This is my story - 41

41 – Enjoying the work of a Corps Officer

It has always been the principle of The Salvation Army to work towards self support for the Corps/church for which one is responsible. We teach our people the importance of tithing as a Christian responsibility.

RSI (Red Shield Industries) as we know it today had not been formed yet in the 70’s in Singapore or Malaysia. The officers would respond to request to collect old clothes, books etc and it was each man for himself; or rather each Corps or Home would do its own collecting. Calls received at Command Headquarters were directed to the Public Relations Department and it was the duty of the Public Relations Secretary to make arrangements to pick up the stuff. All goods collected would be kept in the store and if an officer wanted anything would make a request to the General Secretary. She was always very helpful and co-operative in giving us stuff for our regular jumble sales.

The Army did not have a big Public Relations Department like it is today. The whole department comprised Major and Mrs. Brian Corfield with his assistant Major Ruth Naugler (later succeeded Major Lilian Glover) who was also the Corps officer of Tamil Corps now called Eratchippu Corps. She spent five days a week Monday to Friday going round soliciting funds from shop to shop or office to office. During the weekend and evenings she was the Corps officer of Tamil Corps! I don’t think she ever had a day off at all! The telephone receptionist was also the clerk/typist and keeper of records of donors for the Public Relations Department. So the other officers helped out whenever we could.

Every Saturday evening my wife and I would go out to sell copies of the War Cry. The purpose was two-fold – for fund-raising as well as evangelism. The three regular places we visited were the NAAFI at Beach Road, the Union Jack Club at Stamford Road and the Tangle Inn at Tanglin among others. Corps Cadets sold War Cry at the Corps on Sundays to those attending the meetings. The lady in charge of Tangle Inn was an elderly English lady, a Presbyterian but good friend of the Army. She claimed that as a baby she had been dedicated by our Founder William Booth! She also told us that Lieut. Colonel Herbert Lord conducted her husband’s funeral in Singapore.

Every Christmas she would invite our carollers to her restaurant to sing and play carols. She would provide us with refreshments and give us a donation. We always received a big hug from this dear lady. When she passed away, my wife and I attended her funeral at the Orchard Road Presbyterian Church.

We worked hard at raising funds and we were delighted when we were able to inform Headquarters that we did not need any more subsidies. Central Corps was now self supporting!

We had been using the Headquarters’ telephone, quite inconvenient at times. When there was a phone call for us, Gina the receptionist had to run to our quarters to call us. After office hours the phone was switched to the General Secretary’s quarters and Lieut. Colonel Watson had to call for us. When she was out, whoever was around would answer the phone placed at the window ledge. When we heard the phone ring, one of us had to run downstairs to answer the call. So we were pleased when the Board gave approval for the Central Corps to have our own phone!

One day when we had saved enough, we bought an old car a Renault for $3,200.00 – all our savings went into it. The Corps now had sufficient funds to pay for the petrol for official use plus road tax! Certainly this was a big help for which we were grateful. We were able to get around easily doing our pastoral visitation and also when I had to take Poh Chin to hospital for her regular check ups. One day Dr. Freda Paul the paediatrician suggested that Poh Chin should be placed temporarily at the Home at Woodbridge for observation. We took her advice and placed her there for some time so it was good we had our own car. I think the good doctor also wanted us to have some respite. She was a lovely Christian lady who worshipped at the Tamil Methodist church at Short Street and a great friend of the Army.

In those days we did not set up ‘kettles’ to raise funds like we do today, but we went out carolling for two to three weeks before Christmas. The band would always be on duty and to relieve the bandsmen I would use my concertina for some of the carols. We always ended up on Christmas Eve at the Orchard Road Presbyterian Church for a Combined Carol Service in the church compound with the other churches. This tradition began on Christmas Eve 1945 when the heads of churches who had just been released from Changi Prison met there for their first carol service. The united band of Central and Balestier Corps were always on duty and pastors of different participating denominations took turns to give the Christmas message broadcast live by Radio Singapore.

We really enjoyed out ministry at Central. There was plenty to do and the folk gave us good support.