National Monuments – Singapore

Singapore post issued a set of six postage stamps featuring National Monuments which shows the architectural links between it’s past and present built heritage.

>> Bowyer Block was opened as part of the General Hospital in 1926 after the old Singapore General Hospital stood for 44 years. It was renamed after Dr John Herbert Bowyer, the former Chief Medical Of?cer who died during the Second World War. Today, it is the only block that still remains standing and its distinctive clock tower section has been readapted for use as the Singapore General Hospital Museum. On 11 November 2009, it was gazetted as a national monument.

>> College of Medicine Building was opened on 15 February 1926 by Sir Laurence Nunns Guillemard, then Governor of the Straits Settlements and Patron of the College. The college became the Faculty of Medicine when University of Malaya was founded in 1949, and subsequently in 1982, National University of Singapore, and ?nally, it became the headquarters of the Ministry of Health in 1987. It was gazetted as a national monument on 2 December 2002.

>> Command House was built during the 1930′s and served as the of?cial residence of sixteen successive General Of?cer Commanding (GOC) Malaya and Singapore between 1938 and 1971. Following the withdrawal of the British military from Singapore, the house became the of?cial residence of the Speaker of Singapore Parliament (1971-1989), venue for State functions (1993 – 1998) and in 2007, it became UBS Wealth Management Campus ‘Command House’. On 11 November 2009, it was gazetted as a national monument.

>> The neoclassical Chinese High School Clock Tower (now known as Hwa Chong Institution Clock Tower) is 31 metres in height and stands on a knoll in Bukit Timah. Completed in 1925, the distinctive clock tower and cupola serve as an imposing landmark in the area, surrounded by low-rise private housing estates. On 19 March 1999, two days before the school’s 80th anniversary, the clock tower was gazetted as a national monument. This marks the signi?cance of the institution as the ?rst Chinese-medium secondary school to be built in Southeast Asia by its founder, Tan Kah Kee.

>> The Former Raf?es College campus at Bukit Timah was home to the predecessor institutions of National University of Singapore and a few other institutions. Built in the 1920’s, Raf?es College was of?cially opened on 22 July 1929. Thereafter, the campus housed the University of Malaya (1949 – 1962), The University of Singapore (1962 – 1981), the National Institute of Education (1982 – 2000), the Singapore Management University (2001 – 2005), and currently, National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Law and Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy as well as several of the University’s research institutes. On 11 November 2009, it was gazetted as a national monument.

>> Tan Teck Guan Building, together with College of Medicine Building, features signi?cantly in the history of medical education in Singapore. Built in 1911 by Tan Chay Yan in memory of his late father Tan Teck Guan and was the site of the ?rst medical school, known then as the Straits and Federal Malay States Government Medical School. It was gazetted as a national monument on 2 December 2002.

Title: National Monuments
Date of Issue: 4 August 2010
Country: Singapore
Denominations: 1st local, 2nd local, 55c, 65c, 80c, S$1.10