N.G. Reddish: Borneo Motors and Automotive Legacy in South East Asia

Neville George “Red” Reddish – 30 years with Borneo Motors in South East Asia

By Eli Solomon

The first time I encountered the name N.G. Reddish was when I was a part time research assistant for a book Ilsa Sharp was writing – on the history of Borneo Motors (Wheels of Change: The Borneo Motors Story. 1993). Amongst other sources, my meagre reference material included Henry Longhurst’s The Borneo Story: The History of the First 100 Years of Trading in the Far East by the Borneo Company Limited (London: Newman Neame, 1956), and the sympathetic ear of former Borneo Motors man, Richard M. “Dickie” Arblaster. It would take another 30 years before I was able to piece together something more substantial, and a further year before I decided it was time to construct this piece and add photos from my small collection of motoring ephemera.

NEW IMPORT

Neville George Reddish (b. 1898 – or 1904?, d. 1996) arrived in Singapore on 24 November 1924 as a junior assistant in the newly opened firm of Borneo Motors (formerly the Borneo Motor Company). It was at a time of great excitement in the company, and indeed in Malaya. The parent organisation, the Borneo Company Limited (BCL), had been gearing up the automotive side of the the company’s business and incorporated Borneo Motors Limited in 1925. It was necessary for the organisation to pay much greater attention not only to the range of marques carried, but also to service and sales backup.

As early as April 1924, Borneo Motors (BML) had been aggressively advertising their range of models carried in South East Asia, and in particular, the entrepot of Singapore. One could, claimed the company, buy an Excelsior motorcycle for Straits $285, with a “deferred payment package” and ride it from Singapore to Penang AND back for a mere $8.55 in gas. There was more… The company had agencies for Rolls-Royce Cars, Austin, Peugeot, Maxwell, Oakland and Paige, as well as Goodyear tyres, Lodge spark plugs, Zenith carburettors, Wakefield Castrol oils etc. The new road network had made all of this possibly because, by 1922, a North-South trunk road connecting Johore with Penang had been completed and, in 1923, the Causeway bridging the Straits of Johore with the Malay Peninsula was ready.

Additionally, “The potential market for BCL had been enlarged by the introduction in 1924 of lorries to replace the old bullock-cart in Singapore’s municipal conservancy fleet which regularly washed down the streets of Singapore and supplied water (these carts accounted for the name of one Singapore Chinatown district, “Kreta Ayer,” which translates as “water cart”) [See Wheels of Change, Pg.35]

Reddish was posted to the company’s Penang office in January 1926. Like him, many others arrived from the United Kingdom as Junior Assistants and Managers. Motor traders such as Borneo Motors were growing their businesses with the objective of securing agencies with the major manufacturers as well. On 19th Feb 1925, General Motors Export Co. announced that Borneo Motors had been appointed as their sole distributors for Chevrolet motor cars and trucks for the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States, as well as the Unfederated Malay States. Claud Jackson¹ [d. 16 February 1947], later to become Manager of the Borneo Company and Chairman of Borneo Motors, had arrived in 1922 and started with Borneo Motors in 1924, the company’s first Managing Director. Reddish worked under Jackson.

As was the customary practice of the period, after four years working in the Far East, expatriate staff were allowed to go on home leave. Reddish went on home leave 4 December 1928, leaving on the ship Antenor. There’s a good chance that he had been bitten by the motoring bug by then.

THE BATTLESHIP

Reddish’s Chevremban Special, sometimes referred to as The Battleship, may have emerged in the late 1920s in Malaya, judging by a Singapore Free Press report dated 10 August 1928 that mentioned his colleague Geoffrey Maund² in a “Chevremban Special” at the Selangor A.A. Reliability Trail. It competed against Loke Yaik Foo’s³ Bugatti (Type 37 GP, chassis 37254. Local registration PK3573, later S537 – see https://rewind-media.com/2023/11/06/peng-han-the-frazer-nash-bmw/) and Reddish’s Chrysler. The Reliability Trial was held on 10 August 1928, organised by the Selangor Automobile Association. The event also consisted of a Half-mile Sprint. Whether Maund’s Chevremban Special eventually went to Reddish is not known.

On 19 May 1930 Reddish entered his own Austin Seven in the Perak Motor Union’s first Hill Climb, held at Gopeng. He won awards in various categories: The 1-litre and under Touring CArs class; the 1-litre and under Sports Cars class; the 1.5-litre and under Sports Cars class.

He must have built a bit of a reputation. One Christmas Eve, recalled Rosemary Gransden, daughter of then Borneo Company man John Collier Gransden, “‘Uncle Red’ drove an Austin Seven right on to the ballroom of the E&O Hotel in Penang as a publicity stunt, which infuriated the manager who insisted Red be sacked and sent home to England for being so irresponsible but he was such a popular character and a good salesman that his bosses at Borneo Motors told him he had to ingratiate himself with the E&O manager, which Red did on New Year’s Eve and after several very large stengahs by the early hours of the morning they became the best of friends…….! The last time I saw Uncle Red was at a drinks’ party in Sussex at another great friend from Singapore who was also with Borneo Motors in the 1950s – Jimmy John Wheeler⁴“

In October 1931 Reddish had been promoted to the post of Manager of Borneo Motors’ Ipoh office. On 9 August 1933 Reddish left for Europe on leave on the Blue Funnel ship Hector, returning to Penang in February 1934 on the P&O Chitral. He was back at the helm of the Ipoh office in late February, sorely missed by his rugby mates in the state (he was an active sportsman and a member of the Order of St. George in Perak). Whether or not he returned with a supercharged Austin Seven Ulster TT is not known, suffice it to say that he entered an Austin Seven Sports at the Penang Branch AAM’s Hill Climb and Gymkhana at Tanjong Bungah and Penang Aerodrome in August 1934.

RECORD SETTING

1935 was an even more exciting year for the 37-year-old. The coveted Butterworth to Singapore land speed record was within his crosshairs and in the middle of the year, he drove a 1935 Chevrolet Standard Tourer from Butterworth to Singapore’s Victoria Memorial Hall, establishing a new record of 10 hours 42 mins, beating Ipoh’s Gerald Dixon’s 513-mile, 11 hour 48 minute record (set in a 1926 twin overhead camshaft 3-litre Sunbeam) in June 1931⁵.

Reddish had made an attempt nearly a decade earlier, in June 1926, but this was just an unofficial time he set with Mr A.O. Marshall⁶ in 13 hours 4 minutes in what was a unique test with a Chevrolet with the gear sealed in top, similar to the London to Edinburgh in top gear trials of the Edwardian era. Marshall was then Borneo Motors’ Kuala Lumpur branch manager.  

Reddish’s record was only broken in March 1954, by Freddie Pope (see https://rewind-media.com/2023/11/11/father-of-the-club/), who set the record at 9 hrs 40 mins from Mitchell Pier in Butterworth to the AA Box at Collyer Quay in Singapore in his road registered Jaguar XK120 Roadster.

In late December 1935⁷, Reddish was transferred to the Kuala Lumpur office, replacing another of that intrepid group of motorheads, Oliver Bellingham-Smith⁸, who went on leave. Reddish used the opportunity to heavily promote the Austin brand at the Speed Trials held in Kuala Lumpur, Seremban and Penang, often in his Austin Seven Special, and occasionally in his Chevrolet special, the Chevremban. He also started to play an active part in the Selangor and Pahang Branch of the AAM. At the AAM’s 9 April 1936 meeting at Barrack Road, Kuala Lumpur, he was elected to the committee, with F.W. Douglas re-elected as President. Reddish retained his position on the AAM’s committee the following year as well.

In August 1936 Reddish passed his test for his ‘A’ pilot’s license at the Kuala Lumpur Flying Club. His was a charmed life. In the course of his flying he would be involved in two crashes in small aircraft. In May 1937 he was elected to the committee of the Kuala Lumpur Flying Club as well.  On the committee was fellow motorist Douglas Slade Ainger⁹.

RACING AUSTIN SEVEN

At the end June 1937 Reddish went on home leave. T. Andrews, from the Malacca branch, took over temporary responsibilities of Borneo Motors’ Kuala Lumpur office. Reddish returned on the Antenor on 24 December 1937. Shortly after that we see him in a red supercharged Austin Seven of 1930/31 vintage. Did he race in the UK during any of his leave stints? As a Borneo Motors man, Reddish would have visited Austin’s Longbridge plant as well. Was the car purchased in the UK or was it supercharged and tuned in Kuala Lumpur? Racing couldn’t have been too far from his mind on his home leave and one can assume that the supercharged Austin was acquired in the UK. That first reference to the supercharged Austin came at the AAM’s Central Rally in January 1939.

The little red 747cc Austin must have looked disproportionately small compared to another of his Specials, the Chevremban. But the supercharged 747cc red car put up some quick times at the Gopeng Hill Climb in April 1939 and later at the Gap Hill Climb in Singapore in June 1939, against competition such as Lieut. Peter K. Braid’s LA-MG TA Monoposto and Lim Peng Han’s L.A. Special.

According to Bill Ferguson’s¹⁰ race report, Reddish’s supercharged Austin Seven had a face-lift at the Penang and Kedah Hill Climb at Mount Pleasure on 2 July 1939 but the car gave some problems with its ‘gasmet’ fuelling and Red’s times were compromised, finishing well behind Bill Ferguson’s time in his MG TA Cracker (see https://rewind-media.com/2021/11/12/lost-cream-cracker/ ) in the Sports Cars up to 1550cc.  Harry Marriott, in his MG PB, was the fastest that weekend, setting FTD at 37 2/5 sec but wasn’t able to help the Penang Team of Marriott (MG PB), Lim Khye Su (‘1066’ Special) and Reddish (Chevrolet) to the team prize. The team prize went to Perak’s famous MG squad of Bill Ferguson (MG TA), Gerald Dixon (MG TA) and Bill’s brother Freddy Ferguson (MG TA).

HEADING SOUTH

In April 1940 Reddish was elected to the committee of the Singapore Branch of the AAM. Judge Conrad Oldham was Chairman. Peter Braid R.A. was Vice-Chairman and the Committee consisted of 35-year-old Australian lawyer and Volunteer Aide-de-camp to the Governor Sir Shenton Thomas, Charles Patrick Towers Burke¹¹; 39-year-old veteran motorcycle racer Ron W. McCreath; 28-year-old Lim Peng Han¹²; 57-year-old lawyer Howell Dawson Mundell¹³; Neville George Reddish; W.L. Burton; J. Wilson; 59-year-old Legislative Council member Capt. Noor Mohamed Hashim¹⁴; Lieut. Peter Jermyn R.A.; and 38-year-old Arthur Elsworth¹⁵. In July 1940 Reddish was exempted from Straits Settlements Volunteer Force (SSVF) training as he was in sole charge of all the Borneo Motor branches throughout Malaya. He was also in the thick of things when the War Effort Grand Prix was held in Johore in November 1940 (see https://rewind-media.com/2021/07/08/genesis-the-winds-of-war/). 

Before the Japanese invasion in 1942, as a Sgt. Pilot in the Malayan Volunteer Force, he slipped out of Singapore for Sumatra, then to Java before finally ending up in Fremantle, Australia (on HMS Danae, 24 February 1942). He later saw service in New Guinea, returned to Australia and joined the famous guerrilla resistance movement known as Force 136. He returned to Malaya with Force 136, in a submarine on 21 September 1944, as part of the Australian Infantry Force, rank of Major assigned to 2/7 Australian Commando Squadron. He was second in command. He spent a year in the jungles training the local resistance. He was part of the AIF from 4 July 1942 till 6 November 1946. For his efforts, he was awarded the Military Cross in February 1947.

Reddish returned to Malaya post-war, in the mad scramble to get things in order for Borneo Motors. By April 1948, he appeared on the committee of the Singapore Branch of the AAM, with C.A.B. Starling as Chairman. Starling had taken over from Theodore Stone, who had retired and moved to Melbourne, Australia, in late 1948. Stone, a Municipal Commissioner, had been Vice Chairman before war broke out in Singapore.

Following hostilities in 1946, Reddish was listed with rank of Major, Liaison Officer, Force 136. By 1951 he was President of the Motor Traders Association of Singapore and Patron of the Borneo Motors Sports Club. In March 1954, he imported an Austin Healey 100, one of the first, if not the first, to obtain Austin’s latest sports car, the Healey 100-4 BN1, in the region. His last race in the region was at the Seremban Half-Mile Standing Start Sprint in his Austin Healey 100. Richard M. Arblaster, who would have been interviewed by Reddish for employment in 1952, recalled that “he smashed [it] somewhere up in Malacca and it came back in a lorry, but he puts heart in lots of things.” Interestingly, he would have taken part in at least five sprints and hill climbs in Singapore and Seremban between March 1954 and his departure in November 1954. To date the crash would be almost impossible, except to say that his last event was on 14 November 1954, at the Seremban Half-Mile Sprint, his last race in Malaya (Sunday Standard, 14 November 1954, Page 5). At the event, Reddish took the Sports Cars 3000cc and over win, as well as the Sports Cars Unlimited win, beating Freddie Pope and his Jaguar XK120. When Reddish stepped out of his Austin Healey on 14 November 1954, he was just one of three competitors in Seremban who had participated in the 1940 Johore War Effort Grand Prix – the other two being Lim Peng Han and Jimmy Milne.

Exactly thirty years later after arriving in Malaya, Neville George Reddish retired as Borneo Motors’ Managing Director, replaced by James Wheeler.

By Eli Solomon

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1. Claud Jackson – d. 16 February 1947. Former Manager of the Borneo Company. Died in Croydon, Victoria, Australia. Jackson was Manager of Borneo Company for Malaya and Chairman of Borneo Motors – 1938. A well-known figure in Singapore business life since 1922 he was Chairman of Borneo Motors, Chairman of Alexandra Brickworks (which belonged to Borneo Company and was a Canadian company known as Alexandra Brick and Tile Company (Canada) Limited).  Royal Army Service Corps during earlier part of the war (WWI). Later joined RAF, serving as a pilot in France. In the motor trade in London before coming to Malaya in 1922. Started with Borneo Motors 1924. ↩︎
2. Geoffrey Richard Gwynydd Maund [b. 2 October 1894 d. 27 August 1942]. Maund was Branch Manager of Borneo Motors in Seremban since 1925. He was transferred to Singapore in 1932. Maund’s position as Manager of Borneo Motors, Seremban, was taken over by Mr. M. Pecchoni of Kuala Lumpur. When Maund was transferred to Singapore in 1932, he was President of the Negri Sembilan Motor Association. His interests included yachting, motor boating, golf, birdlife, gardening and aquariums. In 1933, after six months in the Singapore office, Maund was transferred to the Penang office. In 1935 he was appointed representative (resident factory representative in the Far East) of Austin Motors Ltd in Burma, French Indo-China, Siam, Malaya, Sumatra, Java and New Guinea, with HQ in Singapore. Maund’s name is mentioned in Gordon Reis’s diary as prisoner at Palembang who died of Dysentery/Typhoid during captivity, rank of Pilot Officer 117800. His Austin Seven that he raced carried road registration M3882. ↩︎
3. Loke Yaik Foo was the eldest son of active public figure in Malaya, Loke Chow Kit. Yaik Foo was also one of the first Malayan Chinese to learn to fly. His interests included music, tennis, photography etc. He died during a Penang tennis game in December 1947. During the war he flew with the Malayan Volunteer Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force and Force 136. ↩︎
4. James Henry ‘Jimmy’ Wheeler [b. 1913]. Repair Manager Borneo Motors Ltd October 1937. Possibly in Singapore/Straits Settlements since 1935. Later to Sales Department of Borneo Motors, 68-70 Orchard Road, Singapore. Returned to Singapore after the war and became Borneo Motors’ Managing Director (retired April 1956). James Wheeler married Rosemary (Johnny) French of West Kirby, Cheshire in Singapore, 23 December 1946. Wedding reception held at 42 Nassim Road, Singapore. ↩︎
5. Straits Times, 3 June 1935 p12. – Through Malaya in 10 ¾ Hours – Motorist Dash from Penang. See also the first edition of Motoring In Malaya, 1935 ↩︎
6. A.O. Marshall was Branch Manager of Borneo Motors’ Kuala Lumpur office between 1925 and 1929. And the Penang office from May 1929. He left the Far East in December 1931. The family returned to Littlehampton in the UK where Marshall set up a motor business at 29, St. Flora’s Road, Bognor Regis. His wife was Dorothy M. Worters. She was the niece of Mrs James Lornie, wife of former British Resident of Selangor (1927–1931) James Lornie (b. 1876 – d.1959). Marshall married Dorothy in February 1928 in Kuala Lumpur. ↩︎
7. Straits Times, 21 December 1935, pg 16 ↩︎
8. Captain Oliver Bellingham-Smith – FMS Volunteer Force. Died age 41 on 11 June 1943, POW on the Burma Railway. He was already in Taiping with Borneo Motors in late 1929 ↩︎
9. Douglas Slade Ainger was a rubber planter in Malaya and a respected member of the motoring community. He was active in the Selangor scene from the 1920s. In the 1920s he was manager of the Segambut Estate. In 1928 Ainger was Chairman of the Selangor Automobile Association. In 1935 he shipped his car to the UK where he spent five months driving it at various events, including the annual London to Edinburgh 480 mile run. Ainger was a Lieut.-Colonel in the F.M.S. Volunteer force during the war. ↩︎
10. ‘Bill’ James George Milne Ferguson [b. 27 April 1912, Chemor (also known as Chumor), Perak, Malaysia to James Scott Ferguson [23] and Nellie Milne [23]. The Ferguson family lived at the Changkat Kinding Estate (also known as Kinding Rubber Estate Syndicate), located 2.5 miles from Chemor in the Kinta District. Bill Ferguson was another of the racing fanatics who became very active in the sport after the Second World War. His exploits have been recounted in www.Rewind-Media.com ↩︎
11. ‘Bill’ James George Milne Ferguson [b. 27 April 1912, Chemor (also known as Chumor), Perak, Malaysia to James Scott Ferguson [23] and Nellie Milne [23]. The Ferguson family lived at the Changkat Kinding Estate (also known as Kinding Rubber Estate Syndicate), located 2.5 miles from Chemor in the Kinta District. Bill Ferguson was another of the racing fanatics who became very active in the sport after the Second World War. His exploits have been recounted in www.Rewind-Media.com ↩︎
12. Lim Peng Han [b. 7 October 1912] Born at the International settlement of Kulangsu Island in southern China, Lim Peng Han was sent to the Anglo Chinese School in Singapore in 1926 at a time of great uncertainty in Southern China. ↩︎
13. Howell Dawson Mundell [b. 30 May 1883 d. 20 September 1970, age 87]. First came to Singapore in 1908, was in Singapore post-war, first as Chairman of the 1946 Bar Committee. Retired to South Africa in the middle of 1949. Married well-known Polish opera singer Jadwiga ‘Aga’ Lahowska de Romanska on 12 August 1925 in London. ↩︎
14. Capt. Noor Mohamed Hashim bin Mohamed Dally (or Dali) [b. 1 August 1881 d. 22 July 1944, age 62]. Capt. Hashim was the son of Mohammed Dally. ↩︎
15. Arthur Elsworth [b. 1902 d. 12.2. 1945, Palembang]. Elsworth was from Manchester and was an Assistant in the Import Department of Henry Waugh & Co, Ltd. He was CSM 12532 1SSVF Armoured Cars POW Singapore. Went to Borneo, E Force. Died in Captivity, Labuan. ↩︎