SAMUEL1/4 Hindsight & Irony
Channel: 50FACES
Date: 2014-12-29

Think you know the story behind Jalan Kayu? Everyone knows it’s named after the forest that used to stand there, as ‘Kayu’ is the Malay word for wood. But is this really right?

Well you just might be surprised at this alternative story which is rarely known. According to famed historian Mr Dhoraisingam Samuel, it is actually named after RAF engineer RW Wood who worked on the Seletar airbase located nearby.

Such little nuggets of information came aplenty in the course of talking to Mr Samuel. Chatting with him was fascinating and astounding given his memory and ability to recall minute details even at his age. Citing a particular example of his final O level History paper, Mr Samuel was able to recall the specific date, 8th Dec 1941 in which he had chosen to discuss Singapore, “The Impregnable Fortress of the East” for the topic of “The History of the British Empire”. This might be in some small part due to the unfortunate coincidence whereby it was also the day Japan bombed Singapore for the first time, after which, the “Impregnable Fortress” fell in just 7 days.

Walking us back through the years of history he fondly recalls where each ethnicity had settled in the early days and the particular landmarks of the time.