Home ¢ Dr Ernest Chew is an Advisory Elder of Bethesda (Frankel Estate) Church, and serves on the boards of several Christian and other organisations. He taught at the University of Singapore/NUS, where he was Head of the History Department and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. He is an Associate Senior Fellow at the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute. / Photos courtesy of Dr Ernest Chew
What I owe the Methodists ACS’s first home was at a rented shophouse on Amoy Street (left). Later, it moved to Coleman Street (facing page) to accommodate the rapidly-increasing enrolment
The writer’s granduncle, Goh Hood Keng, the first minister of the Straits Chinese Methodist Church at Kampong Kapor
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umanly and historically speaking, I owe my life to the Methodists. My paternal grandmother, Tan Siok Kim, was an early convert of the Methodist mission in Malacca. Advised by Mrs Emma Shellabear, she started to teach a class at her home. It grew to become the Methodist Girls’ School (MGS), Melaka. As she insisted that her husband should be a Christian, the Shellabears played matchmakers and introduced Chew Cheng Yong, an Anglo-Chinese School (ACS) teacher from Singapore, to the Tan family. On 30 Dec 1905, with William Shellabear officiating, Siok Kim was first baptised and then married to Cheng Yong. Cheng Yong later assisted Dr Shellabear in his translation of the New Testament into Baba Malay. Siok Kim’s second sister, Swee Loo, married Goh Hood Keng, another ACS teacher, who became the pastor of the Straits Chinese Methodist Church (1912–51), which is now Kampong Kapor Methodist Church (MC). Her third sister, Swee Eng, married ACS alumnus Goh Leng Inn. They were the parents of Dr Goh Keng Swee. They were a Methodist family. In October 1907, Siok Kim gave birth to a son, Benjamin. Benjamin Chew, my father, was converted at an ACS chapel service when he heard a message by Dr Eli Stanley Jones, an American Methodist missionary to India. He became a medical doctor, a pioneer in treating tuberculosis (TB), as well as a Christian Brethren Bible teacher leading various interdenominational organisations. He was Chairman of the Singapore Billy Graham Crusade in 1978, and the Evangelical Fellowship of Singapore (EFOS).
The writer’s paternal grandparents, Tan Siok Kim (left) and Chew Cheng Yong
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METHODIST MESSAGE April 2020
Like my father and grandfather, I studied at ACS Coleman Street, before going to ACS Barker Road. My wife Aileen and I attended pre-university classes at ACS Barker Road. Our sons are fourth-generation ACSians, having received their education at ACS Coleman Street, then Barker Road, and Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC). Our daughter studied at MGS and ACJC. We all owe a substantial part of our education to ACS!
