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On March 12th, 1949, Mr Anthony Eden, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the British Parliament
paid a visit to the V.I. to officially open the new school library and to unveil the War Memorial.
Accompanied by the High Commissioner, Sir Henry Gurney, Lady Gurney and Commander A. P. H. Noble,
he arrived at 6 p.m. and was received by the Headmaster, Mr. F. Daniel and the President of the
VIOBA. Following a short speech by the Mr Daniel, Mr. Eden cut a dark blue and light blue ribbon
and declared the library open. The headmaster then showed Mr. Eden around the library, followed
by the official entourage and relatives and friends of the fallen. The Headmaster made another
short address in front of the War Memorial. In reply, Mr. Eden expressed his pride at being
invited to the ceremony and expressed the wish that all Victorians, when looking at the memorial,
would strive to be worthy of it. Wreaths were then laid at the War Memorial by friends and
relatives, which included Mr. J. Daniel, son of the headmaster.
The names on the War Memorial included those of masters and pupils who had fallen in the two World Wars - J.H.V. Thornley, G. Barber, W.C. Curtis, H. Stratton Brown, E.R de Jong, G.C. Tacchi, H.D. Grundy, E.W. Reeve, T.L. White, H. A. Leembruggen, H.C.B. Talalla, R.C. Seimund, A.C. Stahan, G.N. Frank - and that of the wife of the Headmaster, Mrs. M. Daniel - who had died in captivity in Sumatra in 1945. A row of eleven Yellow Flame trees (Peltophorum) had been planted several weeks before the event. Mr. Eden was supposed to have added to these but could not do so because of the inclement weather. Several more Yellow Flame trees were planted in the following days - one for Commander Noble who had accompanied Mr Eden, two in memory of Mr B.E. Shaw and Mr G.C. Davies (both former Headmasters), one in memory of old boy H. Leembruggen by his brother and one in memory of Henry Stratton Brown by his mother, Mrs Stratton Brown, the first headmistress of the Methodist Girls' School. At a special assembly the following day, the Headmaster described the ceremony to the school. Later in the day when Mr. Eden's plane flew by the school on the way to Singapore, 900 Victorians formed a giant "V.I." in 100-yard letters facing east on the school field. The boys waved handkerchiefs as the plane circled the school. Moments later a despatch rider rode up to the school to deliver to the headmaster a photograph of Mr. Eden autographed with the words "With best wishes from Anthony Eden, March 17, 49". In 1955 the school would have yet another brief association with Sir Anthony Eden (he had been knighted by then). On another visit to Malaya, this time as the British Foreign Secretary, he flew over the school in a helicopter after taking off from Coronation Park (site of the present Merdeka Stadium) and waved to a new generation of Victorians gathered below. Sir Anthony became British Prime Minister later that year. Thus he was the highest ranking British visitor ever to grace the grounds of the school.
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