Last modified: 2006-08-05 by ian macdonald
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A
photograph from the National Archives of Singapore shows the Queen’s Colour and Regimental Colour
of the 1st Singapore Infantry Regiment (1SIR), dated
24th August 1961.
The photograph can be seen here:
http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980005488-8073-3222-5025/img0060.jpg
(also archived here).
The Queen’s Colour is on the left and the Regimental
Colour is on the right. The person sitting on the
right is the Queen's Representative in Singapore, the
Yang Pertuan Negara of Singapore, Encik Yusof Bin
Ishak. He presented the Colours to the Regiment on
27th July 1961. Singapore just received internal
self-government status from the British a few years
earlier.
The history of the 1SIR Colours is on
my website but
I’ll repeat it here nonetheless:
It can be seen that the Regimental Colour is slightly
different from the usual British Army Regimental
Colour in that the laurels were palm leaves instead of
the standard laurels made up of roses, thistles and
shamrocks.
Initially, the Colours were planned to be presented in
1960. The Regimental Colour was to be charged with the
crest of the municipality of Singapore (a lion statant
on a green turf affronting a palm tree). It was to be
encircled within “The Singapore Infantry”, all on
red/crimson. The field of the Regimental Colour was to
be yellow and the canton is to be embroidered with “I”
for the first Regiment. (According to ‘Journal of the
Singapore Infantry Regiment’, December 1959 issue).
In 1959 however, Singapore revealed her own present
day Coat-of-Arms. The original planned design and date
for presentation was thus delayed. When the Regimental
Colour was presented in 1961, it featured the
Singapore Arms encircled within “Tentera Singapura”
(translated from Malay as Singapore Armed Forces)
instead of the municipal crest within “The Singapore
Infantry”. Other details remained the same. The
Queen’s Colour that was also presented in 1961 was
unchanged from the original planned design and still
conformed to that of the standard British practice,
featuring their Title on the St George’s Cross. Also
to note is the different finials used by the
respective Colours, a Crown for the Queen’s Colour and
a spearhead for the Regimental Colour.
The Regimental Colour of 1SIR survived independence in
1963 & 1965 and was replaced in 1982, with a similar
design. The emblem as used on the 1961 Regimental
Colour is also the emblem of the Singapore Armed
Forces in general and was used on the former Singapore
Army Service Flag. The Army Service
Flag was inaugurated in July 1980. The design of the
1SIR Regimental Colour remains unchanged to the
present day and similar ones were granted for the
other Singapore Infantry Regiments.
The Singapore Armed Forces Flag was
inaugurated in July 1989. However the Singapore Armed
Forces emblem used was altered slightly with regards
to the depiction of the palm laurels. Eventually, the
Army Service Flag also used this new depiction of the
Singapore Armed Forces emblem, exact date uncertain,
but most probably around the same time.
Herman Felani, 12 December 2003
For additional reference, the municipal crest was used on the Regimental Colour of the Singapore Volunteer Corps and was garlanded with the standard rose- shamrock-thistle laurels. It was presented to the Corps in 1954, together with their Queen’s Colour.
The Regimental Colour of the Singapore Volunteer Corps
can be seen in an exhibition, here:
http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980006047-8073-3222-4051/img0083.jpg
Herman Felani, 12 December 2003
The green SVC pre-war flag is described on "Military & Paramilitary Flags of
Singapore" page 2 as being that of the Arms of the Colony of the Straits
Settlements 1911-42. Found however, are two of the quarters of the shield in
detail - the one for Labuan which depicted a schooner in front of Mt. Kinabalu;
and the one for Penang which shows an areca palm tree (both very clear). The
quarter in the shield for Malacca shows the branch and leaf of a "Malacca kerung"
which I'm told is a hardwood tree, so probably have to go to a botanical trees
reference book to get some detail on that (maybe it is in EJH Corner's famous
book on tropical trees of Singapore and Peninsula Malaya as it then was). The
one still to see a really detailed picture of, is the "lion passant guardant on
a tower as per the first quarter of the Arms of the Straits Settlements" - this
being the one that looked to me in a blurred picture, like a lighthouse....well
the lion passant description should mean something to UK military flag makers I
guess - less sure what it is doing on the tower unless, in fact, that IS a
lighthouse......with luck we shall find out yet!!
This flag should still be of interest to the Republic of Singapore and to
Malaysians, because their own people greatly outnumbered the total few thousand
of European Volunteers in Singapore and the Malayan States. The SSVF 2nd
battalion was largely Chinese; those of Malacca and Penang contained many
Eurasians, Chinese, Malays, Indians too.
Audrey McCormick, 1 June 2005
