Malacca Medical Mission, SS 1911-1933

1 April 1867: Straits Settlement
1911: St David's Hospital opened in Malacca by Dr Mildred Staley
1913: St Mary's School for Girls under Miss Eveleigh in KL
1929: A coconut fell on a Chinese boy who was brought to the Medical Mission
1933: Malacca Medical Mission closed due to lack of funds


In the Straits Settlement, there was a medical mission set up in Tranquerah, Malacca by the Anglican mission in 1911. It was named the St David's Hospital. It attended to the needs of the poor, women and children (Michael Poon, 2004).

A circa 1910-photograph of the medical mission appears on page 96 in the NUS book Historic Malacca Post Cards (Wong Yunn Chii, 2011). A sea-side view shows a double-storey brick building of mixed European and Malay/Indian architecture. Hemispheres appear above the windows and doors on the lower level and those on the upper floor have rectangles. The long narrow windows have half-louvers. A large verandah with chick blinds is atop the main part of the building (left half). Gutters and pipes can be seen. The roof is well designed and constructed. The other roof (right half) has small turrets and the columns have markings. A horse carriage (hackney, typical of the early 1900s) with a male rider (with songkok) carrying 3 people appears in front of the main door. A circular dry brick fountain appears in the foreground. Tall coconut trees surround the medical mission. Other buildings are nearby to the right of the medical mission. The photograph was probably taken late in the afternoon, judging from the long shadows of the coconut trees. The medical mission existed for 22 years and closed down in 1933 from lack of funds.


Sources and external links:

1. Wong Yunn Chii. 2011. Historic Malacca Post Cards. National University of Singapore (NUS). ISBN 978-981-08-8400-0. www.arch.nus.edu.sg/ttcl
2. Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Archives on Borneo Mission in Trinity Theological College, Singapore. A Guide. Michael Poon, October 2004. http://anglicanhistory.org/asia/sea/spg.html
3. KILLED BY COCONUT. The Straits Times, 5 December 1929, Page 12