From this page you can navigate - via links at foot of page - to other pages that cover HMS Terror/HMS Mull of Kintyre and the Dockyard itself.

Singapore Naval Base - A long time in the making, its taking and getting back, the post war years and now at the start of the 21st century. 

As the 1920's dawned British and other concessionary areas in China were under both political and physical threat and Hong Kong looked vulnerable. At the same time Anglo-Japanese relations were also deteriorating and it was clear Britain needed to revise its deployments in the Far East/Pacific. Admiral's Jellicoe and Beatty persistently, and in the end persuasively, argued the Navy's case for having a base and protective fleet at Singapore from where Britain could provide security for sea trading routes and other Far Eastern interests.

Stanley Baldwin’s Government gave approval and funded the start of exploratory work in 1923 and the site on the Johore Strait was selected. Clearance began but by November, after calling a snap election, the Government fell, Ramsey MacDonald became Prime Minister and work was stopped.  The Government changed again in November 1924, back came Baldwin and back came work on Singapore Naval Base but a review was also ordered. That review, headed by Lord Curzon, confirmed the original site selection and work on the huge site continued.

At that time the British Commander in Chief China Station, Vice Admiral A Sinclair,  based at Weiheiwei, reported after a visit to Singapore  "the existing title of (the senior) RN Officer, Singapore be given the separate and distinctive title of Captain in Charge, Singapore and went on to make the following observations to the Admiralty :-

Despite the world situation and more locally Japan’s expansion in the region, British and Commonwealth political and naval opinions on the Base were not unified so argument and discussion rumbled on through the 1930’s which slowed progress and consequently the opening got moved back year by year.

HMS TERROR anchored in Johore Strait c.1936 (Thanks to Alf Lawson for this picture)

It was from Singapore Naval Base, within days of arriving there, that the battleship PRINCE OF WALES and the battle-cruiser REPULSE sailed, with their four destroyer escort TENEDOS, EXPRESS, ELECTRA and HMAS VAMPIRE late in the afternoon on the 8^th of December 1941. The 1,612 ships company of HMS PRINCE OF WALES and another 1,309 in REPULSE little suspected that their ships would, in less than 48 hours, both be at the bottom of the South China Sea, the victims of Japanese air attacks off Kuantan on Malaya’s east coast. With the attacks starting around noon on the 10th events moved at a frantic pace so much so that by 1311 'REPULSE' was sunk and some ten or so minutes later so to was 'PRINCE OF WALES'. The human loss was 513 and 327 respectively. Most of the men were from the 'Devonport' depot so, fittingly, their names are recorded on the memorial that stands on Plymouth Hoe.

HMS Duke of York a sister of HMS Prince of Wales (1939 - 1941)

This event, following only a couple of days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour was, to say the least, a devastating and defining blow. As the Pearl Harbour attacks were in progress Japanese soldiers were landing in the NE corner of Malaya and, as was soon discovered, they walked and/or cycled down through the Malay Peninsula and onto Singapore Island with unsuspected speed as our forces fought a losing battle ahead of them.Amongst the defenders of Singapore at the end were some of the survivors from the PRINCE OF WALES AND REPULSE.

HMS REPULSE (1916 - 1941)

From Lt General Percival’s surrender to the Japanese at the Ford Motor Works factory on the 15^th of February 1942 through to the surrender of the Japanese to Lord Mountbatten on the steps of Singapore’s City Hall on the 12^th of September 1945 some 1,314 days of untold human suffering were to pass.

Following our re-occupation of Singapore it became a Crown Colony and just over a decade later it was agreed that it would become a self-governing state save for defence and external affairs that would remain with the UK. No sooner was this achieved than the Malayan Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, proposed the formation of Malaysia comprising Malaya, Sarawak, (Brunei), British North Borneo and Singapore, indeed in excess of 70% of Singaporeans voted in favour in 1962 and it became an independent member of Malaysia which came formally into being in 1963. Singapore’s presence within Malaysia was, however, a short and unhappy one and with some internal disturbances through 1964/5 it left the group and by the end of 1965 became and remains in 2002, the Republic of Singapore.

As talk of the formation of Malaysia began Indonesia, opposed to a new and enlarged grouping in the area, began attacks and incursions which forced the UK and local governments into action that in turn resulted in more commonwealth ships and men being sent to Singapore and consequently a build up of dockyard staff and work through 1963-66. Thereafter, with Singapore independent and the Indonesian confrontation problem resolved the run down began once more.

In 1967 the UK Government announced its intention to withdraw from its bases in Singapore and the Persian Gulf by the mid 70’s. Economics soon shortened that to 1971 and on the 11^th of November 1971 we formally left handing Singapore Naval Base - within which the Dockyard had been contract run since 1968 by Swan Hunter - to the Singapore Government. From then on the only RN presence was a single ship in the ANZUK squadron. These ships still use the 'Stores Basin' in 2002. The Republic of Singapore Navy now has a new base at Changi for their ships. 

What had started out in the early 1920’s as almost 40 square miles of tropical swamp and jungle; been transformed into the largest British naval dockyard with barracks and fleet supply centre outside the UK; been overrun by an enemy and then re-occupied, was now, as 1972 began, about to undergo yet another transformation. This change came at, indeed brought about yet another defining moment in the history of the island of Singapore.

Guided by Lee Kuan Yew there has been a thorough and almost total regeneration of Singapore. Gone are the attap huts in clearings instead  there are now modern business and commerce centres, shops, homes, leisure facilities together with road and rail infrastructure. It is not without justification that Singapore Airport at Changi is repeatedly voted 'Best World Airport'  you can still see some of the old amongst the new within the ex Naval Base and elsewhere you just have to look harder for them if you are seeking other than The Padang, Fullerton Building (now an hotel),  Tiger Balm Gardens or Raffles for example. Oh yes! there is one little bit of Orchard Road still recognisable as well but you wont find the Singapura Hotel nor the Orchard Bowl.

You can still see some of the old amongst the new both inside and outside the ex-Naval Base you just have to look harder for them if you are seeking other than The Padang, Fullerton Building (now an hotel), Tiger Balm Gardens or Raffles for example. Oh yes! there is one little bit of Orchard Road (opposite where the Rose D'Or stood) still recognisable as well but you wont find the Singapura Hotel nor the Orchard Bowl.

To give you a feel for what SNB is like now, in 2002, let’s begin with Admiralty Road. In the main it still follows its original course but has become a dual carriageway throughout its length from Semabawang to Woodlands. Though there is no longer a ‘gate’ at Sembawang you would still recognise it and the area to the Dockyard Gate/ Royal Sailors Rest has changed little with the roads of ‘Black & Whites’ (naval & dockyard officers) houses and schools but the Dockyard Officers Club in Ross Road has become the US Navy’s ‘Terror Club’.  

The wooden ‘Police Station’, to the left of the Dockyard Gate, has been replaced by a silver metalled building housing Semabawang Shipyard offices. Across Admiralty Road, up on the hill, what was 'Aggie Weston’s’ is instantly recognisable standing alone without any development around it. It still provides rest and recreation for local people much as it did for us.

From here to ‘TERROR’ nothing much has changed on the left but on the right the dockyard has extended - a new dock capable of taking super-tankers has been built adjacent to KGVI Dock - and our 9-hole golf course has been given over to a concrete pipe construction works. Within the old TERROR site the old buildings continue to be used with new ones added to form Singapore's Institute of Naval Technology and Operations.

Outside and across the road from where the old TERROR Main Gate was there was Suara W/T Station. On that site now a multi storey building is nearing completion. Turning right from TERROR towards Woodlands for a couple of miles perhaps the area to the right of the road and down to the waterside is now totally taken up by commerce and industry of all types and sizes. For example the first site you come upon on turning right out of TERROR is a huge BAT building while across the road the Fleet Fuel Depot is still there.

New build (2002) on Suara site (See also SNB pic page)

Going through to Woodlands and the Causeway, on your left, there is still a lot of green and undeveloped land until you get down to where the old married quarters were at Rimau. They no longer exist instead there is a major prison. Opposite, roughly where the Submariners SR Mess was, there is a Drugs Rehabilitation Centre where, because of the manned lookout towers and warning notices, I felt it ‘unwise’ to take pictures.

Further on Woodlands Jetty is instantly recognisable and it was here that I chose to stop and look across to JB and the Causeway where, on the day, there was a long queue of northbound traffic all sounding their horns in frustration at the delays through JB Customs – no change there then!!! Woodlands Village is now a modern town and hugely bigger though it has not encroached any closer to the Straits so you would still easily find your way through to the Gate. What you can no longer do is go through the gate to the Causeway and Bukit Timor Road.

In support of the above short and perhaps inadequate summary I have put together a series of pictures from which I hope you will get some idea of what the Naval Base you knew looks like in 2002. I had enjoyed my eight or nine mile ramble round the base while my wife enjoyed her day by the hotel pool so I thought she couldn't possibly be referring to me when I heard her muttering words like 'self-inflicted injury' and 'fool' as I wallowed in the bath!!! By the way the blisters only took three weeks to heal!