Take me to church… but not just any church

In a 2012 blog post ‘The French Connection’ by Mr. James Tann, a local freelance historian, was a photograph captioned, “The 1st St Joseph Church in Bukit Timah built by Fr. Mauduit and completed in 1853. (Photo c.1901 – Source: Rev Fr Rene Challet MEP)” (fig. A). Mr Tann’s photograph does not have any imprint or it may have been cropped out. Mr. Tann also writes,

“It was to this small wooden church that the famous explorer and naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, came to in 1854 to study the fauna and flora of the region. Alfred Russel Wallace was later to co-found the Theory of Evolution with Charles Darwin, based in part on the studies he made around Bukit Timah.”

Wallace mentioned in his writing that Fr. Mauduit had a congregation of 300 converts, so a “small wooden church” would not have been able to accommodate the parishioners comfortably, especially in our tropical climate. Wallace’s writing was often descriptive but I cannot find any mention of the “wooden” nature of St. Joseph’s Church where he stayed.

Fig. A

A few other writers also claimed the photograph in their articles is St. Joseph’s Church, Bukit Timah. See figures B, C and D.

Fig. B. 2012. Bro Roger Photo collection (4) – St Joseph Church Bukit Timah. “This was the original wooden/brick Church of St Joseph built in 1853 by French missionaries. The church was built on a hillock 9-1/2 ms (16km) Bukit Timah Road on land bought from the English East India Company.” [Watermarked: https://ijamestann.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-french-connection.html]

Fig. C. Lion City heartlander, 2013. St Joseph’s Church, Bukit Timah – The Second Galapagos. “The first Saint Joseph’s Church, Bukit Timah (source).” [Cited James Tann/ Fr. Rene Challet MEP.]

Fig. D. The thrifty traveller. 2016. In Search Of Wallace – Part 3: Singapore. “This could be the actual house where Wallace stayed for six weeks.” [No citation.]

In a 2017 lecture Religions in Singapore: A Historical Overview, associate professor Dr. Bruce Lockhart (National University of Singapore) featured a slide (@4:20 mark) of the church captioned, “Church of St. Joseph (MEP) 1853-3 (Kranji Chapel 1846)” (fig. E)

Fig. E

In Dr. Lockhart’s paper on the same topic as the lecture, he reproduced an identical photograph. The caption reads, “Church of St. Joseph at Bukit Timah. Collection of the Singapore Philatelic Museum. Donated by Prof Cheah Jin Seng” (fig. F).

Fig. F

Professor Cheah Jin Seng’s postcard that was donated to the Singapore Philatelic Museum, as cited by Prof. Lockhart, bears the original imprint ‘Bukit Timah Church, Singapore’ at the bottom left corner. It is described as “c1900 Bukit Timah Church Postcard”. There is no claim that it is St. Joseph’s Church, Bukit Timah (fig. G).

Fig. G

A copy for sale on eBay bears the imprint ‘Bukit Timah Church, Singapore’, and describes the postcard as “Singapore Bukit Timah Church Kong Hing Chiong & Co 1910”. The seller adds, “This postcard was published by Kong Hing Chiong & Co. No. 104 North Bridge Road, Singapore in the period 1905-1919” (fig. H).

Fig. H

Kong Hing Chiong and Company was a general photographic store, operating from North Bridge Road. A 1907 advertisement in The Straits Times reads, “All sorts of Photographic Apparatus and Materials, viz. Cameras, Lenses,…” This is the earliest record available in NewspaperSG. The company was absorbed by Y. Ebata & Company (Yakichi Ebata) in September 1929. (The Straits Times).

While the book Mission on a hill far, far away by Clement Liew (2016) has an extensive collection of photographs from the archives of St. Joseph’s Church, the ‘Bukit Timah Church’ photo/postcard does not appear in it.

I believe and I hope I am right, to say that Fr. Rene Challet’s photograph is of another church in Bukit Timah, and not of St. Joseph’s Church (Bukit Timah). The ‘Bukit Timah Church’ laid its foundation stone in August 1887. It was described as a “little Church at Bukit Timah” and was “in connection with the China mission of the Presbyterian Church of England.” (Straits Times Weekly Issue, 10 August 1887, p. 5). Thus, the Bukit Timah Church was not a Catholic church.

As if all the confusion is not mind boggling enough there is another church in Singapore called St. Joseph’s Church at Victoria Street. But that is another story for another day!

p.s. This is a follow-up to my earlier article Alfred Russel Wallace and the Catholic connection in Singapore.