Wherever We Called Home

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1963. On his off-duty days, our father would sometimes borrow a camera to photograph his young family. This simple picture was taken in the garden of our Bedok kampong house, but it also captured something unexpected in the background, a block of flats where several RAF families lived (the other building “Sar-chan- lau” located just behind the rest house and other adjacent bungalows and not featured here also had RAF families living in them).

While we were creating memories in our little corner of Bedok, other families from the United Kingdom were doing the same nearby. Many had travelled thousands of miles to Singapore with their spouses and children while serving at RAF Changi.

While some personnel lived within military barracks, others rented homes and flats around Changi, Bedok and the surrounding areas. Readers such as Michael Hall, Jackie Munro and Ann Froud have fondly recalled those years, remembering not only their time in Singapore but also the friendships, neighbourhoods and everyday experiences that became part of their families' stories.

The RAF eventually withdrew when the RSAF assumed responsibility for the air bases in the early 1970s. Those families packed their belongings, said their farewells and returned home. The flats, however, remained, welcoming new residents and new stories. Among them was the well-known actress Siput Sarawak and her son.

Perhaps that is the true value of old photographs. What began as a simple picture of our young family in a Bedok kampong garden has, over time, become a window into the lives of many other families as well. For some, home was a kampong house in Bedok. For others, it was a flat occupied during a temporary posting thousands of miles from Britain. Yet wherever they found themselves in the world, family was what made a place feel like home. And the memories captured in photographs like these continue to bring us together.

The photo on the right was sourced directly from the National Archives of Singapore with permission given. Siput Sarawak's photo was taken from the internet, with no rights reserved by us.


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