Presentation of John Polglase’s Bible

A PERSONAL BIBLE of Mr John Polglase, the first member of the early Methodist Church in Singapore 125 years ago, has been given to The Methodist Church in Singapore (MCS).

The Rev Malcolm Tan, Chairman of the Council on Archives and History, presented the Bible on behalf of the Polglase family to Bishop Dr Robert Solomon during the Combined 125^th Anniversary Thanksgiving and Aldersgate 2010 Service at Paya Lebar Methodist Church on May 22 (picture at right).   

Two of Mr Polglase’s grandchildren, Mr Ian McLeod and Dr Denise Sherwood, brother and sister, who are unable to travel, donated his personal Bible to the MCS. Together with the Bible is a copy of Mr McLeod’s biography of his mother, Dorothy, entitled I will Sing to the End. Dorothy was Mr Polglase’s daughter who taught for a number of years at Anglo-Chinese School and who died of malnutrition in a prisoner-of-war camp on Bangka Island on Easter Sunday, 1945.

The Bible and the biography will be deposited at the Methodist Archives and History Library and displayed as some of our historic artefacts.

Mr Polglase was a one-man organiser and facilitator who worked with the Rev William Oldham and provided valuable support for the early Methodist Mission. – Methodist Message picture by Phillip Lam, a member of Geylang Chinese Methodist Church.