Ipoh World

Both the above images were provided by Sybil de Roquigny, great granddaughter of Towkay Leong Fee and niece of Captain Leong Ming Sen (MS). Her maiden name was Sybil Wong Sui Mei.

The images, from left to right, show:

Leong Ming Sen (MS) was the eldest son of Chow Yoon Soo and Leong Eng Khean. He and his second brother were sent to China to further their studies at the end of schooling at St Michael's Institution (SMI) after his life long friend Captain Ho Weng Toh prodded them to join him and he went to Lingnan University in Hong Kong. He was a very good sportsman and was popular with many friends who to this day remember him.

On Christmas Day in 1941, Japanese bombs fell on Kowloon and Hong Kong. “Winkie” Ho and a few of his friends together with MS staged a daring escape to “Free China”. Their aim was to reach Chungking.

MS reached Chengdu. There, at the West China Union University, he decided to resume his studies and he started medical school. He was cut off from his family and had no knowledge of the well-being of loved ones or the ability to have funds remitted. However, he and his friends helped one another.

“Free China”, under Chiang Kai Shek, needed pilots to keep China's military air transportation system going. So, MS joined The China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) and became a trainee pilot and soon found himself as pilot for one of the most poignant aircraft in aviation’s history - the Douglas DC3.

As China and Burma were in the hands of the Japanese, CNAC flew supplies into China via British India. It was, to say the least, a very dangerous mission flying over the Himalayas with often turbulent weather and poor visibility. Furthermore the heavily-loaded, unpressurised plane flew close to the high terrain and the pilots were known as “Hump Pilots”. MS found himself flying the HUMP and averaging 120 hours a month.

After the war in 1947, MS was given the rank of Captain while working for CNAC in Shanghai - merely four years into his flying career. He married a Shanghainese girl named Ann and came back to to join Malayan Airways. He was one of the two Asian pilots who became co-pilot in a Caucasian-dominated profession.

In 1952 he was divorced from Ann and he joined The Singapore Standard, flying newspaper runs from to Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Penang on DC-3 aircraft. He also flew De Havilland Beavers for Federation Air Services and became the first local man to become an airline captain in Malaya and one of the first pilots to fly the Comet IV. With the expansion and merger of the airline, MS had the privilege to fly other aircraft such as the Fokker 27 Friendship's which included flying from Singapore to Malacca, Kuala Lumpur, Taiping. Penang, AlorStar, Kota Bahru and back via Kuala Lumpur, all in the same day. He then flew Boeing 737-100.

With the conviction of training local pilots, MS became an Instructor Pilot in 1963 and at the time of his retirement from Singapore Airlines (SIA) in 1980, he had 23,600 flying hours to his credit. He was a leading-light in the SIA pilot training programme for F27, DC-3 and B737.

His life-long friend, Captain Ho Weng Toh remembers him as someone who “never pulled rank or showed off; he was never insulting”. Regis Urschler said that MS is remembered for his graciousness to his crew and his patient charm. His niece, Sybil remembers him for his noble character which resembles that of his mother, Chow Yoon Soo. He passed away in June 2008, three months short of his 88th birthday leaving behind him his second wife, Diana and their three children Leslie, Vicky and Derek who now live in the USA.

To read more about Captain Leong Ming Sen, click here.

To read more about Captain Leong Ming Sen's parents, Leong Eng Khean and Chow Yoon Soo, click here.