A painting of Penang Free School

Like I mentioned yesterday, today, the 11th of May, marks the bicentenary of the St George's Church in Penang. Not only is this Anglican church already 200 years old, it stands as the oldest Anglican church in the Far East.

I couldn't make it to the church this morning for the launch of their commemorative First Day Cover by the Chief Minister of Penang, Chow Kong Yeow, as I had a prior engagement in Bayan Baru but I did rush down immediately from there once my engagement was over. In fact, I just made it into the compound as someone at their heritage centre said they would be closing in five minutes' time.

So I was a bit thankful for that tiny window to pick up my two sets of pre-ordered First Day Cover folders.

This was only the second time that I was purchasing a First Day Cover folder set. Three years ago on 21 Oct 2016, I had bought the First Day Cover folder set issued to mark Penang Free School's bicentenary celebrations.

Now what made me buy this St George's Church folder set was the painting that was reproduced on the folder's front and also on the RM5 Cinderella commemorative stamp. This was a watercolour painting by Charles Henry Cazalet of "The English Church, Penang" done in August 1856.

Do you know what's remarkable about this painting? When I was busy with writing Let the Aisles Proclaim in 2016, I had come across this picture on Page 390 of Marcus Langdon's book Penang the Fourth Presidency of India 1805-1830, Volume 2.

I had noticed that in the background stood a row of buildings on the painting's right. What could these buildings be? Were they part of the St George's Church, or were they something else?

As it turned out, these buildings did not belong to the church. But by virtue of they being located next to the church itself, on the same grounds which was known as Church Square, these buildings were neighbours to the church. Now, what could be neighbours to the St George's Church back in those days?

If this description still haven't rung a bell with the Old Frees yet, let me disclose now that these buildings in the background of this painting were part of the first permanent buildings of Prince of Wales' Island Free School!

The school buildings were constructed in 1821 while Cazalet's painting was done in 1856. I was intrigued. I couldn't believe it then. I remember having mulled over the painting for days but finally, I concluded that it must be Free School in the background.

I took a chance to say that much in my book: on Page 45, I had written a caption to the picture saying: "Details of the Free School buildings are clearly visible in this old water-colour painting. The buildings stood in stark contrast to its neighbour, the St George's Church and the Francis Light memorial."

Akin to modern-day sleuthing, perhaps, but I was very convinced then that I wasn't wrong.

As an afterthought, I must also mention this architect drawing from Mohamed Hafiz Hashim's little-known book, Penang Free School Bicentennial 1816-2016: An Architectural Heritage Perspective and Vision, which gave a fresh new viewpoint of the Free School buildings in the 19th Century. It is a superb book of architectural drawings of all three Penang Free School buildings in Church Square (1821-1896), Farquhar Street (1896-1927) and Green Lane (1928-present). This particular picture, like the other drawings in the book, is the copyright of Arkitek Urbanisma Sdn Bhd but it is worthy of reproducing here.