My full name is Mahmud bin Md Hassan. I am now 70 years old. I was in Block 8 at Kirkby from 1955 - 1957. My sister, Mahayun bt Md Hassan, was also with me at Kirkby. My wife, Maimunah bt Salleh, was my junior (1956 - 1958).

The e-mail address that you should use to contact me is maimahmud@gmail.com.

After leaving Kirkby, Mahayun and I were sent to Brunei to serve the Brunei Government for five years. Mahayun married Mustapha Tahir, who was her senior in Kirkby. When Mustapha had served five years in Brunei, they both returned to Malaya.

In 1959 I returned to Kuala Lumpur to marry Maimunah. Maimunah then followed me to Brunei. We served Brunei until 1962. The Brunei Rebellion of 1962 delayed our return to Malaya.

1963 saw me and Maimunah in Penang. I was at Westlands Sec School and Maimunah was at the Penang Chinese Girls' High School. In Penang, I met Zainal Arshad who was my senior at Kirkby. He and Mustapha were also our seniors in Brunei. In 1964 Zainal Arshad was made the headmaster of the first Malay-medium secondary school in Penang. He chose me as his senior assistant. Together we started the Jalan Residency Malay-medium Secondary School which later moved to Caunter Hall as Sekolah Abdullah Munshi.

I left Penang at the end of 1966 to join the Local Examinations Syndicate of the Ministry of Education in Kuala Lumpur. My work involved adminstration of Cambridge exams, particularly the HSC (Higher School Certificate) examination and the conduct of Oral Tests particularly the Oral English Test. The Ministry sent me to the Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate in 1969/1970 to study the conduct of Oral Exams. While at Cambridge I managed to visit Kirkby which was by then an English Training College. At Kirkby I met and had tea with Miss Lloyd Williams who was our Art lecturer during my time at Kirkby.

In 1972 I left the Exam Syndicate to join the Malaysian Parliamentary Service as a Malay-English simultaneous interpreter in the Dewan Rakyat and the Dewan Negara. It was my job to translate whatever was uttered by members of the Dewans.  If the honourable member was speaking in Malay, I had to put whatever he was saying into English and vice versa. This had to be done simultaneously. My God! It was quite a strain on the brain. However, this was a skill and being a skill it could be improved with practice and experience.

I still remember when I was in a spot of difficulty. In the visitors' gallery were several members of the British Parliament, all with head phones listening to what was being said. The honourable member was speaking in Malay and he cracked a joke. My God! A joke in one language is often not a joke in another language. But I had to do something to make sure the British Parliamentarians laughed. So I said,"Excuse me gentlemen, the honourable member just cracked a funny joke. So please laugh!" All heads turned to the gallery to see the foreigners laughing a split second later.

I retired from the Parliamentary Service in 1989 at the age of 52. A local bank, Public Bank, invited me to set up their own translation unit. I served Public Bank until I finally retired at the age of 59.

Maimunah attended a course for trained teachers and began teaching music as an itinerant music teacher. She retired much earlier in order to spend some time with our grandchildren.

We have two sons and five grandchildren. We now live in Kuang, a place about 18 miles from Kuala Lumpur. We call our place LUBUK HATI, which actually is the literal translation of LIVERPOOL. On our front gate we have two Kirkby crests flanking the letters Lubuk Hati.

If any of you happen to pass by our way, look out for Lorong Melati. If you see the crests, drop in and we can have some tea.
Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Mahmud Hassan.