Our Bedok Kampong House Singapore

This writer, the older of the boys am grateful to have caught up with Michael Hall and his wife when they visited Singapore last few weeks. Michael and I have been in contact since mid 2024, from his home in Devon, UK. Michael and his family stayed at Bedok (along Bedok Road nearer to Simpang Bedok, opposite Bedok Walk) in the late 1960’s when his RAF dad was posted here, and very familiar with Singapore! He just turned 13 (extreme right) when this photo was taken by his dad at Bedok beach (see left side fencing belonging to the holiday home of the Sultan of Pahang). And here we are posing by Sungei Bedok (now a concrete canal) when we visited Bedok corner just last week! Thank you, Michael, for all the support you have given our blog and Facebook page! Oct/Nov 1968 when Michael (extreme right) just turned 13, 58 years ago Inset box: posing by Sungei Bedok (Bedok River), Feb 2026

Early February 1968 and it was the Chinese New Year celebrations then. Taking this photo from her home at Sa-chan-lau, Mrs Jackie Munro witnessed this breathtaking Dragon and Lion Dance ceremony and performance at the beach at Bedok Corner! Our live-in cousin, just 16 then also told us she was present at this event which also had fire crackers! See the Bedok camp fast taking shape on the right of the photo. Thank you for sharing this wonderful and extremely rare photo Jackie!

The Year of the Fiery Horse this Chinese New Year occurs every 60 years with the last one being in 1966, when we were at our Bedok kampong house! With a family portrait, taken 60 years ago in 1966, we would like to wish you a blessed year this 2026 amplified with the Horse’s inherent qualities of strength, dynamism and momentum. Gong Xi Fa Cai! Selamat Taon Baru! Happy Chinese New Year! 1966, colourisation of original black & white studio portrait with reddish tones to invoke the blessings of the Lunar New Year! The original studio portrait of 1966

February 15th each year is Total Defence Day (the day of Singapore's surrender to the Japanese in World War 2). As it is our collective responsibility to defend our nation and strengthen our resolve to keep Singapore safe and sovereign, we wish to give tribute to and honour two men from within our family who were our war heroes then, and they come from both our grandmother’s sisters’ side of the family. The first hero (see photo taken circa 1939 - 1940) Sng Gim Soon , is our grandmother’s youngest sister’s husband. Armed with only this photo, and with the help of AI, we managed to get some possible information about him as follows: He joined the Air Raid Precautions (A.R.P.) organization shortly after its expansion in 1939 and he was part of the backbone of Singapore’s early civil defence efforts among the first wave of A.R.P. volunteers, preparing Singapore for the possibility of air raids. This studio portrait was taken around 1939 or 1940. He could have served as a Warden, whi...

While most of us would throw and dispose off those Chinese New Year greeting cards mailed to us of long ago, somehow our late father did not. And now we are so blessed to be able to take a trip back to yesteryears to see some of these cards. Sent by relatives and friends from both here and Malaya, here are cards from the 1950’s to share with you all. Most of them here are made more like mini-postcards and printed only on one side. This card is undated (envelope missing) but we can circa it in the mid 1950's. It has multiple sides with cover and back as well, unlike the above cards which are more mini-postcard like. The lady in the front is an anonymous model. This card was recently colourised beautifully by AI. Circa 1955. It was common in those days to use generic models' faces on cards.

Located just behind/next to (depending on one’s orientation) the Bedok Rest House at our Bedok Laut kampong where the Bedok corner was, was a concrete three-storey house us fellow kampong folk called ‘Sa-chan-lau’ (3 storey building in Hokkien 三 层楼 ). Sa-chan-lau, listed as 2B Bedok Road was just next to our Indian neighbours at 4E. We walked by this place each time we left our house to go onto or return home via the main Bedok Road, and it seemed a place of mystery to us until now. Many thanks to our recent interactions with new friend and former neighbour Mrs Jackie Munro who lived in this house, we have a story to tell about this building. She and her Royal Air Force (RAF) husband moved into one of the 8 flats inside this house (believed to be owned by a Chew family) in October 1967 as newlyweds. There were 3 flats on the ground floor, 2 on the first floor (or 2 nd storey, where they lived) and 2 on the top floor or 3 rd storey (we used the British term ‘floor’ until 1983 when w...