My Alma Mater – Anglo Chinese Secondary School Part I

When I first decided to write about “My Alma Mater – Anglo Chinese Primary School, Klang A.C.S“, little did I realize that it might one day be read by readers who, once a upon a time, like me studied at the above school.

Even classmates of mine, whom I have since lost touch with years ago, have written into this blog, to relate about their childhood experiences they had while they were there in the 1950’s and 60’s. Their comments on this blog, has once again led me to decide to write a follow up article on my alma mater, that is the school I love so immensely.

It is hoped that, with this 2nd article on A.C.S Klang (Secondary), ex-students of this well known secondary school in Klang will go on to enjoy more memories of our old school.

A.C.S. primary school and A.C.S secondary school are infact situated in one and the same location. Both share a common ground. And also a common “tuckshop” or “canteen” in the early days of 1950’s and 60’s.

However, the A.C.S. primary school has its own toilet facilities though. So does the A.C.S secondary school. Today however, things regarding the two schools are a little bit different. The A.C.S. primary school of today has its own entrance at the back of the school in Jalan Melawis while the A.C.S. secondary school has its entrance and exit gates in front.

Although many years have since gone by, both my “Alma Maters”, have not undergone much alteration. The buildings and classes still remain the same. Only maybe the students are different.

I attended the A.C.S. secondary school in my younger days, from 1958 to 1962. The A.C.S. secondary school was located at Jalan Raya Barat, Klang. In those days, this road was also known as “Jalan Raya West”.

Coming out from the entrance of the school, one faces the well known “Fort Hill”. On top of this hill, is the famous private school called the Convent Girls School of Klang.

Some three to four hundred yards away from our alma mater, lies the Methodist Girls Secondary School (M.G.S), Klang. As a young secondary school boy, I still recall very vividly, M.G.S. being called the “Monkey Girls School” and what did the girls of M.G.S. nick name our school? They call us “American Cock Suckers”. Another famous and well known school in Klang, the famous High School, Klang its pupils were labeled as “Hungry Soldiers”.

To those ex A.C.S. students, like myself, who may have forgotten how our alma mater school looked like in the 1950’s and early 60’s, a huge field lies strategically in front of it. It was in this field, that interesting football games and our Annual Sports were held.

If I remember clearly, there were a few huge “raintrees” surrounding our school padang then I remember playing marbles underneath those big, shady raintrees. Sad to note that today, such massive beautiful raintrees are no more to be found in Klang.

However, I read with immense joy when reading about the Ipoh Municipal Council’s decision to insure “raintrees” in Ipoh for a few million dollars. I think it’s a wise decision after all. Syabas, to the Ipoh Municipal Council.
Talking about the time I was in A.C.S. secondary school, I think I should make mention of our school caretaker, I’m certain any A.C.S. boy will surely remember a small sized Indian man called Vijandran. Naughty students like myself, used to nickname him “Kapar Road”. Nothing makes Vijandran angrier than being called such name.

You see, Kapar Road, in those days was famous for its many “brothels” and the presence of “prostitutes” along that road. This would make anyone associated with it “flare” up, like poor Vijandran did.
In a twinkling of an eye, 50 years have since gone by. Is Vijandran still around today? I really don’t know!

To talk about my alma mater, A.C.S. (secondary), mention I think should be made of its headmasters. Earlier on, when I was 13 while I was in form 1, we had a G.S. Arumugam as our headmaster. Then came a Chinese man, from Kuala Lumpur, a Mr. Tan Teik Beng, I think.

Mr. Tan as I reiterated earlier in my article on A.C.S. primary school, was a bespectacled and likeable old man, not strict all. He is very much loved by us students.

Naughty students, when found “fighting” along the school corridors will be asked by Mr. Tan not to fight. Mr. Tan would normally give students a dollar each to go to the school canteen for meals and assorted drinks.

In 1958, came Mr. D.R. Daniel, from Ipoh, I think. Mr. Daniel’s wife, Doris Daniel was also a teacher in the A.C.S. primary school, which is incidentally located directly behind our secondary school. The A.C.S primary school was then, if I’m not mistaken, under the head ship of Mr. Ng Moh Say, a bespectacled Chinese man.

Mr. D.R. Daniel arrived to become the headmaster of our A.C.S. secondary school, as I said around the years 1958 or 1959. Daniel was to hold on to the principalship of A.C.S Klang for many, many long years.
I remember Mr. Daniel arriving at our school with a great “impact”. He was around 35 years of age then. A dark, huge man with spectacles,
Mr. Daniel doesn’t laugh, he infact “guffaws”, like Englishman usually do. Mr. Daniel is a man with very strict discipline. He is very strict where discipline is concerned. I still remember how he used to cane undisciplined students in his principal’s office.

The echoes of his canings still rings in my ears even today, 50 years later. As an A.C.S. boy, I can safely say, that Mr. Daniel can be labeled as a leader by example person. For your information, Mr. Daniel in those days drove a black 180 Mercedes Benz.

The first thing Mr. Daniel did on his coming to A.C.S. secondary, Klang, was to be involved in a friendly cricket match between the school team and the staff. I remember him hitting a “sixes” from the centre of the pitch.
His “hit” or “strike”, as one calls it in cricket, went well over the 2 storey block building in front of our school and landed in the vicinity of the school canteen, a distance of at least 300 – 400 yards. It was indeed a fantastic performance by our new principal, Mr. D.R. Daniel. He had proven he was indeed a good sportsman.

Besides being a good cricketer, Mr. Daniel, was also rather good footballer as well. Although, he was a huge man, he was adept in playing football as well. At that time, I was representing the school football XI. I remember playing against the staff team many times, with Mr. Daniel playing as “goalkeeper”.

Frankly speaking, Mr. Daniel plays well at the goal. It was not easy at all to beat him, let me tell you. Trying to get a goal past Mr. Daniel, was not easy.
When I left the A.C.S secondary school, after taking my Overseas School Exams in 1962, Mr. D.R. Daniel still remained as A.C.S.’s principal for a few more years, until he finally retired later. A.C.S. Klang then came into the hands of another great principal, Mr. A.R. Peters, whom I understand, hails from nearby Taman Ardales, Klang. I personally know Mr. Peter, quite well.

Talking a little bit more about Mr. D.R. Daniel, I had the opportunity to work with his younger brother, a Mr. Vincent Daniel, in Methodist English School (M.E.S.) in Telok Datoh, Banting, way back in 1963, when I was roughly 17 years old then. I was a “double” partner of Mr. Daniel, in badminton in those days.

If you are an A.C.S. boy, you will surely know that the A.C.S. had a scout movement called the 5th Klang group at that time; it was one of Klang’s top scout movements. The 5th Klang group scout movement produced many “King” scouts in those days. Many of my uncles and cousins, were also old boys of A.C.S. my uncles, Boo Choo, and his brothers Boo Hock as well as Boo Huat, were excellent king scouts in those days. They were able to cook very well.

Even my cousin brothers, Henry Lim and Tony Lim were once “king” scouts who belonged to the 5th Klang group. All A.C.S. old boys should be proud of them. They had all brought “fame” to our Alma Mater!

The 5th Klang group, used to carry many scouting activities. They were extremely active, especially during our Annual Sports Day, which was a grand and special occasion for all A.C.S. students.

Sports houses, to which students were divided into, were all beautifully decorated with leaves, ferns and bunting papers and balloons during our sports day. How much I enjoyed our sports day then.

The “scouts” did yeoman services decorating the houses. Around 1959, our scouts organized a big “camp fire” around the school premises. For that event, the 5th Klang group of scouts invited a real Red Indian from America to perform at our school’s annual camp fire then. I still recall the Red Indian as “Tom Two Arrows”.

Tom Two Arrows’ apache rain dance and the “wigwams” that he built in the middle of our school field or padang, will always remain in our memories, even after many, many long years have come and gone.

After the visit of Tom Two Arrows, the interest in scouting activities in our school increased tremendously. Many pupils, including myself felt as students, we should join scouting activities. Without a doubt, Tom Two Arrows apache “calls” and the smoke signals he conducted at the camp fire that night, went a long way to creating a great interest amongst many A.C.S. pupils.

By | 2011-04-09T01:27:06+08:00 April 7th, 2011|My Memories|10 Comments

About the Author:

10 Comments

  1. Ang Hai Chiew April 1, 2012 at 6:28 pm - Reply

    Very interesting memories. I was in ACS from 1964 to 1969 when Mr.D.R. Daniel was the HM. He was very strict indeed but a kind and helpful man I always respected and remembered.

    • Cikgu Yap April 2, 2012 at 3:39 pm - Reply

      Very happy another ACS boy has enjoyed reading about our alma mater.

  2. pt tan October 7, 2012 at 9:58 pm - Reply

    Thank you so much.Had clean forgotten about Kapar Road Vijandran until I read this again.
    Yes, ACS had the better part of my life from 1967 till 1977. MGS (Monkey Girl School) had the better part of my attention in the same span.
    The best part of my life was Fifth Klang Scouts. From 1969 till 1977 and beyond, it was my life and together with the motley gang we did everything a scout woud do and more. DR Daniel was still our HM then and we won practically every scout competition that was available to us.
    But we never knew the tradition of our red indian campfire opener until I read your post.

    thank you so much.

  3. Larry Law February 20, 2014 at 4:00 am - Reply

    Nice of you to be able to post such article and knowing you must be in good health to do so. Yes it does bring back memories.
    Keep it up. Take care.

    Larry Law ACS Klang 73. 5th Klang too.

    • Cikgu Yap February 24, 2014 at 1:49 pm - Reply

      Hearing from you compels me to re-read my own article again. Nice to hear from you anyway. Take care and God bless.

  4. tan puay tong April 5, 2015 at 9:03 pm - Reply

    Thank you for your memories.

    Yes..esp on tom two arrows. Heard about him from yeoh joo seng as i was always wondering why fifth klang had such a strong american indian culture.

    Canoe..totem pole..indian dance..et all.

    I join fifth klang as a cub in 1969 still in primary school. Never look back until we won the state competition in 1976. The reason we never won the nationals was that they scrapped it when yhey saw how good fifth klang was.

    In 1976 scouting was already in decline..but the bunch of us refused to accept and extended it way beyond the expiry date.

    Thanks for the memories.

    • Cikgu Yap April 11, 2015 at 8:58 pm - Reply

      Glad to hear from you. I believe you and Yeo Joo Seng must surely be scouts who have made the 5th Klang group proud. Incidentally, you would definitely have enjoyed your younger days tremendously under scout masters Mr. G. F. Goldie and S. Markandu. Take good of yourselves, do feel free to contact me anytime. Best to you!

  5. sivananthiram alagandram August 5, 2016 at 8:04 pm - Reply

    Dear Cikgu Yap , First thank you for getting us together. My name is Sivananthiran I was with you till form 5 in 1962 I remember you as our football captain appointed by Mt Con in standard 5 ( Teachers -Samuel Levens Std 2 ( standard 3 Miss Manickam , You were in Martin Kampong and both your brother and you were football fanatics following the world cup in 1950’s . In our class were Lee kim swee( coffee shop near Rly station ,)Abel Headmaster’s son, George from the Estate, Raja Mohan from Jeram ,Lee Seng Lee ( MTC) Victor Yesuratnam, Australia Nadarajah MAS ( Motor Boat),, Sunder Singh , Suppiah, Subbiah chettiar, Mohd Chudi Jawa ,Kuppan ( Postals) Koh Kim Hoi Chew Chin Huat . etc I was in C house Eculand house and our House master was James Pandian Husband of Ng Keat Loo, My house was 149 a Telok Pulai Road . Do you remember Yoke wai ( fisheries) Dhobi shop.. in front was mu cousin Sivaneson. I remember our School going to finals in Khir Johari Cup in Merdeka Stadium, I was mainly a cricket player I captained the under 15 school team in 1960 and played for the school team in 1962 .Samuel Nathan was our Cricket master.The two Scorpions lived near your place – Chitham and Baby scorpion.Nice to remember all of you from Geneva,Switzerland. My teachers were Chacho Religious Knowledge, Mutthiah Maths, Subramaniam History, Chandy, George, Mrs George, Rathichandran English Liitt,Awasty, Rev Mr MK Singam History, …. Muthu lingam . Rev Buter white who tried to convert us. Remember the Fiesta , The King scout Tom Too Arrows,

  6. Tan Puay Tong June 2, 2019 at 9:39 pm - Reply

    Yes Cikgu Yap.

    We we’re Scouts. Incidently it was my brother, who was a Red Cross Sergent in ACS 1968, who asked me to go join the scouts instead.

    • Cikgu Yap June 10, 2019 at 10:00 pm - Reply

      Nice to hear from you again. You must be proud of your brother and his services to the Red Cross Movement. Incidentally the “Wall” that was built along the front portion of the School Fence during the last 10 to 15 years has now been removed. Old boys can now see the school color (Blue and Yellow) vividly from the main road along Jalan Raja West.
      Finally, all the best of health to you and brother. TAKE CARE.

Leave A Comment