Published on: Sunday, January 24, 2021
By: David C C Lim and Syn Chew
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Tun Fuad Stephens signing the memorandum of the Malaysia Agreement. Looking on second left are Tun Mustapha, Encik Khir Johari, a Brunei representative and Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
THE headlines of The Canberra Times of 6th July, 1948, reads, “Sir Edward Gent Killed in a Plane Collision”. Sir Edward was flying in an RAF transport plane, an Avro York, when it collided with a Scandinavian Airlines’ passenger plane while in holding pattern over Northolt airport, London, under adverse weather conditions.
Sir Edward had left Singapore on 29th June, 1948. The news shocked the people of Malaya as Sir Edward was the first High Commissioner to the Malayan Federation and had also been the Governor of the short-lived Malayan Union. It should also have invoked an emotional response from some of the former officers in the service of the Rajah of Sarawak as Gent had also played a part in hastening the cession of