Aberdeen & Swatow Company
Aberdeen in Scotland is near Glasgow where The Boys' Brigade was founded. It is a historic city which also one of the
earliest cities to adopt The Boys' Brigade following its inception in 1883. James Milner Fraser grew up in the 23rd
Aberdeen Company; later he became an officer in the 23rd London Company. From London, he went to Singapore as a young
architect.
Swatow is in China, but in this city was established a company which will never to be forgotten - the 1st Swatow Company -
founded in 1914. It was a mammoth company that consists of 300 strong and most efficient in all that it did. It survived
for many years until the communist made it impossible to carry on. Many of its members fled to Nanyang to escape
persecution.
The founding
Although both companies were far away from each other, yet there was a link between these cities. Ex-Sergeant Quek Eng Moh,
a Swatow Old Boy, met Mr. James M Fraser on a road in Singapore one day in 1930. He recognized Mr. Fraser as a BB member as
he had the BB buttonhole badge on. He told Mr. Fraser that the Swatow stalwarts wanted to have a Boys' Brigade Company in
Singapore. On 12 January 1930, Mr. Fraser and the 1st Swatow Company Old Boys founded the 1st Singapore Company at Prinsep
Street Presbyterian Church, with the approval of Rev William Murray.
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