Chapter Five : SJ1in the War
The Renseika , or Advanced Training Course for Teachers , was conducted at the Bras Basah Boys ' School . The Shihan Gakko , or Normal School , was also conducted here from 16 November 1943 .
B rother Stephen went home to Ireland in June
1939and handed over the school tern porarily to
Brother Paul Gallagher . Brother Paul had first joined the Community at SJIas long ago as 1910 . He had had a very distinguished career , during which he had been in turn Director of St Xavier ' s , Penang , and of De La Salle College , Manila . For three years he had been in charge of all the Brothers ' Schools in the Far East , deputising for the Very Reverend James Byrne , OBE .
Brother Paul had an amazing fund of stories , which perhaps is hardly surprising , considering the long and varied career he had enjoyed , but what is Significant is that only a man of his calibre was considered suitable to take over at SJI , even briefly , from Brother Stephen in 1939 .
On 30August Brother Paul handed the school over to Brother [ oseph Brophy . On 3September the school re-opened . In Europe , on the same day at 11 am , Britain ' s ultimatum to Adolf Hitler expired . Germany continued her invasion of Poland and World War II had begun .
It took a long time for the impact of the conflict in Europe to be felt in Singapore . However , the Brothers , whose community comprised men of many different nationalities , were among the first to feel its effects . Nor was it for the first time . In 1914 , at the outset of World War I , their French brethren had been summoned to the defence of their coun try . Only one had returned . Now it was the turn of the German Brothers . Nine of them were interned as enemy aliens on St John ' s Island , but after representations had been made to the Governor , Sir Shenton Thomas , he eventually allowed them to go to the Philippines . There , from 1942until 1945 , they were obliged to share the premises of De La Salle College with a detachment of Japanese soldiers . And there , in the last days of the war , they were slain before the altar of the school Chapel by the bayonets of the Japanese who ran amok after an air raid . These men , the Martyrs of Manila , have a special memorial in the concourse of the new SJ !.
The year 1940 opened at SJI with several innovations . The first of these was the establishing of two Debating Clubs : the Senior for the Commercial , Senior Cambridge and Standard Vlll , and the Junior for the boys of the Standards V , VIand VII . The Director was pleased with the improvement in the boys ' English and with their acquisition of an easy , confident way of speaking . So began the debating tradition at SJI , a tradition which , from time to time , has added lustre to the reputation of the school . Another innovation was made possible by the Brothers ' moving from the main building into their newly cornpleted and more commodious quarters on the Queen Street side of the campus . The vacant upper floor of the northwestern wing of the main block was now convertd into a Science laboratory . Or Lineham , Director of Education , gave encouragement , along with the promise of financial help . No longer did the boys taking Science ha ve to go down the road to join the classes at Raffles Institution . In 1941a proper Science Course began at SJI , the participating teachers being Brother Kieran , Brother Ignatius and Mr Sng Yew Chong .
In the other wing , above the Primary Gasses , the Director created a new library . Mr Koh Cheng Yam , an Old Boyof the school , who worked for the firm of Swan & McLaren , supervised the work .
For years and years , during every recess , the boys had kicked up the dust in the courtyard and had brought in the red mud on their feet in wet weather . It even plastered the walls and the desks . This ended when the clay was excavated to a depth of a foot and the cavity was filled with laterite stones with a coating of tarmacadam on top . At the same time the Brothers became the sole tenants of the playing field , which they had had to share with St Andrews School for many years . St Andrew ' s moved to Woodsville , Serangoon , in 1940 , having occupied since 1900 the site on Starnford Road where today the National library stands .
Sf ! ill the War 33