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APPENDIX I
356
APPENDIX I
to Captain H.R.S. Zehnder and the ‘E’ Company of the 2
nd
Battalion to Captain Tan Soo
Bin, promoted Major on his transfer soon after to the Reserve, the first Asian Volunteer to
achieve this rank. Tan was replaced by Captain Wong Siew Yuen, who was also promoted
Major while holding the appointment, thereby being the first Asian to hold actual command
with this rank.
33
Training and administrative facilities were gradually upgraded. The Drill Hall that McCallum
had built in 1890 beside Fort Fullerton had been dismantled at the end of 1907 and set up
again in reclaimed land at Beach Road, adjoining the Chinese Volunteer Club, in January
1908.
34
On 2
nd
February, 1927, the Eurasian Volunteer HQ and Club was opened in the
SVC grounds in Beach Road.
35
On 8
th
March, 1932, the Governor, Sir Cecil Clementi Smith
laid the foundation stone for a permanent Volunteer Corps HQ, although work had been
going on for over a year. The HQ was completed and operational by October 1932, the old
Drill Hall having been already demolished.
36
The Governor officially opened the HQ on
4
th
March, 1933.
37
The Volunteers began using the Seletar Rifle Range in 1923, relegating
the Balestier Range for 30 yard shoots;
38
On 21
st
June, 1924, the Bukit Timah Range had
become available
39
and in February 1933, the Miniature Range had been opened in the Beach
Road HQ.
40
Another important facility made available to the Volunteers was a permanent
Volunteer Camp, built by the Government on the coast at Telok Paku in 1937, superseding
the semi-permanent one at Siglap on loan from Mr. Julian Frankel.
41
The Volunteers, up to then, were represented only by land forces. A Straits Settlements Royal
Naval Volunteer Reserve was set up under the Naval Volunteer Reserve Ordinance, 1934. A
retired naval officer, Commander L.A.W. Johnson was appointed Commanding Officer with
an establishment of 50 Officers and 200 Malay ratings. On 18
th
June, 1935, the SSRNVR was
presented with HMS Laburnum, a Flower class frigate, for use as HQ and drill ship. In 1937,
HMS Panglima, a 23-meter wooden hulled motor launch armed with a single manual 40mm
Bofors gun was added as a training ship.
42
The Volunteer Air Force Ordinance, 1936 initiated the Straits Settlements Volunteer Air Force
(SSVAF) under Squadron Leader D.S.E. Vines. The force was raised in Seletar Air Base with
the enthusiastic support of the Royal Singapore Flying Club. Not much is known about the
development of the SSVAF, but, as war with Japan became seemingly unavoidable, anecdotal
and photographic evidence suggests that many non-European locals were enlisted for airport
security, anti-aircraft weapons training and crew of the RAF squadrons based in Singapore.
43
In
1939, the Air Force Volunteers were centralised as the Malayan Volunteer Air Force.
44
Just before the Japanese invasion of Malaya, the Volunteer land forces in Singapore alone
comprised two battalions worth of infantry, the Singapore Royal Artillery, the Singapore
Royal Engineers (comprising a field (combat) company and a searchlight company), the
Singapore Fortress Signal Company, the Singapore Armoured Car Company, the Singapore Field
Ambulance, the Singapore Bomb Disposal Section and the Singapore Pay Section. These were