Roll of Founding Teachers

• The Original Staff

The original staff to assist Headmaster E. La M. Stowell comprised the following:

1 Ng Cheong Wen
2 Tan Kok Kee
3 S.M. Rouse
4 Gan Hock Chye
5 Cheong Hong Oon
6 Kam Kee Hock
7 Chan Ewe Pin
8 Chin Yoon Ngean
9 Khor Kok Seng
10 Tan Kok Siang
11 Cheah Chong Chee
12 Miss A. Cornelius (a/k Mrs. P/A/ Aeria)

• Some Personalities of the HSBM Staff

Some of our very senior ALumni will find this nostalgic.... These are personalities who by example and precept, have in many ways influenced them in their careers.

Mr Ong Chin Huat was for years the Games Master of the school. He was all-round sportsman, of a very genial nature, painstaking and sound in judgement. He left his mark on the games of the school right up to the time of the Japanese Invasion when he died in the enemy prison.

Mr Philip Aeria will be best remembered as the boxing instructor. In the middle 1930s, he trained the likes of S.Plainiandy, A. Rahim and Mohana Krishnan who, upon leaving the school made their pugilistic fortunes in Singapore. Captured by the Japanese he survived the war but came out a briken man and though given light duties at HSBM he succumbed t his wartime incarceration.

Mr Oh Boon Tat will live long in the memory of High School old boys for his dedication to both classroom and outdoor duties. THere was not a single department to which he had not contributed useful ideas and given practical help - even the HSBM crest wsa designed by hi,. In class he taught only mathematics, but on the field he was concerned with all games, particularly cricket, rugger and atheletics. He was fastidious about the grounds and spared neither himself nor the kebuns and members of the Jacob's Green Society. He would spend hours coaching promising atheles and players and even more hours every week giving extra tuition to boys taking Higher Mathematics for the School Certificate Examinations.

Mr Chan Ewe Pin was a man of the world even when he joined the staff as a young man of 24 from the Anglo-Chinese School in Bukit Mertajam. Respected and looked up to as teachers generally were in those days, he miced with the upper and the lower classes of the society alike without demening himself. He was mainly instrumental in bringing back to the HSBM offers of scholarships, games trophies and help in various forms. His efforts brought philantorphic personalities like Soon Eng Kong, Heah Seng Whatt and M Sarvanamuttu, to the aid of the school. He capped his service to the Bukit Mertajam with a term as Town Councillor and there is a road in town beading his name.

Mr Kam Kee Hock was chosen from the very start to help Mr Stowell in scouting. The Headmaster, himself the Fistruct Scout Master, personnaly took charge of this activity as he strongly believed it was the best medium for charater building. Kam Kee Hock took a like long interest in scouting, eventually being appoinrted Asst District Commissioner for Province Welleslet. He was also successful as a gardening master and its reported the lettuces his gardeners produced for several seasons becam famous even outside the province. He later became the supervisor of Stowell School - the feeder primary school to HSBM. He was truly a dedicated teacher and a perfect gentleman.