When we are young, we have our hopes and dreams, our plans for the future, and ideas about what we would like to do. One thing is for certain however, we do not know the road we will travel, nor where our steps will take us. For a decade or so after the end of the Second World War, this was the situation for a generation of young men. Whatever their situation in life, if they were hale and hearty, sooner or later they would received a call from Her Majesty’s Armed Forces to enlist in one of the services, in order to do their National Service. They may have a preference for which one, but that was not guaranteed, they would go where they were sent and so it was for a member of our congregation.

Jeffrey Heaton was born in Blackburn, where he and his late wife Brenda worshipped and were married at Derby Street Methodist Church. His family were much involved with the church, his Mother being Sunday School Superintendent and his aunt a leading light in the church’s concert party. On leaving school Jeffrey was apprenticed to the firm of W.H.Smith (the electrical contractors, NOT the famous stationers). Having served his time and qualified as an electrical engineer, he joined the R.A.F. and so began an exciting and rewarding period of his life. In 1955 he was posted to RAF Seletar in Singapore and worked in the maintenance unit, working on searchlights and air-sea rescue equipment until 1957.

He attended the Sunday services at the camp and when a visiting preacher issued an invitation to the congregation to come and visit his flock, Jeffrey accepted and thus began his association with the Trafalgar Leprosy Home. The island of Singapore had always been a busy trading centre and through it had passed commodities and peoples of all kinds and with them they brought the devastating disease of leprosy. In 1926 the Silva Home (later renamed the Trafalgar Home) was built and all leprosy sufferers were sent there. By all accounts it was a pretty grim place with high walls, barbed wire, guards and within, families were broken up and segregated. For obvious reasons visitors were few. Eventually a cure was found for leprosy and the home closed in 1993 and people were rehomed elsewhere.

By the time Jeffrey arrived families were allowed to live together, but the facilities were very poor and the help these unfortunate families received was from volunteers. The priest welcomed Jeffrey and seven others to St Luke’s church and they visited again for a carol service. The home had no music and no organ and after a discussion with the priest Jeffrey and his small band decided to find one, not an easy task with no money! They scoured the music shops of Singapore eventually finding a Chinese shop owner who was prepared to give them an old one, provided he could have a plaque to say he had donated it! Delivery of the organ was arranged through RAF Transport. The next problem to be faced was finding someone to play it and Jeffrey agreed he would do it. They had no music and the only hymn Jeffrey could play without music was Onward Christian Soldiers. No one knew the words and there were no hymn books. In the following weeks the teachers, all volunteers, taught the children the chorus and from then on every service began with Onward Christian Soldiers, until they acquired hymn books and music.

Jeffrey and his friends wanted to do more for the children, so they organised a trip to the seaside. A local bus company took them there, the staff at Trafalgar house laid on a picnic and gifts were found from various sources. It turned out to be a wonderful day with ice creams and boat trips which must have been magical for children who had been forced to live very secluded and confined lives.

As time went on the parents became more involved and were very interested in the men and their lives in England. On one visit Jeffrey had to tell them that his time in Singapore was over and he was going home. He was overwhelmed to receive on his last visit, a copy of Hymns Ancient and Modern. Inside it says ‘Presented on Palm Sunday 1957 from the congregation of St Lukes, Trafalgar Home, Singapore’. Jeffrey returned home and resumed his ordinary live as a civilian and eventually came with Brenda to live in Preston, where he worked for BNFL. He still has his hymn book and his RAF bible, his photographs and, of course, all his happy memories of two years helping to brighten the lives of the leper hospital families of Singapore.