Soldier who found love in Malaysia

LITTLE did Christopher James Syer know that when he arrived in Malaya six decades ago, he would end up making this country his home.

Syer was conscripted into the army at age 20, and was posted to Malaya as a second lieutenant with the British Royal Army Service Corp.

“I arrived in a country I knew only from reading books,” he recounted in a recent interview with theSun at the office of the Malaysia British Society, of which he is president.

The native of Swanage in England had never even been inside a plane at the time, much less travelled almost half a world away to serve in another country.

Syer’s first stop was Singapore, where he was posted to the 37th Company (Water Transport) in Pulau Brani. His unit was tasked with patrolling rivers in Johor and providing vital supplies to troops posted there.

While his was an important mission, Syer refused to be “boxed in” with his fellow soldiers. To widen his circle of friends, he joined the Singapore Cricket Club to play cricket and hockey.

“I wanted to mix with people apart from those I knew in the army.”

That turned out to be a fortuitous move. At the club, he caught the eye of a young Amarjit ‘Ambi’ Kaur, the girl whom he would later wed.

Ambi was a flight attendant with Malayan Airways Ltd at the time.

“My uniform probably played a part in it,” he said of their first meeting.

Ambi is one of eleven siblings to Gorbex Singh, then known for his prowess as a cricketer and hockey player. Gorbex also served as an interpreter with a British World War Two intelligence unit codenamed Force 136, and was imprisoned for two years during the Japanese Occupation.

Syer said he was not surprised that Gorbex played a role in the family’s decision to allow him to marry Ambi.

“He had two questions for me: Do I play cricket and do I drink whiskey, which I don’t. The following day, he told me I had passed,” Syer said with a laugh.

But the wedding was not to be … yet, due to a blanket policy that barred officers from marrying to ensure their families do not become security risks.

His chance to finally walk down the aisle with Ambi came on Oct 16, 1961 when he was transferred to the Army Emergency Reserve for Officers, where he served as a reservist.

But not long after their wedding, Syer “retired” from the army and started work as an executive trainee for a newspaper publisher, earning $300 a month.

He later joined A. Clouet and Co, a French enterprise that traded in a large range of products, including the “Cap Ayam” brand of sardines, at double the salary.

But it was his work at Expandite Sdn Bhd that was the highlight of his career. He seized the chance to promote the NS1, the first safety helmet for motorcyclists. In 1974, he launched the Lancar Topi Keledar campaign out of his desire for road safety, a subject that he is still vocal about today.

Syer’s love for cricket and hockey later led to him become a sports commentator for RTM’s Radio 4 and later BFM. At age 81 today, his passion is still as strong.

The sportsman in him now hopes to see sports put on equal parity with education.

“Education is more than just learning to read and write,” he pointed out.

His other love is history. On the May 13 riots in 1969, he said he heard over the radio that parts of the city was closed. He was later informed that his friend’s house had been burned down.

“While I was only an observer to that part of history, I believe it’s important to learn the truth about the past rather than just blocking it out,” he said.

“We can’t change the past but we can learn from it.”