Again, I say, NOT a mission school

I see an active discussion on Penang Free School's status in the Penang Walkabouts facebook group. People generally have a mixed idea about whether the Free School is a public school, a mission school or a private school. Through the years, I've had to throw my dua kupang several times into the ring to correct this misinformation and defend the truth. In the abovementioned facebook group, I had this to comment:

Hi, I am the author of "𝗟𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗶𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺" which was published in conjunction with Penang Free School's Bicentenary celebrations in 2016. "𝗟𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗶𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺" comprehensively documented the school's history from its pre-founding days till the Bicentenary itself, with about 30 months of research condensed into 350 pages of information. As the local authority on Penang Free School, I would want to put on record that although the proposal to establish Prince of Wales' Island Free School (its original name) was made to Governor William Petrie on 6th Jan 1816 by the Anglican Chaplain of the day, Revd Robert Sparke Hutchings, the School was never meant to be a private or mission school. Right from Day One, the School's Committee was made up entirely of leading men of commerce or military men on the island (Robert Ibbetson, Capt John Monckton Coombs, Capt John MacInnes, James Carnegy, David Brown and Richard Caunter), none of them representing the Clergy. At the school's first annual meeting on 22nd Oct 1817, Capt Coombs presented a report on behalf of the School Committee - comprising the six abovenamed gentlemen - that described the Free School as a "Public School." (Penang: The Fourth Presidency of India, 1805-1830, Volume 2, pp 232-38, Marcus Langdon). The School's Charter itself never once mentioned any connection to the Anglican Church.

Another matter which I want said is that the School's official name is "Penang Free School" and not "Sekolah Menengah Penang Free" or any other variation. At the Bicentenary dinner on 21st October 2016, the Raja of Perlis announced that the Ministry of Education had approved an application to change the name back to Penang Free School, given its special status as the oldest English school in the country. (It is, in fact, the oldest English school in South-east Asia. Penang Free School also happens to be older that Singapore's founding by Stamford Raffles in 1819, a fact of great pride that should never be lost on Malaysians, or Singaporeans for that matter.)