The 255 and 257 Bukit Timah Road enclave comprises “Four shop houses and eight barrack houses” as they were called on their 1928 site plan. It is not clear who commissioned or constructed them but they were owned by David Wee Cheng Soon in the 1930s.
I became interested in this enclave in 2012 after my mum Julia Lim Ah Bee pointed to No. 257B as the home where her father Francis Tan Khoon Boo collapsed and died suddenly of a heart attack in December 1939. She once expressed how she missed her “little cottage with a little garden” and lamented how she disliked living in her 15th level apartment at Laguna Park with “Nothing to see. No people. Only air!”
David housed his daughters and other relatives in the enclave from around 1930 till 1954. On Mum’s left at No. 257/257A were David’s daughters – Theresa and Mary Wee, their elder sister Elizabeth, her husband Dr Peter Chia Teck Yam and their children. Two doors away on her right at 257D were David’s adopted daughter Regina Lau, her husband Joseph Tay and their children Peter, Katherine, Lilian, Sebastian, and Martin. David’s widowed sister-in-law Mathilda Thou, wife of Joannes Wee Cheng Koon, lived with the Tays. After her marriage in 1949, Mary Wee moved into No. 257E with her husband James Bey and three children.
The other houses in the enclave were tenanted. While I have yet to trace the tenants of the early 1930s, I have managed to reconstruct the little community in the enclave for the period 1938 to 1956 with help from my cousin Lilian Tay (No. 257D), Bishop Theodore R Doraisamy’s children Preima, Padhma and Rabi Doraisamy who was born at No. 255E in 1952 and lived there till 1954; Jesu Pakianathan (No. 257C) and his wife Margarita. Alvin Dana, the son of Eric Dana who was born at No. 25 Makepeace Road and lived at No. 255 and No. 255B Bukit Timah Road also contributed his father’s memories.
My discoveries as well as the stories in Bishop Theodore R Doraisamy’s book “My Cup Runneth Over: An Autobiography”, suggest that the 255/257 enclave community was formed by a network of old church / school and family friends. Alvin shared that his grandfather Robert Rajasundram Dana was a friend of David Wee Cheng Soon and rented all their homes from him, including holiday homes at Pasir Panjang Road. The Danas lived at No. 18 and 25 Makepeace Road in the early 1930s, moving into 255 Bukit Timah Road in 1942 after No. 25 Makepeace Road was bombed.
The community was staunchly Christian, musical and multi-cultural in nature, not unlike David’s Makepeace Road community of 29 houses built in 1926.
‘Christian’ as Bishop Doraisamy was already a Methodist pastor when he moved into 255E long before his promotion to Methodist Bishop in 1974-76. ‘Christian’ because Kwee Thiam Sioe living next door to him at 255D was also working with the Methodist mission while Walter S Pakianathan at 257C opposite, taught at ACS at Coleman Street. After the war, Mrs Goh Soon Ho (Mdm Kang Siok Lu) who was educated at MGS Malacca and the Evelyn Seminary (Mt Sophia), moved into 255A. She was later appointed Principal of Fairfield Methodist School (afternoon) and Education Secretary of the Methodist Church.
The enclave was “musical” too. Bishop Doraisamy wrote songs in collaboration with up-coming Singapore composers like Matthew Leong. The illustrious musician Goh Soon Tioe also once lived in the enclave. Mum mentioned it to me years ago and his daughter Vivian Goh has confirmed that her father lived a short while at 255A in 1947 before moving to his own home in Balmoral Crescent. His elder brother Mr Goh Soon Ho had fallen victim to the Japanese during the war.
During the Japanese Occupation, all four gentlemen – Mr Dana, Bishop Doraisamy, Mr Kwee and Mr Pakianathan stayed put in Singapore living in the enclave, although Bishop Doraisamy and Mr Kwee “squatted” on occasions at Methodist missionary quarters at 57 Wilkie Road, 10 Mt Sophia Road and Oxley Rise, whenever duty called. Mrs Doraisamy and Mrs Pakianathan and their children had been despatched to India for safety but Bishop Doraisamy chose to stay even when offered the option of evacuation with American missionaries after the Methodist Annual Conference in1942. The four men served as jikedan (self-protection corps members), survived the war and they hurried to the Padang in 1945, to applaud the returning British when the Japanese surrendered.
During the war years, the Chia family at 257/257A took refuge in Bombay from 1942 till January 1946. While they were away, the Tays from 257D moved into 257/257A, keeping it safe till the Chias arrived home. Lilian Tay, then two, recalls her terror when two Japanese soldiers entered the house one day, pointed a bayonet at her mother’s stomach as if to verify that she was pregnant. She was then carrying her youngest son Martin so they left quietly, to everyone’s relief.
On the demise of David Wee Cheng Soon in 1944, the houses in the enclave were inherited by two of his daughters. No. 257-257E were inherited by Elizabeth Wee and No. 255-255E by Cecelia Wee. Elizabeth sold her houses around 1954. Cecilia’s son Bernard Low sold hers, on his siblings’ behalf, in 1976.
The enclave stands today. No. 255/257A houses Good Shepherd’s Loft while No. 255B and C house elderly assisted living centres. A child care centre is housed in No. 257B.
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Families at No. 255 and No. 257
255E (1938-54)
(Bishop) Theodore R. Doraisamy, his wife and four children Preima, Padhma, Heima and Rabi;
255D
Kwee Thiam Siew, his wife and children Edmund, Maisie and Maureen who was my classmate at the University of Singapore;
255C
Goh Kee Lye, his wife and children Robert, Rosaline (on swing in photo) and Johnson;
255B (1945-74)
Dana family moved here from 255 after the war;
255A
Mrs Goh Soon Ho (Madam Kang Siok Lu) and children Irene, Albert, Evelyn and Malcolm. Mr Goh was a victim of the Japanese Occupation. Her brother-in-law, musician Goh Soon Tioe lived there a short whole in 1947.
255 (1942-)
Robert Rajasundram Dana, his wife and children Walter, Victor, Lionel, Eric and Joy.
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257E (1930-49)
Tenanted to bachelors like Tan Kah Jin and JT Christie the brother of Mrs Doraisamy;
257E (1949-54)
Mary Wee, her husband James Bey and children – Jacqueline, Benjamin and Valentine;
257D (1940-54)
Mathilda Thou; Joseph Tay, his wife Regina Lau and their children Peter, Katherine, Sebastian, Lilian and Martin;
257C (1938-56)
William Samuel Pakianathan who taught at the Anglo-Chinese School at Coleman Street. Interestingly, his son Jesu married Margarita d/o SM and Mary Mathalaimony who was instrumental in converting the Velu family next door to Catholicism. The Mathalaimony family lived on the grounds of Our Lady of Lourdes Church as Mr Mathalaimony was working there as a Catechist.
257B (1930-39)
Francis Tan Khoon Boo, his wife Agnes and children Julia and Martin;
(1939-) Peter Velu, his wife and family including daughter Vasugi;
257/257A
(1930-42) Dr Peter Chia, his wife Elizabeth and their children; and Elizabeth’s younger two sisters Theresa and Mary lived there except during 1942-early 45 when they were in Bombay. While they were away, Regina Lau and family looked after it.
Tans of Makepeace Road : Family Stories Singapore from 1800's 