A 64-year-old puzzle

Did I say "a day well spent in Kuala Lumpur" yesterday? I most certainly did. Right after the conclusion of the Dr Wu Lien-Teh award ceremony at the University Malaya, my fellow travellers from Penang - Anwar Fazal and Hor Chee Peng - together with Ronald Quay who's from Kuala Lumpur, made our way to the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club (KLGCC) to meet up with someone I had gotten to know about nine days earlier and whom the others in my group didn't know anything about him at all!

Almost 12 years ago when I got into The Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society as a committee member, I saw two pictures on Wu Lien-Teh's funeral in January 1960. The first was of the hearse leaving his residence in Chor Sin Kheng Road. The vehicle was flanked on both sides by a group of Scouts from Penang Free School. Short of it being a State funeral, representatives of the PFS Scouts, Cadets, School Prefects, teachers and the Headmaster, the two Boards of Governors and Trustees had turned up in force to give the Grand Old Free a memorable final send-off. It was quite unprecedented and possibly, only Dr Lim Chong Eu's state funeral in 2010 could surpass the spectacle as the latter also had the PFS School Band turning up to lead the funeral procession.

The second picture from the funeral was supposed to show the grieving family members walking behind the hearse. This could well be the best angle for the photographer but alas, the mourners couldn't be seen clearly because just as the camera's shutter was pressed, one of the PFS Boy Scouts had moved into the frame in tandem with the hearse and almost entirely blocked off the grieving party. I can only imagine the photographer grinding his teeth and cursing his luck when he subsequently discovered that this was the best of his efforts! Despite this mishap, I suppose getting this picture of the partially blocked Wu family was still better than having no picture taken at all. But I'm surprised that no other picture of Wu Lien-Teh's funeral had surfaced publicly anywhere else. Surely the photographer had developed more than two pictures?

In the 12 years since knowing of the existence of these two pictures, I am even more surprised that everyone had simply accepted these pictures at their face value. Nobody I knew was curious enough to ask who was this PFS Scout in the picture! I must admit that it never crossed my mind either. Not until last month anyway. After I had met with a group of visitors from China, it struck me that, hey, who was this Boy Scout? On first May, I decided to pose this question in The Old Frees' Association's facebook page. I asked if anyone knew or recognised this young Scout from 64 years ago. This Scout looked like 16 years old in 1960. It was a long shot, of course, because the youngster could now be around 80 years old in 2024.

The results weren't immediate. It took six days before I received a positive reply from a lead. And in the natural course of my inquisitiveness, I was soon chatting through Whatsapp with John Wong Peng Chong. He hadn't seen this picture before but yes, he confirmed that the Boy Scout was him. And he was exactly 80 years old. He said Wu Lien-Teh was still a big name when he was at Penang Free School, and he considered it a big honour to have been one of the Scouts representing the School at the funeral. He recalled that from Chor Sin Kheng Road, the cortege turned right at the junction with Ayer Itam Road. Curious onlookers lined the route until the procession dispersed. But because this funeral was 64 years ago, John's memory of the rest of the occasion was hazy.  

As coincidence would have it, I had agreed back in February to join some of my fellow committee members from The Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society at an award ceremony in Kuala Lumpur last Wednesday. The timing was just perfect. I quickly informed the Secretary-General and the President of my efforts to track down the PFS Boy Scout, and he had been located in Kuala Lumpur. Would they like to meet him? Everyone said yes. Would John Wong be agreeable to meet us? He said yes too. So we decided to meet at the KLGCC where almost two hours passed by only too quickly for John, Anwar Fazal, myself, Ronald and Peng. As we headed home from Kuala Lumpur later, the one thought that went through my mind was that, yes, this was another piece of the Wu Lien-Teh jigsaw puzzle found. Finally, we had resolved the identity of the Penang Free School Boy Scout at the funeral of Dr Wu Lien-Teh on 25 January 1960. Definitely, a day well spent in Kuala Lumpur!