Bicentenary of St George's Church Penang

Tomorrow is the 11th of May, 2019. That is the day that the St George's Church in Penang (or to use their official name, The Church of St George the Martyr) will celebrate their Bicentenary. Wow, this Anglican church will be 200 years old tomorrow, three years after Penang Free School celebrated hers.

But then, the St George's Church and Penang Free School shared a common heritage. Both institutions were connected to Robert Sparke Hutchings, the Chaplain of the Prince of Wales' Island settlement. Hutchings founded the School and it was under his watch that the East India Company commissioned the Church. For many years, from 1821 till 1927, the School and the Church were neighbours along Farquhar Street.

Anyhow, this is a milestone celebration not only for the Church but for Penang too. Apart from the Church service in the afternoon, there'll be a dinner for the church members and ordained ministers to celebrate the occasion. But in the morning, the Chief Minister is expected to launch their first day cover and stamps.

In 2012 when I was doing some research for a project, I had written up a short history of the St George's Church. Here is an extract:

THE Church of St George The Martyr, completed in 1818, is the oldest Anglican church in Southeast Asia. A memorial to Francis Light stands in its grounds. The church was first restored after being badly damaged during the Second World War. It was restored again in 2011 after being designated a National Heritage in 2007.

The seeds of Anglicanism in Malaysia were sown in 1786 after Captain Francis Light established the island of Penang as a trading post for the East India Company.

Soon attracted to this new settlement were traders, merchants, adventurers and immigrant people from both the East and the West, who introduced to this melting pot their own cultures, traditions and of course, religion. The early European settlers that arrived with Light – or soon afterwards – brought with them the beginnings of the Anglican church. The religion was a practice on the long sea voyages from England, and it continued to be practiced when they came ashore. In fact, Anglicanism was established here on the island for some years before a church building was even conceived.

The first Anglican church service on the island was recorded officially in 1800. In that year, Sir George Leith who was the Lieutenant-Governor of the settlement had appointed a magistrate judge, George Caunter, as the first official lay chaplain – this position being the equivalent of a licensed lay reader today – with duties to baptise, marry and conduct services to bury the Christian faithful. Four years later, the Reverend Atwill Lake became the first full-time chaplain with Thomas Cullum as his clerk and schoolmaster.

Also in 1800, Leith had submitted plans to the East India Company in Madras to build an Anglican church. The approval only arrived in 1816 and another year had to pass before the foundation stone for the Church of St George The Martyr was laid on the present land, formerly known as Company’s Square, during the term of William Edward Phillips who was the settlement’s acting Governor. The building was completed in 1818 under the administration of Phillips’ successor, Governor John Alexander Bannerman. It had cost the East India Company 60,000 Spanish Dollars to build the church entirely with convict labour.

Following its completion, the first service at the new building was held on Christmas Day of 1818. Before then, services were conducted mainly at the Fort Cornwallis or the Court House, and sometimes at the residence of the Governor. On 11 May 1819, the Church of St George The Martyr was consecrated by the visiting Bishop of Calcutta, The Right Reverend Thomas Fanshaw Middleton.

There are many stories surrounding the Church but a particular one is rather extraordinary. Do you know that there was an interment in the Church? It was the only one in its long history, and remarkably there was a whiff of drama behind it.

Beneath a black marble slab in the chancel are the remains of Harriet, wife of Robert Fullerton who was then the Governor of the Straits Settlements. His wife died in 1830, just 48 years old. It was said that during her lifetime, she was never kind to her household slaves. They hated her so bitterly that when she died, they declared that they would curse her grave so that she would never rest in peace. This threat thoroughly scared Fullerton. Nevertheless as the Governor, he had to bury her in full public view. He arranged a burial for his wife at the old Northam Road Protestant Cemetery, attended by the prominent residents in the settlement. But much later, it emerged that it was only a mock ceremony and there was nothing in the coffin but earth.

What actually transpired was that under the cloak of darkness that same night, the church doors were opened to allow for a secret burial service, witnessed only by Fullerton. A coffin with Harriet’s body was lowered into a hole dug in the chancel floor. A thoroughly shaken Fullerton remained in Penang for several more months, after which he went back to England and died in 1831.

I was one of the lucky few to have seen this slab because normally it is hidden by a carpet away from the public view. But in 2011 when the Church was undergoing renovation, I happened to visit it just as workmen were rolling up the carpet and I got the opportunity to take a quick photograph of it. Talk about being in the right place at the right time! The black marble slab in the chancel floor reads: ”Beneath this stone are deposited the remains of Harriet, Wife of the Hon’ble Robert Fullerton, Esq., Governor of this Settlement, who departed this life, on the 30th June, 1830. Aged 48 years”.