That reminder is in the form of the former property of the late lawyer Howard Edmund Cashin which includes an expansive garden by the sea and an incredible house built on a pier like structure out over the mud flats and mangroves that still dominate the north-western coastline of Singapore. The house which has been left vacant shortly after Mr. Cashin’s passing in 2009, is one that reminds me of a time when escapes by the then remote, quiet and idyllic coastlines – many of which have been lost to land reclamation, were fashionable, as was living in remote locations by the sea. It reminds me of my own carefree days in the sun, accompanied by the sand and the sea in places that I will never be able to go back to, when Singapore was a much gentler place.
The house, named as “The Pier” by the Cashins, served as Mr Cashin’s home for many years. Based on newspaper articles from the Straits Times, the Cashins, Howard and his wife Gillian, had moved in after the war, building a house over a pier that is significant from the perspective of the landings of the Japanese Imperial Army’s 5th Division along the north-western coastline in the dark days of February 1942 that led to the fall of Singapore. It was apparently at the pier that had stood there that the Japanese had out-fought the Australian 22nd Brigade who had put up a valiant fight inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy and established a foothold. In the battle that was fought over the night of the 7th and the 8th of February, some 360 Australian troops are thought to have lost their lives in the same plot of land based on the article. The Japanese themselves had later erected a war shrine in the plot of land – something that Mr Cashin reportedly had trouble finding workmen who were willing to demolish it after the war.
One of the things I was able to find out from N. Sivasothi or Siva who was kind enough to invite me to accompany him in his recce of the mangroves (see my previous post), was that a regular visitor to the Cashins was the Sultan of Johor (the late father of the current Sultan) who would come by on his boat across the Straits of Johor and drop in for tea. I guess that again is a reminder of gentler times, times when borders did not really exist both physically and also in the minds of many who lived on either side of the Causeway.
While that gentler world has since been lost, we will still have at least The Pier that is left to remind us of it. The Pier which now lies vacant and its ownership has been passed on to the Singapore Land Authority, is not something that we would be saying goodbye to (as is often the case with many abandoned homes which eventually fall into decay). Siva was good enough to share some comforting news on its future, saying that it would see future use as a field station. I know that I can now look forward to going back from time to time, not to a place that I would have once known, but to a world that takes me back to those places that I did know that now remain only in my dreams of yesterday.
For more of Jerome's stories, visit: http://thelongnwindingroad.wordpress.com .
