Massa Singh, 1948. Cleaned and detail-enhanced version of the tinted family portrait. View the original in the gallery.
Massa Singh most likely arrived in Singapore in the 1930s. 1
Family recollections place the start of his work as a guard at Changi Prison around 1937, about the time it opened. 4
He and Kartar Kaur Mohar are believed to have married in 1938, though the exact date and place remain unconfirmed. Kartar, born in 1918, came from Tur, near Khadur Sahib in Punjab. She moved to Singapore around 1940. 11, 21
A guard during the war
In November 1941, Massa was serving as a guard at Changi Prison. His brother-in-law, Udham Singh, had recently arrived from India. With no other suitable place to put him up, Massa asked the superintendent for permission to let Udham stay in his quarters for two months. 14, 20
About three months after Massa wrote his letter, Singapore fell to the Japanese on 15 February 1942. Massa continued working as a guard under Japanese rule. In 1944, he and Kartar were living at the internment camp on Adam Road, Singapore. 5, 15, 24
His service at Sime Road brought him into contact with the internees, some of whom he helped obtain food. Among them was Gwen Kirwan, who spent eight days confined in the guardhouse. Massa brought her fruit despite the danger: if discovered, his help could have exposed him to a severe beating or cost him his life. 5
Work and family after the war
When the war ended, Massa was without work. Former internees he had helped wrote testimonials on his behalf, asking others to assist him and his family. 5
The family eventually made their home at 410 Havelock Road, a warehouse where Massa likely worked as a live-in jaga, or watchman. In 1947, he was also involved in cargo-boat transport in Johore as a joint owner. 16, 25
To support their nine children, Massa combined taxi driving by day with night work as a watchman. He probably also lent money on the side. By February 1952, the family had moved to 175 Cecil Street. They later moved to Outram Park, where they were living by April 1972. 3, 19, 25
Massa died on 31 August 1980. He is believed to have suffered a heart attack while visiting Delhi. 1, 7, 23
Kartar lived for another thirty years. She died at St Andrew Community Hospital in Singapore on 25 November 2010. 11
Recordings
Hear Massa Singh in two recordings preserved by his family. The recordings are labelled 1979 in the family archive.
Side A · 32 min 34 sec
Side B · 30 min 25 sec
Family audio archive; date follows the family's recording labels.
Photographs and documents
Massa Singh 1948
1
2
Massa Singh ~ 1975
Massa Singh ~1975 Color
Jammabandi 1962 – 497
Testimonial Letter from Gwen Kirwan & MS Almenda
Testimonial Letter from Gwen Kirwan Handwritten
Letter to Prison Supt for Permission for BIL to stay in Quarters
Cargo Boat License JBC 1283
Cargo Boat License JBC 1282
Massa Singh British Passport 1 of 2
Massa Singh British Passport 2 of 2.pg
Sources and notes
01 Family information: details awaiting independent confirmation
Family information identifies Massa’s parents as Bhan Singh Sandhu and Esher Kaur, a younger brother Meher Singh born around 1915, and a sister whose name is not known.
The family’s current estimate places his arrival in Singapore most likely in the 1930s. Earlier family information tentatively placed it in the late 1920s or around 1930. These estimates have not been reconciled through an arrival record or named witness; the date remains uncertain.
The Delhi visit and reported heart attack are family information. Family information also connects one of Massa and Kartar’s sons with the youngest daughter of Kartar Singh Dosanjh of Tangra; the couple’s names have not been established. Esher is also recorded as Escher. The photographs are dated by the family to 1948 and about 1975. The passport separately supplies Massa’s birth year and birthplace; see notes 18 and 23 for his father’s name and death date.
02 Massa Singh’s British passport: description page
Records Karmuwala as his birthplace and 1913 as his birth year. The issue date is not established.
03 Violet Oon, “A turbanned head in the lion”, New Nation, 12 April 1972, page 2
This profile of Massa’s son describes taxi work by day, watchman work at night and the family’s move from Cecil Street to Outram Park by April 1972. His son’s four brothers and four sisters are consistent with nine children, without establishing that all nine were then living. The article gives neither exact street numbers nor a move date.
04 Changi service: family recollection and institutional context
Family recollections place the start of Massa’s guard work at Changi around 1937, not an independently verified appointment date. The National Museum’s collection entry dates the prison’s official opening to 1937, and NLB records prisoner transfers in January 1937. These institutional dates do not establish Massa’s service. His November 1941 letter is the earliest contemporary employment evidence identified. The Malaya Tribune report names Sarwan Singh, P.G.186; comparison with Massa’s P.G.195 cannot establish recruitment order without a guard-number register.
Open source · National Museum: opening year · NLB: January 1937 transfers
05 Testimonials attributed to Gwen Kirwan and M. S. Almenda, 1945
Kirwan’s account is dated 25 August 1945 and Almenda’s 22 October 1945. Both describe Massa as a guard at Sime Road who helped internees. Neither mentions Changi or gives P.G.195. The surviving typed sheet’s production date and “Signed” lines are unauthenticated; the handwritten Kirwan version is the same witness’s account, not a third witness. Her statement that Massa was then without work does not establish permanent discharge. Together with the November 1941 Changi letter, the accounts support guard work before and during the occupation, but not uninterrupted employment, transfer dates or a complete posting sequence.
06 Kartar Singh Dosanjh family history
The Dosanjh family’s account describes his wartime service and captivity in Hong Kong and Singapore. It is a family-history source, not independent verification of those events.
07 The Straits Times, 31 August 1987, page 30
A seventh-anniversary remembrance of Massa’s death on 31 August 1980. The publication year is not his death year.
08 YFull L-Y91197 tree
The family research reports haplogroup L-Y91197. This link describes the haplogroup; it does not itself establish an individual’s test result or prove a particular family relationship.
11 Family information: Kartar Kaur Mohar
Kartar’s birth year, arrival around 1940, natal family and death details are family information. Her father was Jawala Singh Mohar, her mother Inder Kaur Mohar, and her paternal grandfather Kahan Singh Mohar. Her siblings are recorded as Udam, Kernail, Puran and an unnamed sister. The Tur land records in notes 12–13 document Udham’s male line through Jawala to Kahan, but do not independently establish Kartar’s place in that family. No separate vital or travel record has been identified for the dates used here.
12 Udham Singh jamabandi, Tur, 2014–15, page 1, column 3
Names Udham Singh as son of Jawala Singh and grandson of Kahan Singh. The header identifies Tur, hadbast 320, Khadur Sahib, Tarn Taran. The entry does not name Kartar or Inder.
13 Punjab Jamabandi, Tur, hadbast 320, 2019–20, khewat 12, report LR26-28242649
Page 1’s owner column records the Udham–Jawala–Kahan line and the Karnail–Jawala branch. Generated in 2026, the report includes later annotations: its cycle label is neither an event date nor proof that a named person was still alive. It is marked “Not For Legal Purpose”. The link opens the official search page, not the individual report.
14 Letter to the Superintendent, H.M. Prison Changi, November 1941
The November 1941 letter identifies Massa as P.G.195 at H.M. Prison Changi and requests a two-month stay for a visitor recently arrived from India. The family manuscript identifies the visitor as his brother-in-law, Udham Singh; that name is not independently established by the damaged letter. The header day is damaged, and the possible 13 November forwarding annotation is not a secure composition date. The letter gives no appointment or retirement date.
15 Family-held certified birth-register extract: 1944 event, certified 20 September 1984
Names the parents as “Masa Singh”, Police Constable, and “Kartar Kour”, with the Adam Road internment-camp address. The 1984 certification is not a new residence event. The extract identifies no police unit or continuous posting history. The parents’ address does not establish that the child was born there, that the family were internees or that Adam Road and Sime Road were identical sites.
16 State of Johore cargo-boat licences, valid 1 October–31 December 1947
The paired reproduction in the family book names Massa Singh of 410 Havelock Road and Bachan Singh of 323 Race Course Road in the owner-name and residence entries. Involvement in cargo-boat transport is inferred from this shared licensed ownership; the licences do not establish that Massa personally operated or crewed a vessel, completed voyages or ran a regular shipping business. They identify no route, cargo or earnings attributable to him. The licences are numbered 431/47 and 432/47; JBC 1283 and JBC 1282 are separate boat identifiers. Their validity establishes neither continuous residence nor home ownership or household composition. The warehouse description and possible live-in watchman role come from the family information and inference in note 25, not the licences.
17 Certificate of Identity, issued 3 June 1948
Records Massa as aged 35 and a “Taxi Owner”. It is a Certificate of Identity, not a passport, and gives no father’s name, guard number or service-ending date. It establishes taxi ownership by 1948, not when ownership began or when he combined daytime driving with night-watchman work.
18 British passport: title and description pages
Records “Businessman”, Singapore residence and “British Subject: Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies”. The title page names “MR. MASSA SINGH S/o PAN SINGH”. The family has confirmed that Pan Singh and Bhan Singh are the same person. These pages establish no issue date, business name or street address, and do not show whether he later acquired Singapore citizenship.
19 Family-held certified birth-register extract: February 1952 event, certified 7 September 1960
Records the parents’ home at 175 Cecil Street, Massa Singh as a taxi driver and the mother as “Karta Kaur”. The address relates to the 1952 birth event, not the 1960 certification or a move date. The evidence is a certified extract rather than the original register. The broader Havelock and Cecil Street residence periods remain family recollection.
20 Unattributed manuscript tradition about Massa’s working life
The family manuscript includes an unattributed first-person passage about Massa’s working life. Its author and underlying testimony have not been established, so it is not authenticated daughter testimony or independent corroboration. Udham was Massa’s brother-in-law, not his alias. “Marsa Singh” is a search spelling, not an established alias. A precise 1930–1944 service span, personal recruitment in 1936 and a May 1942 camp transfer remain unverified.
21 Approximate marriage year
The marriage is believed to date to 1938; its exact date and location remain unconfirmed.
22 Family-held marriage certificate, 20 September 1978
Names the second witness as “MASSA SINGH S/O PAN SINGH” and gives the abbreviated address “Block 28, 497-M”, Outram Park. The fuller family address is Block 28, #13-497M, Outram Park, with “13” denoting the floor. The floor detail comes from family clarification, not the certificate’s abbreviated address. This is a son’s marriage, not Massa’s, and the certificate establishes neither a residence span nor the ceremony’s venue.
23 Death-date discrepancy
Some family manuscript passages give 13 August 1980, but the seventh-anniversary memorial states 31 August 1980, the date used in this biography. No separate obituary substantiating 13 August has been identified.
24 National Archives of Singapore: fall of Singapore, 15 February 1942
The National Archives of Singapore’s Former Ford Factory overview dates the British surrender to the Japanese to 15 February 1942, roughly three months after Massa’s November 1941 letter. This historical context does not establish his personal posting sequence.
25 Family information: Havelock Road and possible additional work, October 2026
Family information supplied in October 2026 identifies 410 Havelock Road as a later family home and a warehouse. A live-in jaga (watchman) role is inferred from the nature of the premises, not established by an employment record. Moneylending is a family hypothesis, not a corroborated occupation; its dates and extent are unknown.
Family history changelog
Changelog Main Families
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 21/01/2021 | Updated Hardit Singh's profile (added Sunder Singh's wife and brother) |
| 29/01/2021 | Added Rur Singh's profile; Added Ram Singh as common ancestor of Massa Singh & Hardit Singh |
| 27/02/2021 | Added Massa Singh's WW2 Interment Camp history and added testimonial letters from Gwen Kirwan & M.S Almenda |
| 28/03/2021 | BigY700 Completed & Y Haplogroup for Massa Singh updated to be https://yfull.com/tree/L-Y33989*/ |
| 06/04/2021 | Added Massa Singh's joining of Changi Prison as Prison Guard and added 3 images : a letter to Supt and 2 Cargo Boat Licenses in Massa Singh's name |
| 11/01/2022 | Updated Massa Singh's Haplogroup to L-Y91197 (https://yfull.com/tree/L-Y91197/) |
| 11/06/2024 | Added Hardit Singhs involvement in the Bangkok Conference. |
| 22/06/2024 | Updated Massa Singh's Changi Prison join date downwards to 1937 instead of 1939 due to a case mentioning a Prison Guard 186, Sarwan Singh from 1937. Massa Singh was Prison Guard 195 and couldn't have joined much later than Sarwan Singh. |