Snippets of Hillview from the past.

Over the years, there were many events and unusual happenings at Hillview.  I am sure there are lots of tales and gossips to be shared. I 'll just list some stories from way back that most may not have heard.
You are most welcome to add to this page anything you may have heard or known that happened at our old estates.
Comment in the section below and at the 'URL/Address' box, just type in your name. I'll edit it into the main section later.




What were they thinking??

Screen capture from the film Mogok!
The location was the Eveready factory.

In an ironic twist, in 1957 the National Carbon (Eveready) factory allowed the Shaw Brothers, makers of local feature films, to use their facilities to make a movie.  The Malay movie was called Mogok, meaning Strike! and was about disgruntled workers at a fictional battery factory. It was intended to be a social awareness film against militant instigators and to promote industrial harmony. Soon after the film release, workers at the same, real Eveready battery factory at Hillview went on strike in 1958! (Mogok here & here)

Factory worker gored to death by a deer.
In March 1971, a factory worker was gored to death by a male deer while trying to feed it. The company, Sin Heng Chan Feedmill, had kept a pair of deers, a buck and doe, in its early years for testing their feed products. The animals eventually bred till there was a herd of six deers.
After the goring, the six deers were given to the Singapore Zoological Gardens at Mandai.

Princess Girl becomes Beauty Queen
Miss Bridget Ong (aka Lily Ong), a resident of Princess Elizabeth Estate, won the Miss Singapore/Universe beauty pageant in 1967.
She represented Singapore at the Miss Universe beauty contest held in New York later that year. She said it was her first overseas trip by aeroplane and was the first time she had travelled so far on her own.

Mdm Sahorah being carried into Parliament to cast her vote.

Hillview woman cast deciding vote for government's survival.
Though the PAP won the 1959 elections, it faced a motion of no confidence in 1961 in the referendum for Merger with Malaya. With votes tied at 25-25, MP Sahorah Ahmat, was rushed by ambulance from SGH, still in her sickbed, to cast the deciding vote for the PAP. The PAP government thus survived the motion vote of no confidence. Merger with Malaysia took place in 1963.
Mdm Sahorah was a resident of Princess Elizabeth Estate, living at Blk 24.
How different history might have been if..

The PM kicks own goal losing the constituency
Dr Seet Ai Mee was the electoral candidate for Bukit Gombak in 1988. There was a highly played up incident in which she washed her hands after shaking hands with the wet market vendors. Despite this, she won. However, in the next 1991 elections, the long forgotten incident was inadvertently brought up again by the Prime Minister. Though not the major cause, it was a factor that caused her to lose her seat to the opposition candidate, Mr Ling How Doong.

One of the many estate teams.

The Quah brothers were football rivals too
Hillview had a regulation size public football field in the centre of Princess Elizabeth Estate. It was the home ground for the Union Carbide team. In the 1960s, this team won the Business House championship many times over. The team was led by Quah Kim Choon, from the legendary Quah football family. Their nemesis was always the Wearnes Bros team that was led by another of the Quah brothers, Kim Lye!





Why the Hillview Mansion was abandoned

I apologise again here. I started to write this but found that it's too long to be a snippet and has to be an article by itself.
(Someone had said I was good at cliffhangers! ha ha.)
It WILL be my next post. Please stay tuned and return here soon.