Seletar Air Base, Part of Singapore’s Aviation History
Piccadilly, Edgware Road, Hyde Park Gate – the names
must have evoked London, England, and home, for the Royal
Air Force airmen stationed at Singapore’s Seletar Air
Base between 1928 and 1971. Today, the base still preserves
enough of its colonial era atmosphere that a visitor may expect
to come across Sir Alec Guinness in khakis doing his best
British officer strut.
Seletar was central to the RAF’s presence in Southeast
Asia from the arrival of the first four Supermarine Southampton
Seaplanes until the base was turned over to Singapore in 1971.
The only break came during the war years, when the Japanese
first bombed Seletar and then operated it as an airfield and
support base for Japanese and German submarines. The British
were back in control in 1945, when the first aircraft to return
were the famous Sunderland Flying Boats. The next two decades
RAF Seletar supported British military operations in the Malayan
Emergency, the Indonesian Confrontation, the Korean War, and
China’s 1945-1949 civil war.
The Singapore military now uses the east part of the base,
but the former quarters for married officers are in residential
use and the west part of the camp, which includes the base’s
nine-hole golf course, is accessible to the public. The airfield
itself serves three regional airlines and the Singapore Flying
Club, formed in 1928 as the Royal Singapore Flying Club. There
aren’t much better places to explore some of Singapore’s
history outside of a museum case.
Wear good walking shoes and go early in the morning or late
in the afternoon. You could walk for hours among the colonial
black-and-whites that used to house officers and their families.
Favorite walks of mine would include Hyde Park Gate and The
Oval. The base commander’s house was at 1 Park Lane.
The derelict at 2 Park Lane was the Flying Wing Commander’s
house. No. 3 Park Lane, now the Kingfisher Club, was the Tech
Wing Commander’s house. To plan a walking route, search
on ‘1 Maida Vale’ at www.streetdirectory.com.sg
and pull back to scale ‘4’ from the options listed
on the right side of the resulting map.
Alternatively, a map showing the way past the golf course
to the Sunset Bar & Grill at the Flying Club (about three
kilometers from the bus stop) can be found at www.singaporeflyingclub.com.
Arrange to arrive at the bar and grill in the early evening.
It opens at 4 pm and is closed Tuesdays. The fare is some
of the best American BBQ and burgers in Asia. An outdoor patio
offers a spot to enjoy a tall cold one while watching planes
taking off and landing.
Directions: Take the MRT to the Yio Chu Kang (NS15) station,
cross the road, and catch bus 86. A 15-minute ride will take
you right to the old camp gates. Get off at the end of Jalan
Kayu, just after the bus has crossed the Tampinese Expressway
(or TPE). When departing, catch 86 at the stop by the exit
gate to return to the MRT. There are also several dining options
along Jalan Kayu, the road leading up to the camp.
John Giddens, who now lives at Seletar and whose father served
at the airbase from 1951-1954, provided some of the historical
background for this article. David Taylor, author of “Seletar
– Crowning Glory: The History of the RAF in Singapore”
and newsletter editor for the Royal Air Force Seletar Association
(www.rafseletar.com), also assisted. Mr. Taylor served at
RAF Seletar in the 1960s.
