De Fontaine Memorial
The De Fontaine Memorial is a memorial erected by the North Borneo Chartered Company to commemorate an ambush on the North Borneo Armed Constabulary on May 12, 1885 , in which five members of the police force were killed. The memorial is in the village of Kawang in the Malaysian state of Sabah .
Description of the monument
The monument has the shape of an obelisk about 2.5 m high on a simply tiered rectangular base. The memorial inscription on the front reads:
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This Obelisk is erected |
history
Captain AM de Fontaine was a member of the Singapore Police Force prior to his appointment as Chief Commissioner of the British North Borneo Constabulary . In May 1885 he led a punitive expedition to arrest a Murut chief named Kandurong, who had become suspicious as a cattle thief and headhunter. Under his leadership were, in addition to a police force, the British GL Davies (Resident of the West Coast), Dr. Manson Fraser, RM Little (Assistant Resident) and JEG Wheatley. They reached Kawang Village on May 10, 1885. The Bajau living there were asked to put together a 30-man group of porters, as the persecution from Kandurong would lead to the mountainous regions of the Crocker Ranges and the Dusun porters, who had already been requested by Papar, did not appear in sufficient numbers.
The Bajau showed little desire to comply with the request. The tone between the resident and the village elders became sharper and when the porters from Papar discovered a stolen water buffalo in the village of the Bajau, the situation threatened to escalate. The resident decided that the Bajau had to surrender the water buffalo. On May 12th, further porters from Papar were requested, as no further cooperation was to be expected from the residents of Kawang.
While the Europeans waited in the shade of a tree, two rifle-armed Bajau approached them and began what appeared to be a friendly conversation with the group. Suddenly, without further warning, one of them fired a fatal shot at Dr. Exit Fraser. Seven other Bajau started a rampage with their spears, killing Jemadhar Esa Singh, Narnin Singh and Ganda Singh. Little and eight police officers were wounded. Captain de Fontaine fell in pursuit of an attacker and was badly wounded by nine spear stabs. He succumbed to his injuries on May 17, 1885.
De Fontaine was buried in the European cemetery in Sandakan on May 18, 1885.
Installation of the monument
The attack seemed to be forgotten again at first. In 1911, however, the British North Borneo Herald magazine picked up the story again and reported that the isolated tree on which the attack had taken place, which was named "Government Tree" in memory of the ambush, was the result of a Disease was so rotten it had to be felled. The resident FW Fraser then took the matter in hand and suggested the erection of a pillar with a surrounding fence. Finally, in September 1912, an obelisk was erected on the site where Captain de Fontaine was killed.
The names of Dr. W. Manson Fraser and Asa Singh Jemadhar were also immortalized on the Chartered Company memorial in Sandakan .
Others
The incident itself went down in Sabah history as the Kawang Incident .
literature
- Owen Rutter: British North Borneo: An Account of Its History, Resources and Native Tribes , pp. 180-182 (London: Constable and Co Ltd, 1922)
- John Alman: Kawang Incident , Sabah Society Journal, Vol. 3, September 1962
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c The Straits Times: OBELISKS THAT TELL OF TRAGEDIES ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On March 17, 1935, page 15; Accessed January 10, 2013
- ↑ a b c The Straits Times: Amok in the Kawang River ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , June 5, 1885, page 3; Accessed January 10, 2013
- ↑ The Straits Times: A Borneo Amok Recalled ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On November 20, 1911, page 8; Accessed January 10, 2013
- ↑ The Straits Times: Short messages section ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On Sep. 17, 1912, page 7; Accessed January 10, 2013
Remarks
- ↑ Translation: This obelisk was made in memory of Captain De Fontaine, Dr. W. Manson Fraser, Jemadhar Esa Singh, Chief Staff Sergeant Narnin Singh and Corporal Ganda Singh who were treacherously attacked by the inhabitants of the village of Kawang here on May 12, 1885 while participating in a punitive expedition against the village of a Murut chief Kandurong were killed.
- ↑ incident ; engl. for "incident, event".
Coordinates: 5 ° 46 ′ 22 " N , 116 ° 1 ′ 4" E