Singapore City Fire Brigade, Chief Fire Officer J.G. Shaw, Historical Post War Civil O.B.E. Medal Group

Decided to give myself a short break from blogging to enjoy some quality family time. Now back with renewed vigour as some friends have been asking for more stories about Singapore medals. 

Blogging of this nature is quite time consuming, it can take an hour or up to a day for medal groups with large quantity of research materials. The entire process entails searching for interesting medal to blog among the several hundreds of medals in my collections, gathering relevant materials, online research, taking and editing photographs, thinking of the storyboard, doing the blog, final check for accuracy and coherence, publish the blog and hope someone reads it and find it useful or interesting. 

I was extremely lucky to acquire this historically important medal group from a major British auction house about 10 years ago. Among my collections, this medal group is one of my favourite for many reasons, and I will always take it out from time to time to admire the medals and read the accompanying documents.

Post World War 2 Civil Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) medal group of 4 to J.G. Shaw, Chief Fire Officer, Singapore City Fire Brigade, Merryweather & Sons, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves (R.N.V.R.) and Shanghai Fire Brigade. 

Medal group comprised: O.B.E. (Civil Division), World War 2 Defence Medal, 1953 Coronation Medal and Association of Professional Fire Brigade Officers Long Service Medal with bar (Named: C.F.O: J.G. SHAW. SINGAPORE. 7.3.50.). With miniature medal group (most medal groups do not come with miniature medal group).

Medal Group, Obverse with Miniature Group

Obverse

Reverse

Intricate Details on Obverse of Long Service Medal

Chief Fire Officer, S'pore City Fire Brigade, J.G. Shaw

Brief History

The Merryweather Fire King

The Merryweather Steam Fire Engine was the first fully motorized fire-engine in Singapore. It was imported directly from Britain and was named after the Governor of Singapore at that time, Mr. Broadrick. As it was one of the best fire-engines in the world at that time, it was nicknamed the “fire-king” by the firemen who used to use it.

The boiler always contained hot water that produced steam, which allowed the vehicle to respond to fires immediately. The engine also allowed firemen to have water pumped to them from a water source thus increasing water pressure in their hoses and allowing them to fight fire more efficiently.

Apprentice at Merryweather & Sons, Ltd, May 7th 1915 to May 28th 1918, and
Jan 6th 1919 to Sep 30th 1920

Shanghai Fire Brigade, Oct 15 1922 to Jan 6 1925

Assistant Superintendent, Central Fire Station, Singapore

Appointment Letter as Superintendent, Fire Brigade, Singapore dated 30 Jan 1942

Letterhead with S'pore Municipal Commissioners Crest

S'pore Municipal Commissioners' Watermark on the Appointment Letter

Testimonial for his Retirement by President, City Council, Singapore dated 15 Apr 1955

Letterhead of the City of S'pore

Signature of T.P.F. McNiece, President, City Council, S'pore

Letter of Appreciation by Ag. Secretary for Defence and Internal Security, S'pore
for Assistance in Setting up the Auxiliary Fire Service

Letter Informing J.G. Shaw on his award of the O.B.E. (Civil Division) dated 11 Nov 1946

1953 Coronation Medal's Certificate 

Award of the Fire Brigade Association Long Service Medal with Bar

O.B.E. (Civil Division) Certificate Awarded by King George IV on Jan 1st 1946

The Seal of the O.B.E. on the Certificate

Congratulation Letter Signed by King George IV dated 11 Nov 1946

Comparison of the size of the O.B.E. Certificate

The Straits Times, 2nd Sep 2009. 100th Anniversary of the Hill Street Fire Station
(Former City Fire Brigade)

Present Hill Street Fire Station, former City Fire Brigade (by Day)

Present Hill Street Fire Station, former City Fire Brigade by Night

The rightful place for the this historical medal group

The S'pore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) Heritage Gallery
is currently situated at the Hill Street Fire Station

Commemorative and Unofficial Singapore 1953 Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal

This is the 60th Anniversary of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

The Diamond Jubilee medal was instituted to commemorate this special occasion. This is a very well designed and elegant medal (I hope to own one of this someday). It was designed by British professional calligrapher and illuminator Timothy Noad. The medal was awarded to personnel in the Armed Forces, emergency services and prison service, among others.

1953 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

Elizabeth, aged 26, ascended the throne upon the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 February 1952, and was proclaimed queen by her various privy and executive councils shortly afterwards. The coronation was held more than a year after the accession, on 2 June 1953. 

The 1953 Coronation Medal was instituted to commemorated the occasion. Numerous Singaporeans and Malaysians were awarded this medal, some of them (Elizabeth Choy, L/Cpl Guy Turner, Dato Thomas Vernon Alexander Brodie QC, Col H.J. Rae) travelled by ship to Britain to attend to Coronation Parade and received their medals.

An unofficial pewter commemorative Coronation Medal was also issued to Singaporeans back in 1953 to celebrate the Coronation of the Queen. When I just started collecting medals, such medals can be easily found in local flea markets and junk shops. These days they are getting hard to find.

This is a simple but historical medal. Hope our museum have a piece of this medal so that our future generations can view it and remember our past.