Recce for Expedition 3...

One of our locations for expedition 3 is the Tanglin Barracks, a place filled with a long history and one that holds alot of stories to share. The place was a tip off provided to us by a friend of one of our investigators. The person is a Warrant Officer who used to be stationed at Tanglin Camp. Following this, GHOST Club carried out further research on the history of the place as well as a day recce of Tanglin Camp, in order to familiarize ourselves with the location for our eventual investigation...

History of Tanglin Barracks

(adopted from Singapore Land Authority www.sla.gov.sg; www.infopedia.l.sg )

EARLY 1800s - 1860

Sir Stamford Raffles revamped the entire town four years after the founding of Singapore in 1819. Various land parcels were distributed to the ethnic groups for their businesses and trade, resulting in the Tanglin area becoming a flourishing nutmeg plantation site.

1860-1920s

In 1860, a large portion of the nutmeg plantation at Tanglin was carved out for the construction of the Tanglin Barracks. This was intended as accommodation for the military troops in Singapore. By 1893, Tanglin Barracks was home to 26 officers and 661 men of the only infantry battalion in Singapore, two artillery batteries, one company of Royal Engineers, and a few Sikh soldiers from the Chine Gun Lascars.

On 15 February 1915, 13 British, Singapore Volunteer Corps and Johore Military Force soldiers and one German prisoner of war were killed when mutineers broke into the Tanglin Barracks during the Sepoy Mutiny. However control of the barracks was quickly regained by the Veteran Company of the Singapore Volunteer Corps.

A British soldier poses in Tanglin Barracks (1940), before the Japanese Occupation
(source from www.bbc.co.uk)

1942-1972

The Barracks were taken over by the Japanese during WWII. There was an information blackout during this period of time, and the only known fact was the Japanese occupation of this place. Research revealed that Australian POWs were housed in the barracks. Was it also being used as an interrogation center? A torture house? Or an execution ground?

1970s to PRESENT

On 10 Feb 1972 , the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) decided to shift its headquarters to Tanglin Barracks, which had been vacated by the British Far East Land Forces. This move enabled MINDEF to centralise the Ministry and most of its main command and support organisations in one location. In 1989, after a 17 year stay in Tanglin, MINDEF HQ moved into its new home at Bukit Gombak. Tanglin Barracks was returned to the former Land Office in the early 1990s and subsequently progressively let out to the private sector.

The rich history as well as events that took place within the grounds of Tanglin Camp accumulated to make this place a fantastic location to investigate if it was indeed haunted. The huge area also gave plenty of opportunities to get a great feel an experience of anything paranormal.

4th November 2008. We had our day recce. Walking up to the camp area already gave us a glimpse of the huge grounds and houses that occupied the camp....View from outside:

Picture below: Nearer view from outside, just before we entered the camp....

Quite a nice, scenic view, just before sunset....

We entered the camp from one side entrance, and once we stepped inside, we realized how big this place really is....various different buildings were housed with plenty of land to spare. According to our research, Tanglin Camp included blocks like Medical Classification Unity, a hospital, the SAF Psychiatric Branch, a 'Dead House' where bodies of deceased soldiers were kept before they were dispatced for burial and a Detention Barracks among some of the more interesting blocks...We went in search for clues that can tell us where these places are....

The whole place was a haven to explore! But mosquitoes were a constant menance...

Rooms after rooms....blocks after blocks....

Steps after steps....stairways leading to more places....

Corridors that seem endless! Not to mention spooky too, not knowing what is at the end...

There were signs we couldn't read....and signs we could but still hold a mystery...

The possibilities are endless...but it also makes the expedition more risky and dangerous....

What can we expect from this expedition? Accounts from MAJ (DR) Low Wye Mun:

"It is when I found occasion to work late into the night that I first heard the voices.

First there would be noises. Movement of feet and metal-studded footwear, creaking wooden floorboards. And then the voices would start, cries of the sick and tormented reverberating through the emptiness of the building. Empty indeed, for no one else remained in the office by this time of the night. Only the voices, and the haunted.

I paid little attention to them initially, but as time passed and following the decision of MINDEF to vacate the Tanglin site to move to new and modern premises, the voices became more frequent, more insistent. As if aggravated by the new buildings starting to assume shape and form, and the intensifying preparations for movement away from Tanglin, the voices rose in like intensity.

It was becoming increasingly discomforting to work with all the interruptions; and just when I'd decided to shift my work home, a peculiar thing happened: the voices softened. Oh, they continued, certainly, but their character had changed to that of muted suffering, of mournful plea.

And that was when I understood: these were the cries of The Forgotten.

They were appealing for the dignity of recollection, of remembrance, and perhaps even of reminiscence. They were pleading for their story to be told before, with the passing of more time in the headlong pursuit of the future, they, buried in the past, were heard no more. And as their chosen scribe (whom I assumed I was, having heard no similar hauntings amongst my peers), I felt compelled to relate their story.

In so doing we might all be reminded of our beginnings in this tropical island, our military heritage notwithstanding. And as we harken to our past, perhaps the voices will be subdued if not stilled."

(adapted from www.tangliners.com)

This expedition is potentially GHOST Club SG most challenging one by date....The risks, the potential and also the possibilities of capturing something concrete, be it a voice, a picture or an experience.....

Stay tuned for the night expedition, coming soon!

Aftermath of Kent Ridge Flag Pole....

Investigator Max's personal account of what happened that fateful night....

Friday night GHOST Club decided to go to the Kent Ridge Park "WWII" site to explore. Many paranormal stories were heard in the past and the leader of GHOST Club once told us that a student he knew even got possessed at that particular parade square. GhostClub Leader "B" had once been there before and encountered some strange phenomenon that failed to give him any clues to the mysteries...

We reach around 1 plus in the morning and we went all the way down where the student got possessed. The haunting spot was the "PARADE SQAURE" where it was once known that soldiers did their marching. We walked around the parade sqaure and took loads of pictures. Our main focus was the 3 flag poles that somehow symoblized 3 chinese joss sticks. Pictures that we took of the place churned out some interesting orbs that even seem to resemble smiling faces for some...

Flagpoles looked exactly like 3 giant joss sticks (picture by www.dkimages.com)

We stood facing the flag pole for a long while when suddenly I felt something amist about the tree right behind the middle flagpole, I exclaimed and said to the team: "The tree is moving in some weird direction". At this same moment Agent "G" also felt that something is wrong and mentioned about the tree when the next moment we knew, we heard a clinking sound!

The pulley on the flag pole was hitting hard on the pole, giving out a "CLINK CLINK CLINK " sound. It eventually stopped for a moment before it continued the "clinking" sound! We stood right in front of the flagpole and observed for 5 minutes. We realized that our surroundings had no wind, neither were there any other movements. GHOST Club realised something was really amist and all of us were getting goosebump. Therefore we decided to move to a different direction at the parade where we can observe the flag pole. While we were observing the flag pole from another direction we realised the clinking sound was still ringing and we recorded it down through video.

For our safety we decided to get back to our safety zone and sat down to have a discussion. We try to remain calm and deliberated in giving the exploration another try. There were just too many mysteries we wanted to find out that masked our fears....

2nd attempt
We decided to go back! While we were on the 2nd level before reaching the parade square I stopped the team and told them to observe from a hidden area. We realised that the flag pole was now moving in another direction and there was no clinking sound. We felt that the entity was trying to send a clear message that it knows we were around and almost through it's defiance of logic, warned us to stay away. As a result we decided not to go back to the parade sqaure, for now....

Once again we were back to our safety zone to calm our minds before finally we deciding to walk around other areas at the park before we headed back for a brave 3rd attempt!

3rd attempt
We decided to walk to the parade square in another direction so that perhaps the entity will be 'caught off guard'. While we were walking down we saw a police car patrolling. The police car would have to make a Uturn at the parade sqaure as the road was narrow. So when the police car came back towards us we stopped them and ask them a question " SIR HAVE YOU SEE THE FLAG POLE SHAKING ?" POLICE OFFICER : " NO it's not shaking"

My observation : " The police knew that something is wrong from his facial expression"
2nd observation: " The policemen seemed a bit tense up upon seeing us"

Our 3rd attempt we decided to go nearer to the flagpole so Investigator B, Investigator Y and myself decided to move forward while the other 2 of us stayed behind. While we were getting close to the flagpole a sudden whisper stopped me, somehow telling me that " YOU SHOULD STAY AWAY FROM IT". I stopped the rest and told them we should probably fall back. Investigator B agreed as previously when he came here with his friends one of them exclaimed the same thing as what I did, so with due respect, we decided to leave the place.

We decided to have our supper while discussing the incidents as we were still pretty curious about the things that happened and were trying to prove them using logically. Once again we decide that everything will come to a conclusion in the morning if we can test out our hypotheses. So we decided to wait till 5+ to go back. We reached the infamous parade square at around 6+ and it's almost bright so we took our equipment and walked all the way down.

We split into three. While I observed from the higher end of the moutain edge, Investigator Y and Investigator B observed the flag pole while Investigator G fall all the way back to observe from another direction. No movements of the flagpoles, no breeze from the top part too. We decided to regroup and headed to the flagpoles. AGENT Y shook the flagpole and to our amazement, among the 3 flagpoles the hardest to shake is actually the middle one! We shook left and right like how it was when we first saw it move, yet the pulley will eventually come to a stop unless we kept moving the pole forward and backwards.

However during the 1st scene during our investigation last night we saw the pole move left and right. The pulley was hitting against it and while we observe from the higher grounds we saw the pole moving forward and backward without any sound. That is definitely against the law of physics and there is no way it can happen. We tried to shake the flagpole in rotationary method yet somehow or rather it sounded like how it was during the night. Only thing was the clinking sound doesn't stop whereas this daytime tried-out stopped after like 5 seconds. During our 1st encounter the clinking sound could even stop for a moment and continued after a while without any intervention...

'Morse Code Machine' from http://www.museumofworldwarii.com/

We studied the wind and felt that it is against quantum physics and there is no way the pole could move like that. Finally we decided to leave the place and concluded that, whatever we saw, heard and felt that night was definitely a paranormal pressence. In addition I'm working hard on Morse code as another hypothesis is that the clinking sound could be a morse code that trying to send us some message. Morse code was used during wwII and was well known during that time. Who know what lie's ahead...