158 266
ARTS&LEISURE
158
February15
The Singapore Mutiny
By Verne Maree
A
century after the start of The Great War (1914-18), the
world has been paying tribute to the lives lost in that era
of carnage. Singapore itself seemed little touched by
World War 1 – that is, until the Singapore Mutiny on Chinese
New Year’s Day, 1915, when 850 Indian soldiers rose up and
killed 47 British soldiers and local civilians.
They also set free a large number of GermanWW1 internees
in Tanglin Barracks, enabling a band of German sailors,
among themCaptain Julius Lauterbach of SS Emden notoriety,
to escape the island.
This month, exactly 100 years after these events took
place, sees the publication of Edwin A. Brown OBE’s first-
hand account of the mutiny, at which time he was an officer
in the Volunteers. The original handwritten diary has been
stored at the Imperial War Museum in London since it almost
miraculously turned up in a Singapore bookstore; that was
several years after the end of the WW2 Japanese occupation,
during which its author was interned in Changi Prison.
Edwin A. Brown spent more than 40 years of his life in
Singapore, from 1900 until the Japanese surrender. He,
his wife Mary and their three children lived in the beautiful
bungalow he built for them in Rochalie Drive in Tanglin; it
was called Burnsall, after the village where Edwin and Mary
spent their honeymoon. Edwin was a person of note in the
community, and there’s a plaque in his name in St Andrew’s
Cathedral.
Anyone with a historical bone in their body will find
interest in this book, even apart from its strategic and
political insights into an important military event. Providing
a fascinating glimpse into the daily life of early 20th-century
residents, it’s also a startling reminder of British imperialist
attitudes from a time long past. By special permission of
the publishers, Monsoon, here are some extracts from
Singapore Mutiny: A colonial couple’s stirring account of
combat and survival in the 1915 Singapore Mutiny
by Edwin
A. Brown and Mary Brown.
100 Years on: