1953 in Singapore

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

← 1952 1951 1950 1953 in Singapore → 1954 1955 1956
Decades:	1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s
See also:	Other events of 1953 Timeline of Singaporean history

The following lists events that happened during 1953 in Colony of Singapore .

Incumbents

• Governor: Sir John Fearns Nicoll
• Colonial Secretary: Sir Wilfred Lawson Blythe (Until 30 July), Sir Wiiliam Goode (From 30 July)

Events

January

• 18 January
  • One of three main water supply pipes near MacPherson-Aljunied Road junction burst, leaving 70,000 people without water. ^[1]
  • Singapore experienced power outage for one hour when St. James Power Station broke down. ^[2]
• 30 January – 450 attendants at Woodbridge Mental Hospital staged a strike, initially leaving 1,758 patients to the care of 30 nurses, the doctors and three volunteers. ^[3] The strike ended on 5 February 1953, after negotiation between union leaders and Governor of Singapore Sir John Fearns Nicoll. ^[4]

February

• 20 February – Record-breaking rainfall flooded several regions of the city-state, including Bukit Timah Road, Orchard Road, Tanjong Pagar and Kallang Airport. ^[5]
• 23 February
  • John Eber, lawyer and Malayan nationalist, was released after two years of detainment by Singapore Special Branch in Changi Prison under emergency regulation and without trial. ^[6]
  • The Finnish oil tanker Wiima, carrying 7,000 tons of jet fuels and bound for Communist China, was ordered to sail into Singapore waters by the British authority. The ship was eventually allowed to leave Singapore for Kokkola on 12 May 1953 after it sold its cargo to the US Navy ship USS Cahaba for a price of US$500,000 (about US$5.9 million in 2024 money). ^{[7] [8] [9] [10]}

April

• 9 April – Devan Nair, then former secretary of Singapore Teachers' Union, was released from more than two years of detainment on the St. John's Island under emergency regulation. ^[11]
• 12 April – In an arbitration of wage dispute between the Government and the postal clerks, nearly 1,000 clerks were awarded 500 Malayan dollars, equivalent to 28 months of back pay. Lee Kuan Yew represented the workers during the arbitration. ^[12]
• 21 April – The Government announced that, as part of the local government reform, the Singapore City Council will elect a mayor annually. ^[13]
• 25 April – The Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hall was opened by then British High Commissioner Malcolm MacDonald. ^[14]
• 27 April – In an attempt to reduce recurring expenses, the Government required all new hirings to be approved by the Financial Secretary. ^[15]
• 28 April – Two-third of the island's electricity supply was cut off for about 15 minutes due to a fault at the then new Pasir Panjang Power Station. ^[16]

May

• 2 May – BOAC Flight 783, a Comet jetliner flying from Singapore to London, crashed near Calcutta, India after encountering bad weather, killing all forty-three passengers onboard. ^[17]

The Comet jetliner

• 10 May – The City Council announced that it is banning smoking in buses. ^[18]
• 11 May
  • Parts of Singapore were without electricity for up to three hours in the evening due to a technical fault at Pasir Panjang Power Station and subsequent overloading at St James Power Station. ^[19]
  • The Governments of Singapore and British Malaya appointed a joint committee, headed by Commissioner-General Malcolm MacDonald, to make recommendations for unification. ^[20]
• 14 May – The Royal Navy exploded 50 tons of bombs in the waters near Pulau Tekong. The explosives were dumped into the sea by the surrendering Japanese army in August 1945. ^[21]
• 19 May – The Government announced that government officers can voluntarily retire at the age of 45. ^[22]
• 25 May – The Singapore Customs Department seized 1.5 tons of opium hidden in a lorry around the Orchard Road area. ^[23]
• 27 May – A postman was sentenced to 18 months' jail after hundreds of undelivered letters and thousands of foreign stamps were found in his home. ^[24]
• 30 May – 6 June: Singapore celebrated the coronation of Elizabeth II with a week of festivities. ^{[25] [26]}

June

• 7 June – A fire destroyed a block of shops and apartments in New Bridge Road, leaving 40 people homeless. ^[27]

• 8 June – The 1,546-seat Odeon Theatre opened on North Bridge Road. ^{[28] [29]}
• 9 June
  • The Government said that as a measure to curb the spread of rabies, 7,397 dogs have been vaccinated and 1,051 stray dogs have been shot since May. ^[30]
  • The Government announced that the 1951 limitation ^[31] of building above 50,000 Malayan dollars will not be renewed. ^[32]
• 12 June – The Government announced that it plans to introduce modern prison reform in the colony. The planned measures include segregating inmates by the length of their sentences and setting up discharge camps for inmates with less than 3 months of sentence left. ^[33]
• 15 June – The electoral roll for the Colony's Legislative Council and City Council closed with just over 74,000 voters. ^{[34] [35]}
• 16 June
  • The Legislative Council approved the principle of extending the residential qualification of city councillors from three to seven years. ^[36]
  • The Government announced that it is adopting a new pay structure for its 16,000 workers according to recommendations from the Ritson Report. ^{[37] [38] [39]}
• 19 June – The City Council announced that it will ban fresh meat hawker on the streets from 1954, affecting about 1,000 hawkers. ^[40]
• 20 June – Singapore Association for the Blind announced that, with a badge, blind people can now travel free on buses operated by eight Chinese companies. ^[41]
• 25 June
  • Malaysian Chinese Association announced that it will end all welfare and social programs due to the Government's ban on lottery organized by political organization. ^[42]
  • Singapore Rural Board agreed to license private markets in rural area due to a lack of government markets. ^[43]
• 29 June – The City Council published its administration report for 1952. ^[44]
• 30 June – The City Council announced that Taximeter will be compulsory for all taxis starting from 1954. ^[45]

July

• 1 July – K. M. Byrne was charged with two charges of gross insubordination and breaking the General Order for deriding the incompetence of his expatriate colleagues during his campaign against a new family allowance given to expatriates but not local civil servants. ^{[46] [47] [48] [49]} On 22 July, he was found not guilty and got off with a reprimand. ^[50]

• 3 July – The Pasir Panjang Power Station was officially opened by Governor Sir John Fearns Nicoll. ^[51]
• 6 July – Beatty Secondary School was officially opened. ^[52]
• 7 July – A fire destroyed a row of six two-storey houses in New Market Road and rendered 50 people homeless. ^[53]
• 16 July – A fire destroyed a shanty town in Geylang area, rendering 4,000 people homeless. ^{[54] [55] [56]}
• 20 July – The Custom seized two thousand pounds of opium near the junction of Kallang Road and Mountbatten after a car chase with a lorry. ^[57]
• 21 July – The Governor, Sir John Fearns Nicoll, appointed a nine-man commission headed by Sir George William Rendel to review the constitution of the Colony. ^[58]
• 25 July – The City Council's building committee announces that unauthorised newly-built houses will get neither water nor light. ^[59]
• 28 July
  • A Royal Air Force transport plane from Singapore crashed near Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong. One Chinese farmer near the crash site was killed. There were no casualties among the crew and the passengers. ^[60]
  • The Singapore UMNO leaders were announced. ^[61]

September

• 27 September – The Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) announced to built Singapore's first satellite town, Queenstown with the construction of Queenstown's first estate, Princess Margaret Estate, which started work last year on July 1952. ^[62]

December

• 8 December – The colonial government issued a white paper titled Chinese Schools Bilingual Education and Increased Aid, proposing the introduction of bilingual education in Chinese schools in exchange for increased financial aid. The white paper was met with criticism from many Chinese schools. ^[63]

Births

• 22 February – Alan Chan, former civil servant.
• 27 March – Ho Ching, former CEO of Temasek Holdings.
• 24 April – Kwek Leng Joo, prominent businessman, photographer and philanthropist (d. 2015).
• 24 June – Charles Chong, former Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore.
• 27 December – Tsao Chieh, composer and engineer (d. 1996).

Dates unknown

• Zeng Guoyuan, businessman, philanthropist, author, acupuncturist and perennial candidate (d. 2019).
• Lim Keng Peng, criminal (d. 1988).
• Mohamed Yasin bin Hussin, criminal known for the 1972 Pulau Ubin Murder.

Deaths

• 29 October – Navroji Mistri, Parsi Indian entrepreneur and philanthropist (b. 1885). ^[64]

See also

• List of years in Singapore
• City of Singapore (historical entity)

References

1. "70,000 WATERLESS IN COLONY". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
2. "HUNDREDS OF DINNERS HIT BY BLACKOUT". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
3. "MENTAL HOME STRIKE IS ON". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
4. "NICOLL'S WORD ENDS STRIKE". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
5. "SINGAPORE FLOODS". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
6. "JOHN EBER IS FREED". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
7. "Voyage of the Wiima". MAJAKKA. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
8. "AFTER 11 DAYS—THE WIIMA SAILS INTO SINGAPORE WATERS". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
9. "10.17: THE WIIMA SAILS". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 27 October 2024.
10. "The Wiima drama draws to an end". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
11. "Nair and Samad report to the C.I.D." NewspaperSG. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
12. "YONG GIVES THE CLERKS $500". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
13. "CITY TO HAVE A MAYOR". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
14. "Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hall". Singapore Infopedia. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
15. "GOVT. CUTS THE COSTS". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
16. "POWER BREAK-DOWN BLACKS OUT ISLAND". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
17. "COMET CRASHES IN RAGING STORM—43 KILLED". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
18. "Smoking in buses to be banned by city council". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 27 October 2024.
19. "Singapore's 3-hour black-out". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 27 October 2024.
20. "The first step to 'one Malaya'". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
21. "12.30-and up go the Aycr Saniak bombs". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
22. "Singapore officers can now quit at 45". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
23. "tons of opium seized—Colony's top haul yet". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
24. "In a postman's home, police found hundreds of letters". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
25. "Queen Elizabeth II's coronation celebrations in Singapore". Singapore Infopedia. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
26. "THE BRIGHT LIGHTS OF SINGAPORE". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
27. "BLAZE DESTROYS SHOPS AND THE HOMES OF 40 PEOPLE". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 29 October 2024.
28. "Odeon Theatre". Cinema Treasures. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
29. "Odeon Cinema". Singapore Infopedia. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
30. "Rabies threat nipped by prompt Govt. action". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
31. "CO 953/8/7: Control of Building Ordinance, No 21 of 1951". www.nas.gov.sg. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
32. "There's now no limit on building". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
33. "A 'prison without bars' is planned". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
34. "The Singapore Electorate". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
35. "200,000 people in S'pore just don't care enough to vote". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 27 October 2024.
36. "THEY VOTE TO BAR COUNCIL 'BIRDS OF PASSAGE'". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
37. "THE RITSON NEW DEAL". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
38. "Ritson Report and Implementation". www.nas.gov.sg. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
39. "A sound plan but not good enough". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
40. "1954 ban on street meat men is official". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
41. "Blind people get free bus travel". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
42. "MCA LOTTERY ENDS". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
43. "Board will allow private markets". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
44. "Laying 'foundations' for city's future". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
45. "Taxi meters a 'must' by January". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
46. "UNION MEN WALK OUT OF PAY TALKS". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
47. "THREE LA WYERS FOR BYRNE". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
48. "A Damned Blunder". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
49. "K. M. Byrne". www.nlb.gov.sg. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
50. "Now Byrne gets a reprimand BUT HE MAY APPEAL". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
51. "GOVERNOR WILL OPEN $93 MIL POWER STATION". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
52. "Secondary school No. 4 is ready". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
53. "50 lose homes in 2a.m. fire". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
54. "4,000 LOSE HOMES IN BIG BLAZE". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
55. "Children in tears seek parents amid ruins". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
56. "50 houses for victims of fire in 6 weeks". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 22 November 2024.
57. "Million dollar opium haul by Customs men". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
58. "Nicoll names chief of review team". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
59. "NO WATER OR LIGHT FOR ILLEGAL NEW HOUSES". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 25 December 2024.
60. "Spore plane crashes at Hong Kong". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
61. "Singapore UMNO leaders named". NewspaperSG. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
62. "New Town for 70,000". The Straits Times . Singapore. 28 September 1953. Retrieved 21 June 2025.
63. "White Paper on bilingual education in Chinese-medium schools". Singapore Infopedia. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
64. "Navroji R. Mistri". www.nlb.gov.sg. Retrieved 6 January 2025.