Merdeka and Much More

Professor K.G. Tregonning's anecdotal memoir of his years as a member of the Department of History in the University of Singapore, culminating as Raffles Professor, captures the mood and milieu of Singapore as the country emerged from colonial rule to become a self-governing independent nation. Arriving at the height of the Cold War, Tregonning was acutely conscious of the ongoing Malayan Emergency and of the political shifts taking place across Southeast Asia. He records meetings with a number of the region's leaders, and encounters with students and colleagues who would later feature in Singapore politics, or become leading figures in the academic world. The result is an engaging and very personal act count of a university and a professional, political and social environment that is very different from that found in Singapore today.

K.G. Tregonning joined the University of Malaya at Singapore as a lecturer in History in 1953, and in 1959 was appointed Raffles Professor of History. Here he wrote Under Chartered Company Rule is(North Borneo 1881-1946) with a Foreword by Winston Churchill, and a number of other books, two translated into Bahasa Malaysia. He founded the Journal of Southeast Asian History, which continues to flourish today as the JSEA Studies, organised the first International Conference of Southeast Asian Historians, and was awarded a Carnegie Fellowship for an extended lecture tour of the USA. During his time in Singapore, he sailed every Sunday; and amongst other activities, was blessed with yet another daughter. Upon leaving Singapore he became Headmaster of Hale School in Wembley Downs, Western Australia, a position he held from 1967 until 1988.