences of Singapore, artillery Volunteers could

complement the regular gunners. At the same time, interest could be kept up since the guns

were available for drilling and the occasional firing. The SVRC was accordingly disbanded on

December, 1887 and a committee set up to create an artillery corps.

On 22

February,

1888, the Singapore Volunteer Artillery or SVA was formed with 96 members. The Volunteers’

motto was changed at this point from ‘Primus in Indis’ to ‘In Oriente Primus’ (First in the

East).

The SVA was well received and injected new life into the Volunteer movement. It was

commanded by Major H.E McCallum, ex-Royal Engineers, until 1897 when he was sent to

Lagos as its Governor. St. Clair himself joined the SVA and while resisting advancement in

rank, continued to push things along to the extent that he was thought of as the ‘Father of the

Corps’. Gun drills were carried out with 7-inch rifled muzzle-loaders at Fort Siloso (Blakang

Mati/Sentosa Island) and Mount Palmer (beside Telok Ayer Basin overlooking the Eastern

Entrance to Keppel Harbour), and 8-inch breech-loaders at Fort Tanjong Katong (Katong

Park). The Mount Palmer guns were later transferred to Fort Fullerton. The first SVA camp

was held over Easter 1888 at Blakang Mati.

There was no proper drill hall and routine drills

took place at the Town Hall, which was later reconstructed as the Victoria Memorial Hall and

subsequently as the Victoria Concert Hall,

while the SVA General Committee met monthly at

the Singapore Cricket Pavilion, now Singapore Cricket Club. On 26

October, 1888, previous

Volunteer ordinances were repealed and replaced by the Volunteer Ordinance, 1888. In 1889,

money was raised from the public for four Maxim Machine Guns. Mr. Cheang Hong Lim

donated $2,500 for one entire gun. This was an ironic turn of events since the SVRC had

begun in 1854 to help quell Chinese riots, but it marked a turning point of sorts in that the

Chinese population of Singapore was becoming more self-confident and their commercial

success made them worth courting as respectable citizens. The four guns arrived on 4

April,

1891 and the resulting Maxim Gun Company of the SVA was the first such company in the

British forces, regular or auxiliary.

In 1892, McCallum and later, St. Clair, now Lieutenant,

proceeded to Pahang, West Malaysia, to lead some local troops in quelling a minor revolt there,

thereby earning the SVA the distinction of participating in an actual military operation for

the first time, as they chose to wear the SVA uniform on the occasion.

In the meantime, the

SVA had begun to look established enough to warrant the construction of a proper drill hall.

In early 1890, McCallum, who was also Executive Engineer of the Straits Settlements Public

Works Department, designed and supervised the construction of a simple utilitarian Volunteer

Drill Hall at the site of Fort Fullerton,

approximately at the old location of the Merlion. This

phase of the Corps came to a close at the very beginning of the 20

Century.