02/05/2024
A hundred years is a milestone in a school’s history, especially in Singapore where so many schools are opened, closed and merged. We, at THW, were privileged to work with the Geylang Methodist School (GMS) on a heritage project for their centenary celebrations this year.
We started our journey with GMS in 2021 researching the founding of the school. Sometimes regarded as the “humble cousin” in the Methodist stable of schools, not much was known about the school’s establishment. And what was know was often hearsay, lacking documentary evidence. For us, this was the most exciting part of the project as we were able to do a deep dive into the past, and in the process uncover some interesting information.
For one, we were able to locate the school’s first principal, Miss Emma Walker, who had been “forgotten” in the existing history. We were also able to correct the name of the Methodist District Superintendent at that time, Floyd Sullivan, which has led to his family recently connecting with the school.
The research we did were then used in two living galleries, a commemorative book, and a graphic novel. We are delighted that the school’s rich history is now well-documented and passed on to the next generation of GMS students.
This has been an enriching project for us, not only for what we discovered and created, but also for the friendships we made along the way. And one of us even re-connected with our secondary school teacher who was posted to GMSP as principal during the course of the project!
Happy centenary GMS!
