Early Singapore Armed Forces

Hi everyone, I am quite interested on the early military history of Singapore, but it's quite difficult to find the early beginnings of the military, especially when the British first came over in the 1900s. Does anyone have any information to share?

Hi!

The military before 1965 actually led to many migrants settling down in Singapore.

My grandfather was one of them. He and his family was shipped from India to serve in the British army that was operating in Singapore then.

Then, the army was made up of the Brits mainly and very few Singaporeans were involved as it was a British colony then.

My family has been here ever since. How cool is it that the army has such an impact on Singapore in the long run.

That's really interesting!

I found out that my ancestors actually came from Malacca as it was a colony then.

They came to find jobs in the air force. However, the British were reluctant to offer them any jobs that could potentially usurp their power.

In the end, they ended up working for the British as chauffeurs of high ranking officials.

I actually did a quick google search, I think the beginnings of the army can be traced back to the Singapore Volunteer Corps established in 1854. that is a long time ago!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Volunteer_Corps

They eventually became the Straits Settlements Volunteer Force, which were involved in defending Singapore during the Japanese invasion, and eventually merged with the People's Defence Force. Will be cool if anyone has found any pictures or information about the force structure back then.

Mindef has a page on the history of the People's Defence Force with some photographs.
Apparently the The Singapore Volunteer Corps merged with local and part-time National Service Forces to form the Singapore Military Forces or SMF comprising 74 officers with a thousand personnel of other ranks in 1954. They were only restructured into the People's Defence Force in 1965 after the PDF Act was passed.

http://www.mindef.gov.sg/imindef/mindef_websites/atozlistings/army/ourforces/2PDF/History.html