The Light-Hutchings connection

Since 1948, the Prefects of Penang Free School have attended an annual commemorative service at the grave of Robert Sparke Hutchings in the old Protestant Cemetery along Northam Road. The tradition was started by Dennis Roper, who was the headmaster of the school at the time, and it continues to this day.

Normally, once the service is over, that's about all the formal activity at the cemetery. There would be the usual photography sessions, with the schoolboys and prefects getting to know some of their Old Frees seniors, before everyone headed back to the school for Speech Day. But this year, things were a little different. There was time to spare because Speech Day had already been held on the first of October. There was no rush.

After the service, I brought the boys and the Old Frees along to see the grave of Francis Light, which was only a stone's throw away from Hutchings' resting place. From their reactions, I could tell that almost everyone had never seen Light's grave before, not even known that he was buried there. Well, there's a first time for everything, I suppose!

Will I show the grave to next year's batch of Prefects as well? That will depend on whether I can drag myself out of my warm bed early enough next October. Let's see how things go.

Anyway, while we were there, I posed a question to the boys and the Old Frees. What is the one surprising fact that connects Francis Light and Robert Sparke Hutchings, even though the two men never met each other? Light died in 1794, while Hutchings arrived in Penang in 1814, a gap of 20 years. What connects them?