“Service, Discipline, and the Chinese Company”
- Joins
Singapore Volunteer Infantry (S.V.I.), a unit of the Singapore Volunteer
Corps (S.V.C) in his late 20s
- Wins
rifle competitions (1905)
- Rises
to Lance‑Corporal
- Helps
win the Warren Shield (1907)
In his late twenties, Tan Piah Eng joined the Chinese
Company of the Singapore Volunteer Infantry (S.V.I.), one of the few
military units open to local Asians.
In the same year of 1905, 27 years old and as a Private he
was one of two first prize winners in a shooting contest held by the Singapore
Rifle Association.
His defining moment came on 10 August 1907, at the
Balestier Rifle Range. The Chinese Company won the prestigious Warren Shield,
defeating the Malay States Guides by just two points. Lance‑Corporal Tan
Piah Eng scored 91 points, the second‑highest in the entire company.
His fellow comrade 2nd Lieutenant Song Ong Siang was in the same
team. Song went on to become a Queen’s scholar, a prominent lawyer and, the
first Asian in Singapore to be knighted by King George V in 1936. Song wrote
the book “100 years’ history of the Chinese in Singapore”, published in 1923
from which Tan Piah Eng’s name was indexed and mentioned 4 times.
Indeed the Chinese Company became a symbol of pride for the
local community and Tan stood among its finest shooters.
For more information on this book
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Hundred_Years'_History_of_the_Chinese_in_Singapore