Ipoh World

On 15th April 1972, Gregory Yong - the then Bishop of Penang (later Archbishop of Singapore) - blessed and opened the Church of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, in Ipoh Garden. According to the book CSsR 75 - Tree of Redemption: People, Places, Pilgrims (which was published in 2010), the design and material of the new church building was "a nod to the beauty and hardiness of the tropical wood available in Malaysia". Maurice Hardstaff (Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, or FRIB), was the architect who incorporated steel and wood into the design. The new building also had ventilation openings for air circulation. The carved crucifix and Stations of the Cross, as well as the wooden statuary, were imported from Taiwan. The bronze tabernacle (bearing a lotus motif) was designed in Italy.

Wang Shaoming shared his thoughts with us:

As for the Singapore architectural practice Swan, MacLaren & Partners, I happened 70s to bump into Lye Mun Yin, one of my seniors in the then Technical College KL, who was employed by the firm's KL branch. 

 

As was the practice when the Brit-owned firms changed hands in the aftermath of Merdeka, its name was shortened to SMP Architects or something along those lines. 

 

An email to the Malaysian Institute of Architects may clarify things and confirm what Lye told me, but I have not heard of an Ipoh branch.

 

Booty, Edwards & Partners became BEP Architects Sendirian but James Cubitt, who won a competition for the Kuala Lumpur Hospital on Jalan Tun Razak nee Circular Road, and opened shop in KL, did not make any changes that I know of. 

 

(The sprawling complex that did not rise more than three floors offered a most human scale but took its toll on the workers who had to walk long distances between departments.)

 

As for Julian Davidson's source about SMP IIANM the Redemptorist Fathers have an hq in Singapore thus accounting for early talk there about building a new church.

 

I imagine Fr Wallace thought it convenient to deal with the architect responsible for the Ipoh Garden housing project, who happened to be a member of the protestant True Jesus Church (hq in Taiwan and still meeting in the shadow of Tower Regency hotel off Jalan Raja Musa Aziz or Anderson Road.)

 

(The Germany-based Catholic charity  Brothers of Mercy who built Hospital Fatima  also went through Wong Soon Lee's firm Architects Incorporated for dealings with the City Council.)

 

Ipoh Garden Sdn Bhd's MD (Dato) Yap Lim Sen back then had vaulting ambition for some property along what is now Jalan Leong Boon Swee.

 

But the feasibility studies proposed by Maurice Hardstaff came to nought, as must have been his fees, perhaps the reason for closing down his practice when the church was completed.

 

He would spend perhaps a few months a year in either country and fly all of 18 hours each way.

 

Apart from the church there were several small built projects in Ipoh and Kuantan that occupied us and I have a couple of strange but true tales to tell when next we meet.

 

I recall meeting him again briefly 80s in one of Yap's offices Old Town, by then he was smoking cheroots which made many office staffers not a little sick.

 

Yap and friends apparently wanted him back for a project but I was told he frustrated them by dying in his London flat, keeling over with a glass of beer in his hand and horizontally armed, right in front of his former students and their wives.

 

Totally unlike the cheerful ever polite Englander I knew.

 

His sister brought coloured flowers to the funeral not knowing that the mystic cared only for whites.

 

Fr Wallace retired to a nursing home in Sydney, Australia and reportedly died there just a few years ago and I have some pix of the memorial Mass at OMPH.

 

The first parish priest of the OMPH Church was Rev Fr Jim Wallace, CSsR; while his assistant Rev Fr John Martin, CSsR, took care of the Tamil-speaking community of the parish. The Chinese-speaking community was overseen by Rev Fr Campos, CSsR, from Singapore.

A year later (1973), Rev Fr Ken Williams took over as the assistant to Fr Wallace. Together, they set up several organisations within the parish, namely:

• Central Pastoral Parish Council
• Welfare Service - Parish Aid Committee
• Family Planning Group
• Community Prayer Group
• Home-Gatherings (Division of parish into zones)
• Fund Raising Group
• Adult & Youth Catechetics
• Liturgical Committee
• Redemptorist Youth Group (now known as The Young Witnesses)

Rev Fr David Anthony, CSsR, took over from Fr Martin in helping the Tamil-speaking community. With his guidance, three similar organisations were set up: the Central Tamil Parish Council, the Socail Uplifthing Group, and the Liturgical & Catechetical Committee. Fr Anthony and the community also produced the first issue of the Tamil newsletter - the Olivilaku - which translates as "light from the lamp". Fr Anthony also bought an VW van which was used by the Perpetual Help Communication Centre. This centre produced a variety of audio visual material for the parish. He later helped in the formation of another Catholic Community in Kg Tersusun - which started off as a small chapel, and is now the Church of St Mary. This church serves the Catholics of Tj Rambutan and Tambun.

In December 1974, Rev Fr Brian Doro, CSsR, returned from Taiwan to help the Chinese-speaking community. In the later 1970s, this work was continued by Rev Fr Philip Lai, CSsR. Both the Chinese and Tamil communities were based at St Gerard's Chapel in Kg Simee. This chapel was later demolished to build the present Simee Old Folk's Home. The two communities now function from the main church in Ipoh Garden.

These pictures, courtesy of Shao Ming, show the newly built church.

To read more about the Redemptorist Fathers in Ipoh, click here.

To see a Pictorial Tour of OMPH Church's History, click here.

Click on the link below to read an account Shao Ming who worked with the architects of the Church.

1. To read this ipohWorld original e-Book, click here. (e-Book 1 in pdf format)