The Early Malay Doctors: Sir Gerald Templer

Tuesday, 17 April 2012

Sir Gerald Templer

Field Marshal Sir Gerald Walter Robert Templer KG, GCB, GCMG, KBE, DSO (11 September 1898–25 October 1979) was a British military commander who fought in both World Wars.

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Templer

Gerald Templer on the right

Gerald Templer

Templer Park, Jalan Templer, Dataran Templer, and Taman Pinggiran Templer were named in his honour. Dataran Templer is near Stadium MPS (Majlis Perbandaran Selayang). Taman Pinggiran Templer is near Masjid Al-Firdaus, where Adibah Huda bt Muhammad Farid got married on 20 September 2014.

Gerald Templer is best known for his defeat of the guerrilla rebels in Malaya between 1952 and 1954.

On 22 January 1952 Winston Churchill appointed Templer British High Commissioner in Malaya to deal with the Malayan Emergency.

Working closely with Robert Thompson, the Permanent Secretary of Defence for Malaya, Templer's tactics against the communists were held up as a model for counter-insurgency. In military terms Templer concentrated his efforts on intelligence. Templer famously remarked that, "The answer [to the uprising] lies not in pouring more troops into the jungle, but in the hearts and minds of the people." He demanded that newly built villages, where ethnic Chinese were resettled away from the jungles and beyond the reach (and influence) of the guerrillas, look inviting. To further gain the "hearts and minds" of the non-Malays, who were the main source of communist support, Templer fought to grant Malayan citizenship to over 2.6 million Malayan residents, 1.1 million of whom were Chinese. Templer sought "political and social equality of all" Malayans.

He later advised the British Government on the response to the Suez Crisis.

Gerald Templer in Wikipedia
Gerald Templer in Johor 1952 YouTube

Gerald Templer's train tour of Malaya 1953

GENERAL TEMPLER'S TRAIN TOUR

Dr Mustapha bin Osman was a Member of the Legislative Council of the Federation of British Malaya in 1951 and governor of the new Lady Templer Hospital in 1952 in Kuala Lumpur.
Photos of Lady Templer Hospital

Weeratunge Edward Perera MBE (22 June 1898 - 23 September 1982) was awarded the MBE by Sir Gerald Templer.

WE Perera in Wikipedia (pic below)