Malacca Corps - my first appointment 1954-1959

The congregation waited in suspense for the Officer Commanding Lieut. Colonel Frederick Harvey to announce and present the letters of appointments to the four cadets of the Shepherds’ Session.  When my name was called, I stepped forward, saluted the Colonel, and waited with bated breath for a few tense moments!   “Probationary Lieutenant Lim Ah Ang (that was the rank given to all newly commissioned officers), I appoint you as Commanding officer of Malacca Corps.”   There was loud applause, followed by shouts of Hallelujahs. That was 25 October 1954.

The weekend’s meetings over, we all had to wait till the Thursday to move to our appointments.   Three days of waiting seemed like eternity for me because I had wanted to get to my first appointment straightaway!    The commissioning was the climax for the weekend’s events, and we were all on fire for the Lord!! (In recent years I notice, newly commissioned Lieutenants go for a retreat at a hotel. Times have changed!)

Thursday came, and the Public Relations Secretary Major Stanley Gordon, fetched me to the Sing Liang Malacca/Singapore Express Bus terminal at Beach Road to begin a six hour journey by bus to Malacca.   It had to cross two ferries, at Batu Pahat and Muar.   There were no expressways then!

On arrival, I was met by my predecessor, Lieutenant Douglas Kiff.   He and his newly married wife, Jean, had delayed their departure for Penang Corps in order to conduct my welcome meeting.  We sat in one trishaw, while all my worldly possessions, comprising a suitcase and a small carton of books. Both of us  went into another trishaw.   We did not have far to go from the bus station to 69-A Wolferstan Road.   Malacca Corps occupied the upstairs of a two-storey shophouse.

On the front of the building was the signboard with the words THE SALVATION ARMY in English, Malay and Chinese.   Directly below it was another signboard – CHOP SI SOON, WINE AND SPIRIT MERCHANTS.   What a strange juxtaposition!    We ascended a narrow staircase and entered the corps premises.    The main floor area was the corps hall, with 30 chairs.   A small corner at the back was partitioned off for quarters – a cubicle, which served as a bed-sitting room cum office for the Corps Officer.   It was most convenient for the officer to get out of bed and there was the office desk for me to work!   At the back was a small kitchen and bathroom, but toilet facilities were downstairs.   To get there meant descending the spiral staircase, walking past the living area of the people living downstairs, past a fierce German Shepherd, tied up during the day and freed at night to roam the backyard! No going to toilet at night.

There was plenty to occupy me – Sunday Holiness meeting in the morning, and Salvation meeting at night, the Sunday School in the afternoon and an open-air meeting prior to the night salvation meeting.   During the week there was a tuition programme, Joy Hour and Thursday night Holiness Saturday night English meeting.

Malacca Corps has an interesting history.   Early in 1940 Adjutant and Mrs Harold Matthews were appointed to pioneer the work.   Soon after their arrival they befriended a Mr Tan Kok Liat who gave them considerable assistance.  The upstairs of the shophouse mentioned above was rented to hold meetings.   At the end of that year twelve senior and a number of junior soldiers were enrolled.

 From the first session of cadets before the war, Lieutenant Edward Touruan was appointed as an assistant.   He was of Indonesian origin and spoke the language widely used by the Peranakans in Malacca.  Sadly he resigned after less than a year and Lieutenant Mollie Yeo Phaik Lean (later became Mrs Captain George Tan) was appointed to replace him.

When Malacca was invaded by the Japanese, Adjutant Matthews was arrested and put into an internment camp in Malacca.    Amongst the prisoners was one of Adjutant Matthews’ converts.   He had been engaged in raising funds to help China fight the Japanese.    Now he and his friends were in prison awaiting execution.   Adjutant Matthews was able to comfort and pray with him.   Another man, Mr Ong Teck Ee a confucianist, accepted the Lord and prior to being executed said, “I don’t mind death now that I have found Jesus as my Saviour.”

After the war, in 1946 Adjutant and Mrs Stanley Gordon were appointed to reopen the Malacca Boys’ Jubilee Club (A Boys’ Home)  This was sponsored by the Silver Jubilee Fund of Singapore set up in honour of King George V.   (Malacca was one of the states which made up the British Straits settlements.)     Adjutant Gordon was designated as the superintendent of this centre, which had twenty-one boys in need of care and protection living there.  

In the meantime Adjutant and Mrs Gordon worked hard to re-establish our Corps work.   The downstairs tenants – the Wine Shop, now occupied the whole property at 69 Wolferstan Road, including the upstairs part rented by the Army before the war.   Adjutant Gordon managed to persuade the owner to agree to lease it to the Army again, but there was some difficulty in getting the new tenants to move out!    After some hard negotiations the Army managed to regain occupancy. At the end of 1947 the Club ceased to operate and Adjutant and Mrs Gordon were transferred to Ipoh.

In March 1948, Captain and Mrs George Tan were appointed as Corps Officers.   The Tan family with three children used the hall as part of the quarters.   On Sunday and weeknights the place was a worship hall again.   Everything had to be moved into the cubicle at the back.   The pre-war soldiers who had been worshipping at the Chinese Methodist Church returned to the Army.   They brought their friends along as well to the Army meetings held above the wine shop.   Captain George Tan soon found himself busy with social work in the community.  He was a member of the Prisoners’ Aid Society, Association for the prevention of Tuberculosis and other welfare groups.   For his services to the community the British Government awarded the captain with the British Defence Medal and the 1939-45 Service Star.

In 1953, Lieutenant Douglas Kiff was appointed to command the Corps.  Malacca was a Hokkien speaking corps and he had to depend on interpreters amongst whom was Mr C Y Chang, a Methodist lay preacher.   The Lieutenant started tuition classes for the young people and the corps continued to grow.   I followed the Kiffs in October 1954.

 During the time of Captain Joan Bavin in 1967 the Army bought its first property, a two storey shophouse at Jalan Ong Kim Wee.   It was officially opened by the Officer Commanding, Lieut. Colonel George Engel, who received the funding from the U.S.A.   The corps functioned at this shophouse, till, with the increase in traffic and business in the area, the place was not congenial for worship.   The facilities became inadequate for our Army activities.

In 1978, during the time of Lieutenant and Mrs Alan Hickman, the corps moved to its present location, 321 Jalan Parameswara.   The sale of the shophouse was adequate to purchase and renovate this compound house.   It was previously used as a Doctor’s Surgery.   Lieutenant Hickman started the centre for the handicapped, using the corps hall during the week.   Since then the Army has added new facilities and even acquired the land adjacent to the corps property. The Army marches on in this historical town of Melaka!