Gabriel Oon Chong Jin Autobiography, Genealogy (father and mother), childhood. career , World War II refugee child & running away from Japanese invaders, school days, under the Malayan Emergency, early days of badminton, scholar in Cambridge, University badminton, Catholic Faith and Order of Malta

 

Genealogy

 

Where did I come from? Who were my ancestors? How and what did I do in this life?

 

I start with a background of my father and mother's family; then to myself and early childhood as a war refugee, escaping from the Japanese invasion of Singapore (1942-45). After the war, we returned to a devastated country where my father started building up his career in mining engineering. He would travel alone in his car as the engineer for tin mines, some of which were deep in the jungles of Perak, Selangor and Negri Sembilan in Malaya. These were in areas deeply occupied by the Communist guerrillas where he recounted his encounters with them in these areas. During these early years, we lived in the period of the Malayan Emergency (1946-65) when the British fought against the communist party in Malaya. My father was an enthusiast in badminton, and got us interested in playing the sport. He was also keen that all his sons took up medicine.

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My father’s family

 

My father, Oon Khye Beng, was born in Penang, Malaya and our paternal ancestral village is Chi'a T siao ("stone bridge" in Hokkien) located in Amoy, China, where some 50 generations of Oons have lived. I have not been there, but my parents, and elder brother Chong Teik have. My Mum tells us that our wedding photo is posted in the village hall.

 

His father (my grandfather), was a businessman who emigrated to Penang, and my father was born there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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He retired in 1960 to live in Cambridge first and then down at 6, Deep Dale at Wimbledon Common in London. In gratitude to Downing College, Cambridge University, for accepting him as a scholar, and his three sons, Chong Teik (1957), myself (1958), and Chong Hau (1967), my father donated an unspecific amount to fund Research in Medicine. Up to today, at least 80 PhD students and academic’s research in medicine are funded from this fund annually. This fund is called the Chi'a Tsiao Fund.
 

In 1992, in honour of my father as a benefactor, Downing College invited us to set up another memorial fund. This was named after the Oon family and is called the Oon International Prize for Preventive Medicine. This is awarded to any outstanding clinical scientist from anywhere in the world, whose basic research would lead to a prevention of a human disease. This award is presented biennially in Downing College and is the only Prize in Medicine awarded by the University. To date, only 9 awards have been made under the Oon Khye Beng Chi’a Tsiao Fund for Medical Research.

 

My father, excelled in sports at the Penang Free School. As a young man, he was an all-round sportsman, excelling in cricket and one of his feats was swimming across the Straits of Penang to a neighbouring island. He was a Queen Scholar of the Federal Malay States and The Penang Free School was then one of the top three academic schools in the Malayan Peninsula. In 1925, he was second in the country for the Mathematics examination. When the winner was unable to accept the prize, my father was awarded the prestigious Queen scholarship to the prestigious University of Cambridge, where he studied electrical and mechanical engineering.

 

Only two Queen scholars from the Federal Malay States were sent to UK to study. One went to Cambridge for Science and the other to Oxford for Classics. His contemporary at Oxford, Ambrose related this to us at his wake in Singapore in 1992.

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He had four living brothers, a second brother , Khye Hong (“ Zee Pek”) a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Engineering, the third brother Khye Seh ( “Sar Pek”), a businessman in Penang, and a younger brother, Khye Kiang (“Lak Chik”), who graduated from St. John's College, Cambridge in Economics and became Singapore’s first Secretary of Treasury in the Lim Yew Hock government. He had two sisters, Chiew Eam (“Luck Cheem”), who suffered from diabetes, and a younger sister Chiew Seng (“Koo Chay”), who became the doyen of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and the first female gynaecologist in Singapore in 1956.

 

She returned from a scholarship in UK, to take up the position of Registrar at the Kandang Kerbau Hospital. Koo Chay played such an important role in the field of Obstetrics and Gynaecology that she received many distinction awards .e.g. Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Singapore Medical Association and the Academy of Medicine.

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Koo Chay remained close to us, when war broke out in 1940 all of us, my mum, Chong Teik, Koo Chay and our Chinese maid (Mui Chay) were evacuated together to India. At the instigation of my father, she continued her medical studies at the Wilson College in Bombay, India where we stayed. After graduating from there, she left Bombay to study at the Lady Harding Medical College. She returned with us and completed the rest of studies in Singapore. Later on, she went to London, and passed her Membership in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, the first woman to do so in the whole of the Federal Malay States.

 

Koo Chay lectured and taught in the then University of Singapore at the Kandang Kerbau Hospital , before going into private practice. She retired in 1996 , and set up the first dementia home in Singapore, together with the Apex Clubs of Singapore . This location called the Apex Harmony Lodge, in Pasir Ris Walk was her joy as she worked with the elderly sick patients. She retired at the age of 95yrs and the care of the lodge came under the Apex Clubs and a management board.

 

In year 2010, I was brought in to assist in the medical management of this home. In 2011 she made a special donation to the National University of Singapore for the medical and dental students.

 

 

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My Mum’s family

 

My mum was the youngest of two daughters of Madam Wong Bee Ho, the daughter of Datuk Wong Ah Fook. Wong Ah Fook was a humble contractor from Guangzhou, who left his ancestral village in 1854 as a poor young man, from Taishan county to seek his fortune in Singapore, the Federal Malay States and Hong Kong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The origins of the Wong Clan & lineage

 

This is romantic history dating back to the time of the yellow Emperor, known as Qin Shi Huang (BC 259-210) who died at age of 49yrs and he unified the warring states into our unified China. As the story went, the Emperor was about to honour the founder of the clan but as the ceremony was about to begin a vast golden cloud appeared. The whole imperial court fell to their knees to pay homage to this awe and magnificent spectacle. The Emperor then bestowed the surname Huang Yun, which means yellow cloud, to the man who was founder of the Huang (Wong Clan).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Led by the first generation founder, Huang Yun (90 generations), the clan moved from the imperial capital and crossed the Yellow River (Huang He) and the hostile nomadic regions of the south in the fourth century to Fujian. As the Song capital of Loyang was captured, and the Emperor taken prisoner, the scholar official took his clan further south across the mountains to Guangdong and Nanxiong prefecture.

 

In the 13th century, Ying Long (6th generation) continued the southern migration to the village of Taishan, and from prosperous gentiles, the clan slid from gentry to peasantry. Chung Song (21st generation) moved the clan to fishing and rural areas in the Qing Dynasty (1723-1735). The Wong clan, after many perilous journeys through the centuries, and through the vast areas of China, and through many uprisings from the "Hakka" War to the Red turbans Rebellion (1854-1862) which rose to overthrow the Ming dynasty in 1854.

 

This date is important because this is the date Great Grandfather probably left Taishan. The local conflicts were part of a larger conflict as the Qing Dynasty continued to weaken, and China was not able to resist the encroachment of the Western powers in the Opium Wars of 1839-42. The whole of the Taishan became a war zone and it was difficult to travel.

 

Great Grandfather must have left the port area via junk for Singapore sometime between January and March with the favourable Northeast monsoon, and before the start of the Red Turban Rebellion.

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Great Grandfather Datuk Wong Ah Fook and the genealogy of the

Wongs written by cousin Patrician Lim.

 

 

Great Grandfather's migration

 

Great Grandfather left Taishan and came to Malaya in 1854 as an immigrant and started life as a carpenter. He build his name up from a humble, simple contractor, building houses in Johor, Singapore and Malacca slowly to a labourer and then to a tow kay and entrepreneur . However , he was into gambling (leisure activities), revenue, agriculture (pepper and rubber) and finally he went into banking , starting the first local bank in Malaya, called Kwong Yik Bank (RHB Bank today).

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The Maharajah, Abu Bakar, later the Sultan of Johor took a liking to him, and gave him many contracts to build houses and also his Istana palace in 1869. Wong Ah Fook built many royal homes and government buildings in Johor city as well as houses in Johor, Malacca, Singapore and China. He was one of the early migrant pioneers.

 

Great Grand Father also built the Istana Tyersall, at the Botanical Gardens of Singapore. It had a grand ballroom , which held an extravaganza of wealth and affluence of the Western Society in Singapore. This Palace had its own generators and was lavishly decorated for his favourite wife Sultana Fatimah.

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He left his estate to his sons and daughters, and expressively requested them to be honorable persons of trust. Not only the sons, daughters but also the grand children were beneficiary of his vast estate. His tomb is in a special mausoleum in Bishan and my cousin Frankie Wong helps to maintain it.Today there is a road in Johor Bahru named after him, Jalan Wong Ah Fook.

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Grandmother Wong Bee Ho

 

 

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Grandmother Wong Bee Ho, mother of my mum Elsie. Grandma Bee Ho had two sons, Kwan Ying Seong, a business man who look after the Wong family affairs, and the second son Dr. Kwan Ying Hong, a general practitioner in Singapore and two daughters, Aunty Winny, the elder, and my mum, the youngest daughter in the family.

 

Grand Ma Bee Ho was a devout Buddhist and teacher, and she founded the Singapore Buddhist Association. As a pioneer educationalist, she founded the a school for girls at New Bridge Road called Huaqiao Girls School. As their headmistress, she is remembered for her dedication and her modesty of her dress and serious demeanour.

 

Great Grand Father's birthday was celebrated every year, with parties and festivals at San Pah (75, Keng Lee Road). These parties sometimes ran for 15 days. After Great Grandfather's death, Great Grand Mum continued to live in San Bah with all the children. San Bah was the designated home for his wife and his daughters in his will. Two wills were made. One for his property in Malaya, and another for Guangzhou.

 

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Mum and her Catholic faith

 

My mum studied at the Church of the Holy Infant Jesus, in Singapore and was taught by the nuns. Here, she developed her Catholic values which she passed on to us. She told me that she went to school in a trishaw, and at that time there were electric tram cars. (Mum was later baptised as a Catholic in St. Ignatius Church in 1992 and consecrated all her sons to Mother Mary, and praying for their conversion).

 

She went on her maiden Pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1995 with fifteen of us. Fr. Jim Wallace, CSSR was the Spiritual director. My cousin, Kenneth Kwan and his wife Lily, Nancy Tan (SRN), Wendy and Francis Chong were some of our pilgrims.

 

In 2005, we found by her bedside locker, a prayer intention in which had consecrated her three sons to the Virgin Mother Mary. Two of us are now baptised today, Chong Teik (Paul Ignatius in 2006) and myself in 1994 (Gabriel).

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We are related to the legendarily badminton ‘wizard’ Uncle Wong Peng Soon. Uncle Peng Soon, not only trained us in the game, but also trained us to be the 'best in the world'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A distant relative of Admiral Cheng Ho

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Great grandfather had a second wife, and my two cousins from that side are: Fr. Paul Pang, a Redemptorist Father, who was born on the same day as my brother Chong Teik on the 31st August 1936. His brother Peter, is in Australia, and has shown that through his mother's side, an ancient relative married the brother of the legendary Admiral Cheng Ho. Their ancestral home was also in Guangzhou. Cousin Peter Pang informed me that the brother of Admiral Cheng Ho, the eunuch, (who was one of China’s greatest naval explorers and born about 84 generations before us), lived in the time of the Zhou Dynasty. Peter's mother was a direct descendent of Admiral Cheng Ho's two brothers and as such, very distantly related to us.

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