During the colonial days back then and when the British Army once ran the healthcare services in Singapore (late 50s up to early 70s), the early hospitals were also built by the British. e.g. the British Military Hospitals (BMH) at Alexandra Road, Changi, Seletar and Sembawang. The radiologists were British. The radiographers were also Brits. Female Nursing staff who served with the British were known as WRAC (Women Royal Army Corp).
Mr Yeap joined the British Army Boys' Trade School for 3 yrs from the early age of 14 and a half. (I will consider our 21st century equivalent as the "macdonalds' generation".) At a chanced meeting with a British lab-tech (one of his seniors who was already working there) one day, Mr Yeap got this friendly advice to sign up for his kind of course in school and won a chance to study overseas.So in early 1964, Mr Yeap was sent to London for basic radiographic training at the Army X-ray School. The course was 8 months' long before they could be certified as "Army Class 3 Radiographers". After the course, Mr Yeap was posted to a Military Hospital in southern England. They could be working as part of the armed force's own radiographic pool and as a rule, these new graduates were posted to a department where there was a clinical instructor. (Prerequisite: must be school instructors before.)Every month, the Army X-ray school would send the former students the Part 1 test papers for them to practice. Upon passing their Part 1 papers, they would be considered as "Class 2" and thereafter be deployed anywhere in the British Colony to serve in the army as radiographers.
Mr Yeap was posted back to Singapore in Dec 1965 to serve at BMH in Alexandra Road (the present AH). At that time, school still sent Part 2 papers for them to continue practice. Mr Yeap sat for his Part II of the Diploma of Society of Radiographers UK together with the students at School of Radiography (at SGH). (School of Radiography was started in 1965 by 2 Radiographers from UK, Ian England and K C Danley. You can find one of their fotos at DDR, SGH.) After passing Part 2, he worked at BMH until 1969.He successfully applied for a job at the prestigious KL University Hospital. (During those days, the pay there was higher and the currency exchange rate was 1:1!) Unfortunately, that was also amidst one of the severest racial riots in Malaya then. Time moved on and before he joined SGH in 1976 (where he stayed and worked at Angio for nearly 4 yrs), Mr Yeap had already worked at KL University Hospital for another 7 yrs. In 1980, Mr Yeap moved on to take charge of the Diagnostic Imaging Department in Mt Elizabeth Hospital as Snr Radiographer. (There was no chief radiographer yet at that time and when the Americans took over the hospital, the chief was then known as "Director of Radiology".) In 1986, that was when the nation-wide computerization began to sweep over Singapore. Mr Yeap had painstakingly begun on the route least-travelled and was probably the first chief who boldly swapped the manual hardcover registration method for a computerised RIS.
In 1993, Mr Yeap went over to manage the Radiology Department at Gleneagles Hospital. He is there still. If you would drop by one day to Gleneagles Hospital, you would probably still get to experience the same hospitality, warmth and natural smiles from Mr Yeap. Personally, I have always this respect for Mr Yeap for he is not only someone who has already "been there, seen this, and done that", but also for someone who still treats workers and friends alike, and with the same frankness and calm ....