Posts
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| V.M. Noordin |
1. Vapoo Merican Noordin aka V. M. Noordin was my
grandfather. As far as I can remember, I knew this for a fact from my birth
certificate. In the document, my father’s name was written as Md Ismail Marikan
bin Vapoo Marikan Nordin. Up until now, everything I knew about Vapoo was from
my reading. Not even my father would have known him personally because the
latter died when he was only two years old.
2. Vapoo lived in the second half of 19th
century. During his lifetime Vapoo resided at Acheen Street and took care of
his father’s company on Chulia Street. Vapoo was a prominent leader of the Chulia (Kling)
community. He was one of the headmen of the Red Flag Society. During the Penang
Riots of 1867, Vapoo was implicated on account of the involvement of the
society in the riots. That might be the reason why he was left out of his father’s will.
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| Acheen Street (Lebuh Acheh) |
3. I suppose Vapoo was a man who went his own
way. Being his own man, Vapoo strove to become a prominent merchant in his own right. He established his own company ‘V.M. Noordin’ in 1853. He
was said to be one of the most influential Penang merchant. He ran fleet of
ships trading mostly with Acheh, Burma, India and Singapore.
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| Chulia Street |
4. In the 1870s, Vapoo was appointed a grand juror and municipal
commissioner, and made Justice of the Peace. He was also an honorary magistrate
and a member of Penang Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture. He died towards the turn of the century on 24
July 1884.
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| Vapoo's grave |
5. In 2013 it was simply by
chance that my wife and I found Vapoo’s resting place in a cemetery in the vicinity of
the Kapitan Kling Mosque in Georgetown. A tombstone on his grave bears his name
in “Jawi” (=Arabic characters). May Allah bless his soul!
