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To honour the passing of the seventy five years in the life of an institution is very different from commemorating someone’s birthday particularly when it involves not only the historical evolution of a school but also the changing times of a young nation such as ours. Hardly anyone of our School’s living population of today will be able to truly comprehend the meaning of its past as we have yet to achieve a collective appreciation of how we have come to be what we both as individuals as well as citizens of a vibrant new society.

Looking back at the emergence of HSBM since 1927 from the current standpoint, one of the first things that strikes you is the simple fact that exactly thirty years after it was established we became an independent nation. Thus, in a sense, the greater part of our school’s hisroty has been very much our own responsibility and, yet, the question that begs to be asked is: Just how much has the old School changed during this relatively short span of time? One does not expect any simple answer to such an intriguing way of assessing our past seventy five years but it needs to be borne in mind that change is inevitable, for nothing is static in history. And yet, the older alumni amongst us quite often find it rather a challenge to have to concede that time and tide have indeed waited for no man and that our alma mater after seventy five years may indeed be much more hallowed institution today than it once was!

Our very name, despite repeated attempts to mangle it, has remained the same not to mention a number of other icons such as Jacob’s Green and the various houses, namely, Cheeseman, Colin King, Soon Eng Kong and Stowell. Other snippets of our days at the school might include the delicious fare in the quaint tuck shop at the corner of the playing filed, of the verdant and luscious produce of Mr Kam Kee Hock’s much loved vegetable garden between the Teacher’s Quarters and the H.M.’s house, or even the ubiquitous office, visits to which, for many, invariably ended with a sharp pain in the buttocks! It is these things, both living and inanimate, that collectively make up one’s memories of what it was to be a HSBM boy. They are, indeed, the tangible links with our historic beginnings and our colourful pre-Merdeka past but what of the less physical and readily visible ties that give each and every one of us as Old Boys a warm and comfortable feeling of pride and a sense of belonging?

It is here that we need to remember that people who helped make HSBM, our alma mater, what it has been for all these 75 years. In fact, we celebrated the Diamond Jubilee not just for the material things that made life in the old school such a joy to recall and be proud of, but even more for the rare privilege of having such an absolutely dedicated team of headmasters and teachers virtually from the day it all began. And the truly remarkable thing is that they were all, as individuals, quite extraordinary people both as purveyors of knowledge and as good decent people. Without our teachers (or “Masters” as we knew them) none of us would have triumphed as well as we did both in class and on the field for, from the beginning, the emphasis was on achieving the seemingly impossible for the pure glory of the School’s name. Thus, from out of nowhere on the plains of Province Wellesley, there suddenly arose from 1927 onwards a colossus in academic brilliance and sporting excellence.