Two men, two quadrangles

The Penang Free School Foundation is holding a committee meeting at the school today. I'm not in the committee, so I won't be attending the meeting. I'm just an ordinary member for one year, until the next annual general meeting which should be in a few months' time.

But as an ordinary member still in benefit, I can bring up some proposals for the committee to consider and I have done so. The Headmaster assured me that in the absence of the now defunct Board of Governors, which the school still hopes to resurrect, the decisions affecting the school can be raised and decided at the Foundation meeting.

And so, I have put forth three proposals to the Headmaster.

Pinhorn Hall?  Capt Mohamed Noor Quadrangle?
Quah Seng Chye Quadrangle? To be seen...

The first is the affirming of the name of the School Hall. It's lost in the mists of time and ignored by the last chairman of the Board of Governors when I told him about it before or after the Bicentenary celebrations, but according to the Minutes of the Board of Governors meeting on 19th Sept 1969 - yes, that long ago - it was a unanimous decision to call it the Pinhorn Hall. The motion had been proposed by the then chairman, Sir Husein Abdoolcader and seconded by Capt Mohamed Noor. Therefore, I am hoping that the PFS Foundation will revive the name of Pinhorn Hall to remember the person who was possibly the greatest Headmaster that Penang Free School had ever had.

My second and third proposals are to name the eastern quadrangle in the school, the one with frangipani trees, as the Capt Mohamed Noor Quadrangle and the western quadrangle, the one with the gymnastic bars, as the Quah Seng Chye Quadrangle. In my opinion, these were two great men who were Old Boys of the school and who then went on to become teachers in the institution they grew up in. (Quah Seng Chye was in Hargreaves House while Capt Mohamed Noor was schooling at a time when the House system had not been introduced yet.)

Capt Mohamed Noor went on to become the chairman of the Board of Governors long after his retirement from government service. In 2012, I had written about Capt Mohamed Noor in the OFA coffee table book, FIDELIS. As for Quah Seng Chye, I had paid tribute to him in my blog writings. Memories of him had also been shared in The Old Frees Association facebook page by many others.

I hope to receive some encouraging news later today....