December 1962

This photo of 1962 was sent by Grace Wiltshire when she found it in her father's drawer in Bristol. Grace visited Sibu in 2021.

 I am not very sure if I can identify most of the teachers is in this photo as it is rather old. However I believe Mrs. Chih Mei Xi is seen on the right of the Principal, Mr. Keith V Wiltshire. Most of the teachers in those days were Chinese.

I am not in the photo because they look like the students of the Chinese Department,

In 1962, the school started Transition classes, and in 1968 the last of the Senior Middle Three will be taught in the school.

the career of the Chinese medium teachers would be at stake.

Mrs. Deng was able to train herself to teach in English and later in Bahasa Malaysia. She was a very remarkable teacher.

Mrs. Chih was a great Science teacher who taught well in English because she was a graduate of an American University. 

Miss Hii Siew Ding, who was also a university graduate from China, had to teach needlework in English.

Miss Wong, a Chinese literature teacher continued to teach in Chinese as that was her subject.

Mr Wiltshire as principal was very sympathetic towards these Chinese speaking teachers who were trying their best. He was very accomodating.

For a few years the Chinese speaking teachers struggled a lot to adjust themselves to teach in the English Medium stream.

School Concerts

 We had many school concerts, like Teachers' Day Concerts, English Drama Festival Concerts, Annual School Concerts, etc.

In order to get as many items to be performed, it was our school practice that each class was invited to contribute an item and our school Principal Mr. Lau Tien Sing would short list them. Naturally some classes were disappointed when not selected. Hence from the beginning at Form One, some classes did not even think about taking part because it was an expensive venture and investment since all students had to pay for their own costumes and take time to practice. They also might have to call for extra help.

Thus the onus fell on those classes with rich students who could afford every thing, including transportation to the school for extra practice.

I have here an example of how my class item was selected. My class was fortunate as we had lovely girls who could do the Filipino Dance, and we managed to borrow the costumes from our Filipino teachers. Budget solved! The boys only had to get the bamboos.

This was a memorable concert item.

Many years down the road when I became a teacher I realised how expensive it was to enter an item for a concert!!

A dance teacher had to be engaged at a fee of RM1000 just to choreograph the dance. Costumes were expensive as each cost around RM100 or more. My daughter took part in one dance item, and I helped pay for the costumes.

Some schools even asked for sponsorship from big corporations. If the schools had good Principals like Mr. Lau Tieng Sing, and Brother Albinus (both of them RIP), the funds could be easily raised. But poorer rural schools would have found it most difficult to organize anything big.

The Parent Teachers Association have to play a big role in organizing concerts and other fun activities. It would again be the issue of funding. And again if it was to organize a concert to raise funds for the school it would really be a good effort .

Overall, students have a boost in confidence and ego if they participate in school concerts. It would be memorable for them for the rest of their life.

Hence from Kindergarten teachers would like to organize some kind of concert for the kids under their care. But they do have to consider their budgets and the time they have in hand.

Would you approve of concerts in schools?

The Methodist Girls' Hostel, Queensway

The Methodist Girls' Hostel was not a part of the Methodist Secondary School,Sibu. It was a project of the Methodist Women's Christian Society, funded by the American branch of the Society for the welfare of girls.WSCS, Women's Society of Christian Service. In Foochow it is called Hoo Nu Hui.

The hostel was conveniently built on a piece of property adjacent to the Methodist Secondary School and was completed in 1951.

The American branch of the Society of the Welfare for Girls sent veteran Hin Hua speaking missionary Ms. Blanche Apple to supervise the building and the management of the girl students. Miss Apple had worked in China for more than 30 years among the Hin Hua people. 

At the same time she was appointed pastor in charge of Tian Dao Tong, and a teacher of English of both Methodist Primary and Secondary Schools.

She also assisted Ms Martha Graf in looking after the mission clinics in Sibu, Binatang, Sarikei and Sg. Teku. She was a good long boat driver.

The Girls Hostel helped many Christian girls from outside Sibu to finish their secondary schools. In fact many were able to go overseas, taking up medicine, dentistry, music and many other professional courses. Without the hostel many girls would have been left behind.

The American WSCS was a very far sighted institution. Today Malaysian continues to have WSCS and train up girls to be leaders in the community.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Foochow Speaking Rev and Mrs. MacGraw

 Foochow speaking Rev MacGraw was the first Principal of the Methodist Secondary School from 1948 to 1951. In fact he was remembered by many local Foochow leaders as a man who was a good builder.

When the school first started in 1948 many rural boys were invited to study in the school and room and board was provided. In 1949 the Summer Memorial Building was ready due to the diligent work of the contractors. And it was also due to the determination of the church leaders and other community heads who decided to pull resources together to raise funds for attap, wood, nails and other hardware.

Rev MacGraw was good with the saw and the hammer.

A former student Ling Teck Duuk now residing in Miri recalled that his parents did not want him to stay as a boarder in school but he was asked to cycle to school from Ern Moh Long every morning in the early hours. 

The first classrooms were all attap roofed buildings and he studied well especially when taught by Miss Wong Hie Ding who was good in English Literature. Miss Wong and the Principal spoke in Foochow!! It was sad for Ling to leave school after Jr Three because his parents could not afford to send him to school and he had to start working.

Many of the first batch of the students of the school graduated under the fine and able management of Rev MacGraw . The early teachers according to Ling were good in pedagogy and he remembers that they were well trained to help students like him learn well.

They had no textbooks to refer to and the library was actually non existent. What the teachers knew was passed on to them.

Discipline was good.

School Thermometer

One of the best things I remember about my primary school. - the yellow thermometer I get to read every day.

It was hung at the top of the staircase. I never understand why I so was taken by it. I would go and read it every day, even though knowing that the mercury would not go too high up or go too low. But I wanted to think that one day it would go below zero and we would have snow in Sibu.

May be it was our exposure to a bit of science in Year Three that really got me interested. I love drawing flowers and name the parts of the plants. the teacher Mr. Tiong was a good teacher, few words, full of facts and we remember what he said. We all did well in the tests he gave.

Running upstairs to read the thermometer was quite risky as we would never know if Mr. Wong the Headmaster would be there waiting with his cane. He was very strict and he did not have a high threshold of sound. If we made a sound which was above his level, he would cane us. So we had to really respect the stairs so to speak.

Most of us were caned by him, for one reason or other. Mine was for English mistakes. But it was good for me because I was well taught by him and by the time I went to secondary school, my English was perfect.

The good thing about that thermometer - no matter how much the boys suffered from the caning, they never vandalized anything, especially the school thermometer. If it had been today, anything breakable would be broken, even chairs and tables. I am so proud of my school mates.

Sixty years later today, I can really say I learned a lot of maths and science besides English, because we really had good teachers. Praise God of Methodist Primary School.

Sibu 1962 : Mrs. Chih Mei Xi

 We were to gather together for a small reunion in Sibu with Miss Ida Mamora, Mrs. Wong Bing Sing, and Mrs Kwang Ik Ung. Probably we would have 2 tables at a restaurant and that was our informal plan.

We went over many photos at Miss Ida's house to look for photos which may help us remember more. 

We always enjoy going to her house in Brooke Drive, have coffee and eat sweet local cakes. And if we over stay we can always get some take away from Rajang Park.

As I write this post I remember how it was like in those days long ago..looking a photo albums. It was one of our favourite things to do when we visited elders. 

And Miss Ida has many photo albums which we can really pour over, again and again. Besides she has a good memory of all the teachers who have taught in the school. She herself was a student in the early years. Her most famous school mate is Madam Luk Dai Hee.

2018 is a year of just ordinary lives, ordinary stories and ordinary teacher and student events. 

One of the teachers we remember is Mrs. Chih who taught us Science in Form One, 1962. Miss Ida herself had just come back from the USA with a degree and her Home Science Room was just next to my Form One A classroom. From our class, we could smell the aroma of biscuits and cakes most mornings. Hence we could be quite distracted.

I remember Mrs Chih vividly because she was extra ordinary. She was a driver of her own car and she would come early in the morning to the school. I remember she was never late.

She had come from Shanghai and she was held in awe by every one in the school. Besides we were told that her husband was a very senior Government Officer (Information Officer).

1962 was also a year when I first became a Secondary School student, and it was the year when we had to wear school uniforms.

Wearing a school uniform gave us a mark of identity. The blue skirt for the girls was a very practical colour which occasionally hid the stains from our monthly period!! Miss Ida remembers that, as many girls had to go to her Home Science room to wash off the stains and change their pads (at ten cents a piece).

 However when we looked at teacher's outfits we were impressed by what Mrs. Chih wore. When teaching she wore a white blouse with a nice floral skirt. for school occasions she wore cheong sams which were remarkably elegant and probably very expensive.

Our other Chinese teachers like Mrs. Deng, Miss Wong and Miss Hii wore cheong sams to teach.

These three Chinese ladies had told us that teachers in China wore cheong sams because it was classic and a traditional befitting wear. - a mark of a high standing professional. I remember that. But not every one had the figure to wear cheong sams.

Mrs. Chih was good in class and no one dared to misbehave. She was really very charismatic. 

Now that I think back to those days, she actually did not smile very much. But we could see that she was very kind hearted from the way she marked our exam papers. She would always leave some kind words like, "You have improved!" "Always try your best!" "Please try harder!"

And when she told our class she was leaving Sibu, almost every one cried. We had a good science teacher who opened our eyes to a brand new world. And she was a grand Shanghai lady.

KV Wiltshire wrote in "1966 Portrait of a School"

Remembering KV Wiltshire who passed away on 3rd January 2017.



A Recent Photo of KV Wiltshire

Flashback to the Sixties..... The Aims and Purposes of the School

by Rev KV Wiltshire

The school seeks to provide education in  a Christian context. By education we mean NOT the training of pupils to pass examinations. But the providing of opportunities so that the talents latent in each individual may be brought out. This is well summed up in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
"Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance, and friendship among all nations,racial or religious groups."
By "a Christian context" we mean that the school seeks to take as its standard the teaching of Jesus, and to inform its pupils,by both precept and example, of the content and implications of that teaching. This is done because we believe that true education, as defined above, canbest be achieved in this way.l
However, this is emphatically not a school for Christians only. A Christian school, like the Christian gospel, must be available for all, and we rejoice in the comradeship with Muslims, Buddhists and other non=-Christians who have their own special and welcome contributions to make.
All this does not mean that academic standards are of no importance. Efficient teaching, and, the hard discipline of study (which result in examination successes) are important - but they are not as important to a person as the discovery\
that
ONE SHOULD NEVER BE AFRAID OF TRUTH, AND NEVER BE AFRAID TO LOVE.



I must find the photos for the following which could be found in the booklet.


The wood work Department is a good illustration of Colombo Plan aid. The machines were provided by the Australian government. Mr. U was trained by New Zealand while the Sarawak Government and the Methodist Church shared the capital cost of the building...Woodwork Department Mr. David U...

School won the Sarawak State Turning competition...for schools.


The Nebraska Residence Hall for Boys..about 8o Chinese and Iban boys lived and worked here.

The Bishop Watts Memorial Building named after a former Nebraska Bishop contains 3 well equipped labs and a Domestic Science room. The capital for this building was raised partly in Nebraska, partly by government grant and partly by local funds.
The Colonial Development fund supplied much of the equipment.


Mr and Mrs. R Gardiner.

School and Football Fields

Very few schools have football fields today.

The Methodist Secondary SChool is one of the few having a good football field since 1949. And that is due to the Board of Directors and advisors who were far sighted and true servants of God.

the first principal of the school in 1949 was Rev Dr. MacGraw. The board of directors were all Methodists. Together staff, board of directors and students adhered to the motto, Seek, Find and Serve.

Sports was a very important part of the school activities and the school was a great show case of sports facilities since the early days with a great football field, tennis courts, badminton courts (both indoors and outdoors), volley ball courts and two basket ball courts. Our school was used as a venue for many divisional and state sports events. Our teachers and students excelled in sports.

It was a good school to study in.

Nanga Sekuau Scheme

In the mid 70's I was able to be transferred to the Methodist Secondary School to teach. My students and I had a few adventures. And one of them was to visit Nanga Sekuau Scheme, arranged by the RASCOM officers. We were delighted by the official response and transport and food were all provided.

Penghulu Imban who was brutally killed in public by the Communists

The Nanga Sekuau Scheme was designed by the Rajang Security Command (RASCOM) in the 70's to bring together several groups of Ibans from various longhouses, to settle in one huge community.

Ng Sekuau was one of the biggest to be set up in the then Third Division, along OYA Road.

In those days due to curfews etc the lives of the Ibans there were very controlled. Perhaps for the first time, they were under military control and discipline to a certain extent. They were also under surveillance most of the time as the roads were blocked at both ends. Perhaps this was good for the Iban settlers, as a protection from the communists.

I visited this model resettlement area with my 6th form students in the 70's. If we did not write in for such a visit, it would not have been a possible adventure, as bringing a group of students out to any place in the RASCOM area, we needed police clearance.

My students had a great experience, learning to ngajat, sit on the floor and eat a simple meal prepared by the few families who entertained us. Some of them used their hands to eat for the first time in their lives. but on the whole forks and spoons were provided and so were hand washing bowls.

We would like to thank the RASCOM administrative staff for the enriching adventure again.

Sibu Tales : How Green WAS My Valley

Reading was a very important class activity. Our English teachers would introduce books to us to read. Sometimes they would bring the books to the class, or sometimes they would just recommend us the titles and we would go to the library to borrow.

One day, our class was introduced to a book called "How Green is My Valley" by Richard Llewellyn and we did not realise that the book was written in 1939. The book was a little worn out when we took the book out. But it did not matter. The reading campaign was on and we wanted to know about the UK.

Most of the girls were better readers and I suppose the boys were not interested. Our top girl borrowed the book and confirmed that it was a really good book. So by word of mouth, most of the girls read the book. 

In those days we did not have TV to distract us. We had the radio which we did not often tune on. We did not have handphones to send text and we wrote proper letters to penpals.

When it was my turn to read the book I read and re read many parts of the book. I think I grew up a little more after reading to book.

And on top of that I started to think that it would be nice to visit Wales.

The novel is set in South Wales during the reign of Queen Victoria. It tells the story of the Morgans, a respectable mining family of the South Wales Valleys, through the eyes of one of the sons, Huw Morgan.

Huw's academic ability sets him apart from his elder brothers and enables him to consider a future away from the dangerous coal mines. His five brothers and his father are miners. After his eldest brother, Ivor, is killed in a mining accident, Huw moves in with his sister-in-law, Bronwen, with whom he has always been in love.

One of Huw's three sisters, Angharad, marries the wealthy mine owner's son – whom she does not love – and the marriage is an unhappy one. She never overcomes her clandestine relationship with the local minister.

Huw's father is later killed in a mine explosion. After everyone Huw has known either dies or moves away, and the town is reduced to a contaminated shell, he decides to leave, and tells the story of his life just before going away.

How Green Was My Valley is a 1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn, telling the story through narration of the main character, of his Welsh family and the mining community in which they live.

The Late Mr. Wong Kie Mee - Headmaster of Methodist Primary School

The Methodist Primary School in the 1950's and 60's was divided into two sections, The Chinese Department and the English Department.

Mr. Wong Kie Mee was the Headmaster for many years, most probably until he retired. He was one of the few English teachers who went to study in Kuching, at St. Thomas' before the war and after the war, I was told. There was no school offering junior middle school education in English.

Mr. Wong Kie Mee's English is impeccable and he ran the school with an iron hand. For a few years, Miss Annette Constantine was the Supervisor of the school. She was a very elegant lady, very soft spoken and very gentle.

the Chinese department was totally separated from our English Deparment, although we shared the same Headmaster and Supervison.

Most of us are very grateful to Mr. Wong Kie Mee and his staff for teaching us good English for by the time we reached secondary school, we had perfect English.

Swallow : Aesop's Fable

Aesop's fables became most widely read by my school mates in the Methodist Primary School. Inspired by our teachers to read English books, we had many little books in our class library cupboard. Before our English lessons started, we returned our class library books and borrowed one more for our reading pleasure at home.

I liked to read all those little books from Penguin series, and other publishers.

One special lesson our English taught one day was :

What is the meaning and origin of "one swallow does not make a summer"?

(Ekambaram, Trichur)

The swallow is not a Sarawak bird, but the teacher did make us pay attention to birds. We often watched swifltets from our class room windows...
We liked our teachers who taught us well, giving us lots of examples, paying attention to our weaknesses and not calling us STUPID.

A "swallow" is a bird, which makes its appearance during spring. The expression "one swallow does not make a summer" is usually used as a sort of warning. You are telling an individual not to become too happy about something; you are advising him to err on the side of caution. You are asking the individual not to get too excited just because a couple of good things have happened; there is still a long way to go yet. One good omen does not necessarily mean a happy ending. Here are a few examples.

*As soon as we launched the product we got a huge order from Russia. We were all pretty excited. But our boss told us to remember that one swallow does not make a summer.

*The first experiment is a success, but we should remember that one swallow does not make a summer.

This is another one of those expressions which became popular thanks to Aesop's fables. According to the story, a young man sees a swallow on a warm winter day. Since swallows are usually seen only during spring, the young man thinks that spring has arrived. As a result he sells his winter coat and then proceeds to drink with the money he has made. A few days later, it becomes extremely cold again and the young man shivering in the cold realises that one swallow does not necessarily imply that summer has arrived. Other expressions which have more or less the same meaning are "one grain does not fill a sack" and "one actor cannot make a play

Aesop's Fables truly fired our imagination from a young age.

I am very glad I went to Methodist Primary School.

Sibu : First Captain of lst Sibu BB Company

Rev Tomlinson in blue. Wesley Church Gold Jubilee Photo

2008 An interview was conducted to glean some interesting information from Retired Rev Chris Tomlinson - after the lst Sibu Company celebrated its 40th Anniversary. 1st Sibu Company has the priviledge to invite all our former captains to celebrate in this 40th anniversary.

1. Rev Chris and his family left in 1971.
2. Rev Chris found many differences in Sibu since 1971: there were few roads and few cars.
3. Rev Chris was pastor of Wesley Church 
4. He was a BB with the 8th Sheffield Company in England.
5. He started lst Sibu Company in 1968 because a) the Sarawak Methodist Conference wanted him to develop youth work in Sibu. And he decided that BB would be most appropriate for the chuch and young peoiple.
6. The biggest challenge : to pursuade the church and some parents that BB and GB were youth organisations based on Christian principles and an understanding of auhority and discipline.

God has blessed the First Company manifold. And a heartfelt thank you to Rev Tomlinson for spreading BB and touching so many lives!

How the Methodist Primary School Sibu came about

The Methodist Primary SChool was started by the Hoovers.  Mrs. James Hoover started the Kindergarten first in 1908 ot there about. In those days the boys went to Anglo Chinese School and the girls went to Yuk Ing Girls school. 

This was the first building set up by the Hoovers for education in Sibu. Later this building was demolished to make was for a better wooden building , for the Anglo Chinese school for boys until 1946.

In 1947 Rev McGraw reopened the Methodist Boys' School with Mrs. JB Chong as assistant Principal.

While Yuk Ing Girls' School was opened (later it became the Methodist Primary School for both boys and girls). In 1949 the Hoover Memorial Building was completed and thus the first Methodist English primary school was formally established with mixed students in Sibu.

(Actually Mrs.Hoover came back after the war, it was felt that she was too old to run any more school in Sibu so she went to stay in Singapore for a while).

The Mary Hoover Kindergarten resumed its functions in 1946 when selected teachers like Ms Tiong Ing Lang and Ms Tiong Yuk Ging were chosen to teach the classes. Mr. Luk Soon Seng was the Supervisor.

The Kindergarten students went to Methodist Primary School 

From Boys' Hostel to Sixth Form Block of Methodist Secondary School Sibu.

When I first joined the school in 1963, this was the boys' hostel upstairs.

After Malaysia was formed, our school slowly phased out the Chinese Department. And I remember it was quite a difficult situation for the school principal then, Mr. Wiltshire to convince the Board of Management that it was government policy. 

It would also mean that many of the rural students with Chinese primary school may not want to join our school to attend Transition Class. They would prefer to join the Catholic High School to continue their Chinese Education.

So soon it was not necessary to even have the Boys' Hostel which actually helped many Chinese and Iban students to attend secondary school in Sibu.

Furthermore, the government secondary schools were also springing up every where in Sarawak, offering free education to rural poor students.

By 1965, the boys' hostel moved to a new block and this old block was redesigned to be the Senior Class, including Sixth Form. The photo below shows the renovated Sixth Form block on the left.