Missionary Mail in Singapore 1831-1961

The current interest in the field of missionary mail will likely be rekindled by Alan Au Yong’s latest book on the subject. 

The author is to be commended for his efforts to trace missionary activities in Singapore from a philatelic perspective, by illustrating missionary-linked letters and postcards and by giving faces to their names with interesting background information and transcripts of their letters. The material described is mainly from the author’s own extensive collection, with a few contributions from other prominent Singapore philatelists. From a thematic viewpoint, the emphasis is on postal history although message, greetings and invitation cards as well as letters and legal documents are also described. 

The 105-page book is lavishly illustrated throughout, mostly in full colour. It has a foreword by Prof. Cheah Jin Seng describing it as ‘a labour of love’, and is conveniently divided into three parts with fifteen appendices and two indices. 

Part one begins with the early letters associated with missionaries of the London Missionary Society (LMS), the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) and the Paris Foreign Mission. Featured are the earliest known 1830 letter to the first LMS missionary in Singapore, Rev. Morrison, sent from his son in Malacca to Canton with a boxed ‘Singapore P. O.’ transit handstamp, and the earliest known missionary letter written by Rev. Samuel Kidd and sent from Singapore to London on 3rd March 1831. 

Part two looks at various missionary-linked S. S. postal stationery postcards and picture postcards of churches and missions. There are interesting one-cent postal stationery postcards sent from ‘The Bethesda’ in 1885, and from the Anglican Mission to the mission school, Sarawak in 1905. In addition to the more familiar views of the Wesley Methodist church in Singapore, there are views of the Presbyterian church and of ‘The Bethesda’, and also a privately-produced picture postcard featuring a mission school in Malaya. 

Part three continues the story by looking at post-1900 missionary mail from different Christian denominations in Singapore. The expansion of missionary activities was already underway, and this was reflected in the burgeoning of correspondence from various Protestant and Catholic missions, mission schools and churches. Notable are WWI covers to the U.S.A. and Mexico, a printed ‘open letter’ missionary picture postcard, and a colourful multi-franked 1934 cover from China, redirected to Batavia via Singapore. There is an interesting double-size picture ‘postcard’ showing an extended view of a Malayan missionary school and a lesson in progress on the reverse, not meant for posting but intended as a message card to raise funds. 

The fifteen appendices contain full transcripts of letters relating to correspondences already described, together with various missionary-linked legal documents, letters and newsletters. There is a compilation of churches in Singapore in the 1950s and a list of missionary milestones and philatelic milestones in Singapore and surrounding areas. 

The two indices contain, by alphabetical order, the names of missionaries and the names of missions or institutions described in the book. 

Finally, there is a handy reference section for primary and secondary sources of information.