The Captain General's Baton
I have a strong British legacy. And it is not by accident; by default if you will. I was born in 1944 in British Malaya and sadly about the time of the declining of British world dominance and many former British colonies were politically matured to seek Independence, including Malaya. The sunsetting of the British Empire had brought about strong nationalism in all of us. I was born into an English speaking family. English was our family's mother tongue largely used at home. This was so because of my father’s deep affiliation with British expats in the Malayan rubber plantations. He was a member of the once banned Freemason Lodge and had many British brothers. Hence my “uncles”.
I went to a government English medium school and finished my secondary school studies at O levels with the Senior Cambridge School Certificate. I read all the Enid Blyton’s books, Famous Fives; warts and all. We all had English names to boot. My father’s name was Pinsky. I am Allen. I had James, David,John,William and Edward for brothers.
I was very active and adventurous growing up in my young days. I had lived by the sea in Kuantan, Pahang. We had an English scout master Captain Preedy, who led the Kuantan Sea Scout group. I would have joined the sea scout group but thought otherwise. Captain Preedy was exceptionally fond of young boys. I was not “Jambu" enough for Captain Preedy so I joined the land group. But I was fond of the sea and aspired to join the navy to see the world. The RMN was then recruiting young Malaysians and the four years naval cadet training was at Dartmourt UK.
I joined Malaysian Navy as a naval cadet in 1963 to satisfy my dream to see the world but survived only a couple of months pre-naval training at the FMC. I did not qualify to be a Sea Horse due to poor eyesight and thence transferred Service to serve with the army. After cadet training I was commissioned into the Artillery Corps to which I had served the full length of my career.
It was during this period as a young officer in the artillery that I was infused with the full impact with British Legacy. What; with British seniors officers in the regiment, attending my YO course in Larkhill and getting a post course attachment to 2 Field Regiment RA. I was deeply entrenched into the British army culture and in particular RA culture. I can hold and survive in any English pub or bar in the officers' mess. That being my strongest British Legacy. And of course all my subsequent Artillery courses were at the School of Artillery Manly, Australia giving me more Britishness, albeit dunkum aussie.
Sometime in 1970s, I was privileged to fire the 84 rounds Gun Salute in Port Klang to welcome the Captain General Queen Elizabeth 2 and her entourage’s visit to Malaysia. The Queen sailed in to Port Klang aboard HMS Brittanica escorted by a RN frigate. The first 21 Gun Salute was fired by the escorting frigate to announce the Captain General’s arrival. We acknowledged and replied with our first 21 Gun Salute. As the Captain General first stepped onto Tanah Melayu we fired another 21 rounds to honour the visit to which the escorting frigate replied with their 21 rounds Gun Salute. The 84 rounds Gun Salute was one of the rarest British Legacy.
I am very grateful for my defaulted British Legacy for what I was and what I am today. I had spent 53 years of my life as a Gunner. The Malaysian Artillery Corps is as old as Malaysia when 1 Field Battery was established in Kajang. We are 58 years old against the Royal Artillery’s 300 years Old. We are proud of being part of the British RA Legacy. We were well brought up and raised professionally.
We now have to put on our thinking caps to organise the Captain General’s Baton tour to Malaysia in 2016.
Once a Gunner always a Gunner
Allen Lai
Allen thank you for sharing the story of your life.Enjoyed reading it as I too had similar experience with the British gunners.Some of them had shown admirable qualities.Lt Col David Price who was our CO at 1 Arty when I joined the Regt in 1967, I still remember how strict he was with punctuality, orderliness, discipline and doing your work properly.Our CO then often time would be seen walking around the camp, the Gun Park, MT Lines, QM Stores in most mornings (the Regt did not work in the afternoon then).He would drop by and chat with us at the Gun Park, saying hello and the same time asking questions on the Guns and Gunnery.And yes we were always prepared not to be caught by him on our convoy trips to Asahan.Not wearing beret, sleeping in the vehicles, leaving our vehicles unattended will surely receive a long lecture if not punishment from him.He had a way of catching the culprits one of which to was to ambush us by some roadsides and constant moving up and down the entire regimental convoy in his Z1.Lt Col David Price aknowledged our capabilty when he said, " 1 Arty was as good as any RA Regt." With Best Regards.Wahid Anwar.
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