I READ with nostalgic sadness the news that Father Paul Ho, Brother Director of St Xavier’s Institution in Penang, had just retired, bringing to an end the 157-year presence of the La Salle Brothers in Malaysia.

They have built and run 59 secondary and primary schools in Malaysia in those long years, and brought quality education to something like two million Malaysian students!

The La Salle Brotherhood was established by St John Batiste De La Salle of the Roman Catholic Church about 300 years ago, specifically devoted to the education of the poor, at a time when education was the privilege of the rich only.

I am a proud old boy of the St Joseph’s Secondary School in Kuching.

There, I learned to appreciate the beauty of the English language, and learned about discipline, community spirit, and participation in sports and games. Above all, I learned about life. During my tenure there from Form One to Form Six in the 1960s, I went through four principals, Brother Henry, Brother Hilary, Brother Albinus, and Brother Columba.

The late Brother Hilary McGroary has written and published a book A History of St Joseph’s School Kuching 1882–1994. I had tried to buy a copy from Amazon.com and discovered to my disappointment that it has since been out of print.

Some historical titbits are still interesting today.

SJS Kuching is the second oldest school in Kuching. It was founded by Father Aloysius Goossens, a 28-year-old Mill Hill missionary of the Raman Catholic Church in Kuching. It started out in April 1882 as a wooden shack measuring 60 feet by 20 feet, with the first intake of 20 students.

In March 1883, Father Anthony Heidegger took over as principal, a post he held for a remarkable period of 48 years.

In 1887, the enrolment increased to 40 students from all corners of North Borneo, Kalimantan, and even Singapore. The curriculum included the three Rs, as well as vocational training (carpentry, shoe repairing and tailoring) and gardening.

In December 1894, a new three-storey brick building, designed by Father Anthony Heidegger and built under his supervision, was declared open by Rajah Charles Brooke. The Sarawak Gazette of 1895 declared it as the ‘biggest building in Sarawak at that time’. It is now called the Mill Hill Block, I think.

Old Josephians would know this building intimately. It still stands today, facing the main Rock Road, and serves as the face of SJS to the outside world for the past century until the present day. The entire school has been expanded around and beyond this Mill Hill Block.

During my time, this block served as the command centre of the entire school, with the dreaded principal’s office just right to the main door, Further in, you would find the clerks’ and the teachers’ offices. The school clinic was tucked at one obscure corner. The upper floors were used as the living quarters for the Brothers and the borders.

The existing two new wings flanking the main block were built only in 1927. I spent many hours of learning in the various classrooms in the 1960s there.

The first SJS Annual School Athlete Meet was first organised in October 1910. When in 1926 the inter-school athletic meet was held for the first time, the team from SJS emerged as champion, naturally.

That began the dynastic rule of the SJS on the sports field right up to the time when I participated in team and individual ports and athletics. During the inter-school athletic meet in my last year with SJS, we emerged champion overall (for both boys and girls), and we did not have a single girl athlete!

We swept the A, B, and C divisions, making our arch rival St. Thomas’ very frustrated. I looked at the championship cup, and discovered that we had been overall champion for the previous 27 consecutive years!

When Brother Albinus was our principal, he never tired of reminding us during morning assembly in the William Tan School Hall that our daily life consisted of three stages: lessons in the morning till noon, study and reading in the library in the afternoon, and games and sports on the field in the evening. Nobody took any private tuition then. Tuition given by teachers were extra classes offered free of charge!

The website Josephians’ Corner had these two entries:

1933 January

Polycarp Sim, a former student, joined the staff and went on to serve the school for 37 years.

1935

Mr Poh Chin Hang, another former student, joined the staff and served for the next 35 years

These two gentlemen have become legends in the collective memory of older Josephians. There were a force of nature unto themselves. They were strict, dedicated, but above all, they could pass the weakest students. No student, no matter how naughty, would ever dream of crossing their path the wrong way.

Mr Poh was known for his teaching of maths, though I was taught by another legend, Mr Sim Huai King.

During the time of the Japanese Occupation between 1942 and 1945, the Mill Hill Fathers were all interned at the Batu Lintang Concentration Camp, with all other ex-pats serving in Sarawak at that time. They must have suffered a great deal, but they never talked about it.

During that time, the buildings of St Joseph’s school were taken over by the Japanese soldiers as their living quarters, and all the documents and records of the school were destroyed by the barbaric invaders.

When the Japanese left, St Joseph’s was the first school in Kuching to be reopened, and the Mill Hill fathers were in business again.

The La Salle era for St Joseph’s began when the Mill Hill Fathers decided to hand over the running of the school to the Brothers. Five La Salle Brothers, led by Brother Patrick O’Donovan, who became the school new principal, arrived to take over the administration of the school in January 1950.

The student population had increased to 714.The first class of students sat for the Cambridge School Certificate Examination for the first time. That was also the Exam I sat for, and our test papers were actually sent back to the UK to be marked there! The academic standard set for the exam was very high, unlike our SPM today.

The first Form Six class was started in 1953.They were later streamed into the Form Six Science and Form Six Arts, and they sat for the Cambridge School Higher Certificate. Again, their academic standard was very high. Many graduates went overseas on all kinds of scholarship, and returned to become Sarawak’s leading lights in business, the professions, and politics.

In 1960, Brother Henry retired as school principle, to be replaced by Brother Hilary with the beautiful singing voice to lead in the hymn singing every morning during general assembly.

Brother Henry continued to teach in St. Joseph’s, mainly English and English literature. He could recite long passages from Shakespeare from memory alone, banging on his protruded forehead in his effort to recollect the odd lines. He was affectionately nicknamed ‘cartoon’ because of his short stature. He was dearly loved and revered by all his students. I can still remember his Irish accent. He pronounced “cop” for “cup”.

It was due to the influence of Brother Henry, Brother Mark, and Brother Albinus that I developed my love for English literature and manic reading. Many decades later, I would read aloud to Brother Albinus and Brother Adrian the poem by W B Yeats entitled ‘The Lake Isle of Innsfree’ after dinner, and they joined in the recitation in unison from memory. That is one of the most cherished memories of my life.

W B Yeats was one of the greatest Irish poets, and all these La Salle Brothers in SJS were all fiercely Irish Irishmen.

Because of their emphasis on creative writing, the school magazine Ad Astra (meaning ‘to the stars’) was first published in August 1961. Many editors and contributors to that magazine have since become distinguished lawyers, professionals, and writers in the decades the follow. I remember this literary giant by the name of Chang Keng Lee, who I heard has since become a lawyer in Hong Kong.

To be continued…

(The writer can be reached at bapakmiki@yahoo.com)