AFTER 80 years, Anglo-Chinese School welcomed the visit of the daughter of one of its most distinguished principals, the Rev Dr J. S. Nagle.
On a sentimental journey, Ms Alice Nagle spent a week, from March 8 to 15, touring some of the historic places that her father was acquainted with, including ACS House at 70 Amoy Street, the old building at Coleman Street, Wesley Methodist Church and the Middle Road Baba Church, as well as the Methodist “village” on Mt Sophia.
Her “tour guide” was Mr Earnest Lau, a former Principal of ACS and currently the Archivist of The Methodist Church in Singapore, who said: “She was obviously very touched and impressed with what she had seen.”
Ms Nagle also visited ACS (I) where she met the Principal, Dr Ong Teck Chin, and where she saw the facilities which her father would have been proud of, and the new Barker Road campus where the Principal, Mr Ng Eng Chin, took her round the new cluster classes, the auditorium and performing arts theatre which her father would equally have been proud of.
She also visited Methodist Girls’ School at Blackmore Drive and, as she had been doing all week, shot many photos for her album.
Ms Nagle, who was hosted to lunch by the Chairman of the ACS Board of Governors, Mr Tan Wah Thong, remarked: “I have heard so much of the Methodist Schools in Singapore, and the ACS in particular, and I am so thrilled to be here to see things for myself.”
She has returned with fond memories of her meetings with Dr Tan Chin Tuan, who was the Rev Dr Nagle’s pupil in the 1920s, and who continues to have a high regard for his mentor, hosting her at several lunches and dinners.