FROM MY GRANDFATHER'S ALBUMS
Alex Glendinning
Coat of Arms Courtesy of Johor Bahru OnLine
Introduction
My grandfather, Fred Glendinning (1874 -1959), was a Civil Engineer from 1902 to 1929 with the British Colonial Office P.W.D. in various Malayan States, spending 1916 to 1929 as State Engineer of Johor. The road Jalan Gelendening is named after him - even though the spelling has changed since the 1930s!
I am now the custodian of his photographic albums, which contain many pictures of Johor between 1916 and 1929. After two trips to Johor Bahru many of them have been identified - others have not. The selection that appears below will change from time to time. Please e-mail me at glen@itl.net if you recognise any places, or wish to be notified when alterations are made.
Home Comforts
The Bungalow at Johor Bahru - just off what is now Jalan Bukit Meldrum
Map courtesy of Arkib Negara Malaysia - Johor Bahru
From Left: Power Station | H.H. Strirrup | C.S. Alexander | H. Norman | J. McReay | F. Glendinning
Panorama - west of Johore Bahru
The approach to the Istana Besir and the Gate House
Jalan Air Molek
Messages
December 9th 2001: From Joan Marsh (Moore)
I grew up in JB 1945-1970 before moving to other parts of Malaysia to live. Upon reading your website particularly in reference to JB, I rang my parents who live in Perth, Australia, to confirm a few details. My mother and her family moved to JB from Penang in 1927 when she was 7 yrs old. Regarding your landscape photos: The road is Jalan Air Molek. The first large white building in the second picture is Bukit Zarah School. The second building is an old Istana which was turned into a hospital after WWII.
Re. The map of the houses of Bukit Meldrum: My paternal grandfather, James Walter Moore, was allocated the first house by the education department. He was Headmaster of the JB Trade School. He lived there with his wife, Leonie Armand Martin and two daughters Molly and Maguerite Daphne. When I was a baby (1945), my parents stayed at that house temporarily until they found a house of their own. My mother remembers the long driveway leading up to the house. She recalls a small cemetery further into the property. The house in question was haunted. They would hear a horse and cart draw up at the porch but there would be nobody. The room off the sitting room was occupied by a family friend who often heard the word Josephine whispered into her ear at night. The light bulb in the sitting room would float down still glowing and land on the floor without breaking. My mother said I used to scream for no reason while they were living there.
My paternal grandfather and my maternal grandfather, Dr Edward Cheah Tiang Eam, knew and played golf with Sultan Ibrahim. Together with him, they were founder members of the Singapore Golf Club as well as the International Club in JB. I remember as a young child going with my grandmother to the International club to collect my grandfather after a game of golf with the Sultan and sitting with my grandparents and the Sultan for after golf drinks.
November 26th 2000: From Jonathan Silk
- I have just been having a look at your fascinating website on Johor Bahru and feel absolutely certain that our grandfather's would have known each other. My maternal grandfather's name was Robert Eves, head of the Public Works Department in Johore, and a friend and golfing partner of the Sultan, Ibrahim.
Robert Eves was a native of Scarborough, and came from several generations of fishermen from the town. He was born in 1880, served as an army officer, in a transport and mechanical unit, in the Salonika campaign in WW1, and returned to Johore at the war's end, initially as a marine engineer but was listed a few years later as heading the P.W.D.. He and my grandmother Christina (known there as Eve1901-1994) were in Singapore upon the arrival of the Prince of Wales and Repulse and she was put on the Empress of Japan troop and refugee ship, which I think left on 31st Jan 1942. The Commonwealth and War Graves Commission have a date of death for a civilian named R.Eves of 13th February 1942, and I have asked them recently to confirm this as my grandfather, ie. specific to Singapore.
I think you will agree that this ties in with your grandfather's story and I would love to have any more information you can provide. I regret I have no photos from the time, and only recently acquired a photo of my grandfather from the National Archives of Malaysia, as reproduced from a "Who's Who of Malaya" dated 1925.
From My Grandfather's Albums
Part 1: The Bombardment of Hartlepool 1914
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