COLCHESTER & DISTRICT BRANCH HAD A STONE ERECTED IN CASTLE PARK COLCHESTER ON THE FIRST OCTOBER 2006 IN MEMORY OF THOSE THAT DID NOT RETURN FROM MALAYA AND BORNEO BETWEEN 1946 AND 1966.
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM
(Or “How We Got The Stone”)
by The President
It is almost twenty years since his work took our eldest son, Chris, to the Far East, and he has worked and lived in Singapore ever since.
By chance, he was back in Colchester for a few days over the date of our monthly Brach meeting in August 2005 and I suggested that he might like to come with me as a visitor. It was then that he became involved with our Branch Memorial Stone – but I will let him tell the rest of the story in his own words. He writes as follows:-
‘I seem to have developed an amazing propensity for biting off more than I can easily chew – commercial diving, difficult project management, social commitments – you name it, I have done it – and obviously survived to tell the tale. August 2005 was no exception.
Lillian, my wife, and I were enjoying an all too infrequent visit to Colchester when Dad mentioned that cheap beer was available that evening – all I had to do was put on a jacket and tie, and go with him. So a tie was promptly tied, and off we went – into the Garrison. During the course of proceedings – and the promise beer! – someone raised the subject of a memorial for the NMBVA and the difficulty being experienced in obtaining a reply from the Malaysian Embassy for advice on how to obtain stone from the Batu Caves area (where much British Army action occurred during the Emergency). I piped up with the offer that since I live in Singapore, I might be able to get some comparative prices – just by way of a price check.
‘A few days later, back in Singapore, I floated enquires to some Singapore and Malaysian ‘specialist’ regarding availability and prices – received nothing – and promptly forgot the whole matter in favour of more pressing (ie money producing!) employment!
‘Things stayed that way until soon after Christmas, when it was explained to me that the Malaysian Embassy had still produced zero information – but so had I! Most embarrassing! Also, it was now clear to me that Colchester’s hopes regarding a piece of Malaysian stone rested on me for a price – and to deliver it! It was obvious that I had, once again, bitten off more than I could easily chew!
‘In mid-January, I was in Kuala Lumpur for a trade exhibition, so I took the opportunity to visit some more ‘specialists’. Since a ‘gweilo’ can rarely, even today, get on the same telephonic wavelength as a local Malay, I spent a very hot and sweaty day walking the industrial stone supply areas of KL. Tiles, flooring, crushed granite for road making – no problem – but blocks of stone? ‘Impossible tuan!’ It slowly dawned on me that I had had no replies to my earlier enquires for two simple reasons. First – stone is no longer produced from Batu Caves, and second – these days, 99.9% of stone is machined in the quarry (world-wide) to a maximum thickness of 30mm (ie 1.25”) to meet the international demand for worktops, shower walls, high quality flooring, etc. Finding a 4” thick slab was just about impossible unless I was able to place an order for at least 500 tons of the stuff – and since I had no real intention of going into the memorial stone business on a commercial scale, I was stumped!
The installation date that I had been given (May 2006) was looming on the horizon! Help! I needed a miracle! Preferably today, please!
‘Help was, as so often happens, found close at hand – in our local pub. I was seriously beginning to wonder how I was going to get out of the hole which I had dug for myself when my wife Lillian introduced me to a friend of hers (a pool player – for better or worse, she seems to have discovered that she has a latent talent for pool!). In the course of a bit of a social chit chat with him I discovered that he (Tom by name) has a friend named Donald who is in the stone renovation and diamond cutting-tool business, but was at one time in the memorial stone business. When I explained my problem, Tom promised to call Donald to see if he could help. (Incidentally, in spite of their Anglo-Saxon names, Tom and Donald are both ethnic Chinese).
‘Next morning at 0800 hrs, Donald telephoned me (seriously disrupting my Sunday lie-in!) and by 1000hrs I had (maliciously!) also disrupted Lillian’s morning, and we met Donald for coffee and breakfast at a nearby hawker stall (believe me, Nescafe doesn’t stand a chance against proper local fresh-brewed coffee). Donald was at once sympathetic and helpful (he is about my age, and very conversant with the troubles of the Emergency), and soon accepted the task of finding some suitable stone, dressing, polishing, drilling and engraving it. In the end, he even undertook to arrange the shipping of it to the UK – and spent a great deal of time and effort beating down the price with the shipping agents.
‘By this time, my parents had disappeared to Spain (looking for some warmer weather! Ha! Ha! What a hope! But that’s another story!), so with the able, computerised help of Ken Warne, I relayed news of my halting progress to England.
‘What words you want engraved?’ was Donald’s next question. So considerable internet and mobile phone time was then burnt up getting the correct text of ‘Ode to the Fallen’, agreeing the preferred layout and deciding the best font. He did a mock-up for my approval while still seeking the right stone.
‘After much searching, Donald found a small quarry in Seremban (in the State of Negri Sembilan, only 40 miles from Batu Caves) which contained suitable granite stone. Somehow, he persuaded the owner to agree to cut, as a special order, two 4” thick slabs of the fairly rare ‘Royal Blue’ stone.
‘Over the course of the next three months, the stone was cut, and then trucked down to Johore Bahru (on the southern tip of Malaysia, where the Causeway connects mainland Malaysia to Singapore Island), where it was polished and engraved in Donald’s workshop, before being trucked over the boarder into Singapore for my inspection. (Donald sweet talked the Singapore Customs Officer and persuaded him that the stone was for ‘exhibition demo’ purposes and so escaped having to pay Singapore import duty!).
‘Packing of the base slab, the engraved memorial slab and the steel dowels for eventual fixing of the whole construction to a concrete base in Colchester Castle Park, was completed in Singapore (where, from my point of view, things are much more controllable), and the consignment was prepared for shipping – but I know that both Donald and I heaved an enormous sigh of relief when we heard that the installation ceremony had been postponed until the Autumn.
‘And so it was that, on the evening of 18th April, I went to a small and dusty carpenter’s shop in Singapore to meet Donald and The Stone. After a close inspection, I was pleased with the outcome of our combined efforts, photographs were taken, the final packing operation got under way, and the stones departed Singapore docks on 22nd April 06.
‘The rest, as they say, is history---------‘
I can complete Chris’s story above by adding that The Stones arrived at Thamesport on 12th May, and as I write (14th May) are due to come by road in a few days, to our Colchester Stone Mason’s yard. Personally, I can hardly wait to see them ‘in the flesh’, as I am sure all members will also wish to do as soon as possible.
Chris has generously undertaken to meet the cost of the two stones, the engraving and the dowls, while Russell Dick (and a number of good supports) have made tremendous efforts to collect donations to cover the other costs which will necessarily be incurred. Planning of the arrangements for the dedication of the Memorial on the 1st October 06 are now well in hand, and I am sure that we can all look forward to an occasion which will live long in the annls of our Branch.
All that we now need is for someone to arrange for the 1st October 2006 to be a fine sunny day. May we please have a volunteer soon for that job? In Chris’s words – ‘Preferably today, please!