Chan Hua Eng, R OBE, had been one of our oldest Members when he peacefully passed on in April 2025 from this terrestrial abode at age 97. He is survived by his dear wife Dr. Leong Mee Yoong known to many of us as Dr. May Chan, his son Chan Thye Seng, his daughter-in-law Teresa Tan Soo Leng, his grandchildren Han Yip, Xin Yi and Pei Yi and his daughter, Chan Cheng Sim as well as a number of other relatives and a host of friends.
There have been a number of eulogies read or written on Chan Hua Eng including that brilliant comprehensive one for the Royal Lake Club by Dato Sivaloganathan and David Dass. My version is a more restrictive one and touches, inter alia, on the early days of Hua Eng and I (we are both of about the same vintage and from Klang), his involvement in our Club, The Royal Selangor Golf Club, and on his massive and important contribution to the Malaysian Bar and to the Malaysian Bar Council.
Chang Hua Eng was the only son of the very effective Chinese Business Agent, the Comprador, of the East Asiatic Company that was and is the prominent Danish Corporate front to a number of Malaysian Companies associated to it, on the Boards of which Chan Hua Eng had played important roles as a prominent Board Member, utilising both his expertise as one of our top company law experts and his prowess as a business man. Chan Hua Eng was also closely connected to the British.
Business Community here, as a result of which he was awarded the Order of the British Empire, R OBE, by Queen Elizabeth II.
Chan Huang Eng was almost three years my senior in age. We were both born and bred in Klang, Selangor. Hua Eng completed his pre-university studies at the High School Klang and I at the ACS Klang, both English medium schools. Our studies in these school were interrupted by the occupation of Malaya (as it was then) by the Japanese in 1942 and by the conversion thereafter of the English Medium Schools into schools with the medium education in the Japanese language, Nippon-go.
To get a true measure of Hua Eng, you have to have more than a glimpse of the travails that we in Malaya were subjected to by the 1942 Japanese occupation of the country and of the situation that obtained in pre-merdeka days in Malaya.
And so I do not apologise for being somewhat long-winded.
In the pre-war days and after the war (i.e. the 2nd World War) secondary education ended with the Senior Cambridge Examinations equivalent to todays ‘O’ Levels. There was no ‘A’ Levels. One went straight into university, provided you had good enough results in the Senior Cambridge Examinations. However, in those days there were no Universities in Malaya or in Singapore. For University education, we went to UK or Australia or New Zealand or to India or to Hong Kong. But most of the Universities there, required us to be matriculated to the University of London which recognised the Senior Cambridge Examination results provided the candidate had a second language. My elder brother did French for the Senior Cambridge. Hua Eng and I did Latin, Hua Eng in 1946 and I in 1948, each of us tutored by my neighbour the School Master, V.K.Arumugam. The teaching of Latin was based on a good command of English grammar which the Malayan student is taught in Standard 4, 5 & 6 before completing the studies for the Senior Cambridge in Standard 7, 8 & 9. However, Hua Eng and I were handicapped in that when we should have been studying Elementary Maths and English Grammar, we were in the Japanese Medium Schools studying Nippon-go!
In 1946, after the war, Hua Eng crammed on the subjects for the Senior Cambridge Examinations including Latin, as I did in 1948. It is our credit that we both did reasonably well, Hua Eng in 1946 and I in 1948. And in particular we each passed the Senior Cambridge Latin paper with a credit, thanks to the genius V. K. Arumugam and the cramming that we did!
For Hua Eng, the 1946 results were good enough for him to be admitted for Medicine in the University of Hong Kong in 1947. I applied in 1949 for Medicine at the newly created University of Malaya (in Singapore) but was given a place for Dentistry.
In 1949, Hua Eng dropped out of Medical College in Hong Kong to proceed to London for the study of Law, as I also did, from Dentistry to Law in London in 1952.
On his return from his law studies in England, Hua Eng joined the British firm of lawyers, Shearn Delamore, as a Legal Assistant, the second Non-Brit to be accepted by the all-British Partners of that firm. He went on to be made a Partner of the firm and eventually retired as its Senior and Lead Partner.
Chan Hua Eng, Raja Aziz Addruce, GTS Sidhu, Dollar Rahman and I conspired, in the mid sixties, to take over the leadership of the Bar, from the oldies, R.Ramani, R. R. Chelliah, S. M. Yong etc., and revamp the Bar Council from a sociable organisation to what it became. A new Legal Profession Act had to replace the 1947 Ordinance. That 1947 Ordinance, can you believe it, provided for the Attorney-General to chair meetings of the Bar!
There is no question but that it is to the credit of Chan Hua Eng that in his watch as Chairman of the Bar Council & (President of the Malaysian Bar) the governance of the Malaysian Bar metamorphosised into what it is today, an independent, brave, very vocal organisation that made itself conscience of the nation. The new Legal Profession Act drafted by a Bar Council Committee was made law in my watch as Chairman of the Bar having succeeded to that position after Chan Hua Eng’s term as Chairman.
Chan Hua Eng was a keen golfer. He became a Member of the Club in 1963. He did not aspire to be in the Executive Committee of the Club but served in many of its sub-committees. He also made it a point to attend the Annual General Meeting and all Extra General Ordinary Meetings of the Club and at all of which he was vocal on issues in the governance of the Club. When Hua Eng spoke at those meeting, even if you did not agree with his view point, you listened to him!
And so a great-soul has passed on. While we mourn with the family we also celebrate the active and useful long life of our fellow Member Chan Hua Eng.
It is apt that I end this Eulogy with a recitation of that verse from the song, ‘I did it my way’.
‘And now, the end is near And so, I face the final curtain My friend, I’ll say it clear I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain I’ve lived a life that’s full I travelled each and every highway And more, much more than this I did it my way’
It is quite apparent that many of our new Members (including a few seniors who have little interest in Club affairs) are, regrettably, not familiar with the name Chan Hua Eng. Little do they know that our Club’s well-being and tremendous progress over the years are in no small part due to the tireless efforts of Members like Hua Eng, who had served the Club selflessly and unobtrusively.
And it is this particular aspect of Hua Eng that this missive attempts to highlight — leaving aside his sterling career in the legal profession, as a revered Chairman of the Bar Council and President of the Malaysian Bar as well as in his short stint on the Bench. Those qualities and achievements are best recounted by his peers and fellow legal luminaries, the likes of Tan Sri V.C. George in his eulogy including another tribute written by Dato’ Sivaloganathan for the Lake Club.
Rolling back some 50 years in time, I attended my first AGM as a new member of the Lake Club. It was a pretty dull affair that morning until some lively exchange of words broke the monotony. These escalated to a heated argument until another gentleman took to the floor and calmly, in a reasoned manner in didactic fashion, quelled the situation. The aura of authority and veneration was palpable. That gentleman, I found out later from other members, was Chan Hua Eng. For the next 10 years or so, I attended a couple more AGMs and each time Hua Eng was also there in his familiar role, leading me to conclude quite logically that he must be a permanent fixture at Lake Club AGMs! By that time, I had become an RSGC Member too, and also attended a few AGMs here. Again, no prizes for guessing who was the most conspicuous in the hall — none other than the same striking personality each time, always seated at the front, well prepared with a stack of notes.
Notably a spirited participant he was too, well-known for telling it like it is, trenchant even. With his legal background and eloquence, he was able to articulate his views in a rational manner. The undeniable show of deference from the floor was testimony to the recognition of a champion of probity, integrity and moral rectitude.
floor at General Meetings, he had worked assiduously for many years behind the scenes, shunning the limelight if you will, in important sub-committees and heading ad hoc panels. He also played a pivotal role as the Editor of The Circular in the late 1990s by uplifting the high standards, especially in the writing of the much acclaimed Editorial. In fact, the welfare of the Club seemed to be his raison d’être at all times.
Former Committee Member, Captain and Club President Tan Sri Yong Poh Kon, fondly recalls, “Perhaps the most memorable intervention by Hua Eng was when he strongly opposed the proposal seeking to monetise club memberships through the introduction of transferable memberships. He eloquently argued, both in 2009 and again in 2012, that such a move would violate the express provisions of the Companies Act which forbids a Company Limited by Guarantee — such as RSGC — from making monetary distributions to its members. On both occasions, he stood his ground unwaveringly, successfully rallying other likeminded Members to defeat those proposals and preserve the Club’s founding principles.”
Poh Kon goes on to say: “I can personally attest to the invaluable pro bono input we received from the man. His professional guidance was instrumental in drafting necessary amendments to the Club’s Constitution, ensuring that proposed changes could be smoothly and properly adopted at General Meetings. Among the fundamental reforms he helped shape was the introduction of term limits for Committee positions — a crucial step towards ensuring rejuvenation and bringing fresh ideas into Club leadership. Until then, it was not uncommon for Members to hold the same position for many years, a practice that stifled renewal and progress.
Another landmark contribution was his expert counsel when we were considering constitutional amendments to create a single class of membership, granting both men and women equal rights and voting privileges. His guidance and direction culminated in the historic adoption of those changes at the AGM of June 2007, when the Club overwhelmingly voted to admit women as Ordinary Members. That was THE watershed moment in our Club’s modern history.”
The RSGC veritably owes a profound debt of gratitude to this lion of a man — Chan Hua Eng. It is undeniable that he had contributed much to our club in his customary forthright and no-nonsense manner that was his hallmark, and benefited the Club and its Members to this day.
We honour his memory and contributions with the greatest respect. May his soul rest in eternal peace.
