Feature Tanglin turns 85! 06
by Jacqui Edmiston, Head of Communications
Tanglin Trust School has come a long way since it first opened its doors to five students back in 1925. 85 years later in 2010, the School caters for almost 2,500 students, representing 49 different nationalities, from 3 to 18 years of age. By 2015, that number could reach 2,900. Tanglin was established by one visionary woman, Anne Griffith-Jones, OBE. While holidaying with her brother in the region, she perceived the lack of quality British schooling that resulted in the children of expatriates travelling two weeks by sea to attend a boarding school in England, while their parents remained in Malaya. ‘Miss Griff’ as she came to be known, was soon presiding over a school with rapidly increasing student numbers.
In 1934, Miss Griff relocated the school and its then 30 students to the cooler climate of the Cameron Highlands and
operated there until an outbreak of polio, coinciding with the Japanese occupation of the Malayan Peninsula, resulted in the hasty closure of the school. After the war, the school was reopened in Singapore on two sites - Holland Road and Orange Grove Road. Miss Griff retired in 1958 after 33 years service. To ensure its continuity she sold the school to the British European Association (now the British Association), which later registered the school as a charitable trust called Tanglin Trust Limited.
Tanglin children - Tanglin Club c.1930
The 1960s and 1970s saw a significant increase in demand for schooling for expatriate children. Tanglin Trust moved the schools to one location; a beautiful black and white house on the corner of Tanglin Road and Jervois Road called ‘Matheran’, owned by HSBC. The school was renamed Tanglin Preparatory School.
Tanglin Boarding School students c.1940
During the 1960s and 1970s there was a significant increase in demand for schooling for expatriate children from non-service families. To satisfy this demand, Tanglin Trust took over the management of another school called Raeburn Park and set up a new school called Weyhill in 1971. Throughout the 1970s, the trust continued to manage schools on several sites.
Tanglin Boarding School Cameron Highlands c.1934
The early 1980s saw three Tanglin Trust schools amalgamate onto one site on Portsdown Road, the school’s current location. This site previously housed two British schools for children from service
Singapore evacuation WWII