Some would say that it was no big deal to see an elderly Caucasian couple strolling down the corridors of The Tourism Academy @ Sentosa, pointing their fingers and talking to each other about the different pictures and words they see on our walls, pictures and words that depict the days in Singapore leading up to World War II and afterwards. After all the Tourist Academy’s campus on Sentosa is a national and historical monument in many ways. Before the 1939/45 war Sentosa was an Artillery camp helping to defend our southern border against a potential Japanese naval invasion. Later after the war it became in 1959 the camp of the 2/7 Gurkha Rifles and their families and after that the camp of 2/10 Gurkha Rifles and their families during the period of “Confrontation” with Indonesia. But there was something extraordinary about this couple’s presence on this most ordinary day of 11 March 2009. For one thing the man looked to be strangely familiar with the grounds, at points stopping to point out something to his wife, the way a tour guide would when telling something to visitors about a place of interest. For another, he behaved less like a tour guide who merely knows a place by occupational necessity; rather, he spoke like someone who once lived here! As it turned out, this really was no ordinary visitor. Mr Brian Watkinson was actually a 2/7 Gurkha Rifles Major, stationed here five decades ago, between Feb 1959 and end of 1960! Back again in Singapore to celebrate his 80th birthday, yet moving about as sprightly as any teenager, Mr Watkinson was all aglow as he shared fond memories with Mr Philip Lim (Director, The Tourism Academy @ Sentosa) and his staff about his time on Pulau Blakang Mati (Sentosa’s original name) in this very spot on The Tourism Academy’s grounds. With his equally sprightly wife Caryl, Mr Watkinson had come all the way to Asia from Essex, England to visit his children (his daughter Suzanne is in Hong Kong, and was in the late 1990’s General Manager of The Tanglin Club in Singapore; and his son Mark, who heads HSBC in the Philippines) and to relive the days gone by when once upon a time he had trained under the command of Colonel Edward Hill in a Rifle company of 2/7 Gurkha Rifles. “Half the men I lived and trained with here have long since gone,” says Mr Watkinson wistfully to us as he strolled along the corridors and pointed to places where he ate, slept and trained during those years long ago, “so it’s such a treat to see that this place still looks so similar to what I remember of it.” Mr Watkinson shared many other interesting details of the past with us, like how there were married Gurkha soldiers and their wives here as part of the regiment living in huge tents located on what is now the Sentosa Golf Course. The house where he used to live on the island was now the site of one of the newest hotels in Sentosa today, the Capella. He also mentioned that getting in and out of Sentosa back then was via army boats that ferried every hour and costs 80 cents per trip, not a small amount in those days! Today of course one could choose to come in and out from a whole range of transportational modes, like the Sentosa Express Rail from VivoCity, the Sentosa buses from Seah Im Bus Interchange, or the Cable Car from Mount Faber, not to mention of course by taxis or private cars across the Sentosa Causeway. There was even a time of mystery when he was stationed here. Kampong chickens raised on the island were disappearing and everyone on the island was on high alert, until the culprit was finally apprehended – a large python! And yes, in case you are wondering, there are still snake sightings on Sentosa today, but no chickens (except those cooked and served on a plate for lunch during term time at our school’s very own Restaurant in the Square)! During the early 1970’s, after leaving the army, the Watkinson family lived in Seah Im Road. This was a time when both Suzanne and Mark attended the International School, now called the United World College. They recalled with amusement that neither they nor the neighbours could work out what was being built at the end of the road –a large, round concrete block. Later on, they realised that it was one of the ‘legs’ of the Sentosa Cable Car development! Before bidding us a fond farewell, Mr and Mrs Watkinson wished The Tourism Academy the very best and hoped that we would be around for a long, long time. Truly history and tourism met yet again today, here on our resort island campus!
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