Ho Seng Ong was born in 1898 in Kuala Selangor, a seaside town on the west coast of Peninsular Malaya. His parents were both Peranakan or Straits-born Chinese. At home, they spoke a unique form of the Malay language mixed with English. His father, Ho Kok Leng, was born in Singapore in 1868 and was educated at the prestigious Raffles Institution. In 1891, the senior Ho married and started work as a chief clerk in the District Office of Kuala Selangor. 

One day, the Reverend William E. Horley, an English missionary and principal of Methodist Boys’ School (MBS) in Kuala Lumpur, visited the town and met Kok Leng. The end result of that encounter was the miraculous conversion of the latter who then agreed to send his sons to MBS Kuala Lumpur, boarding with some local families. 

Seng Ong was admitted into MBS in 1906 at the age of eight. This was the turning point of his life. One of the most drastic measures taken by Reverend Horley was the cutting off of the tauchang or queue years before the practice ended in China. Ho was one of three boys who had their queue removed. The queue was a Manchu hairstyle where the forehead and sides were shaved and the rest of the hair braided into a pigtail that hung down the back. When the Manchus conquered China in 1644, they forced Han Chinese men to adopt the hairstyle. Following the 1911 Revolution that overthrew the Manchus and ended the Qing Dynasty, the victorious revolutionaries put an end to the practice.

At school, Ho applied himself diligently to his studies. Not only did he pass the Senior Cambridge, he went on to pass the Teacher’s Normal and London Intermediate Arts examinations. In 1914, at the age of 16, he became a teacher at MBS Kuala Lumpur with a salary of around $55 per month. 

Addressing his fellow teachers years later in the February 1926 issue of The Malaysia Message, he quoted from the words of George Samson who had written in John O'London's Weekly: 

"If by the time they are fourteen we have given our children the beginnings of command over their own language, if we have taught them how they can learn and go on learning what specially interests them, if we have taught them how much loveliness there is for them to enjoy, if we have taught them to be grateful and comely in person and behaviour, if we have taught them to hate laziness and dirt and cruelty, if we have taught them a sense of personal and corporate responsibility, we have taught them the elements of the greatest of all vocations, the vocation of being members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven."

He added that for his part, he "was going to read these lines over and over again this year, so that I may not fail in my 'high calling' but may know why I go to school 200 days of the year to face a crowd of young minds."

Addressing students in the same article, he suggested the following motto: "Play the game; Win if you can, Lose if you must, But be a man!"^[1]

Marriage and family

In 1920, Ho married Wong Hong Neo, an orphan under the care of some Methodist missionaries. They had met and become close friends at the Epworth League (now Methodist Youth Fellowship) where boys and girls were encouraged to mingle outside of school hours, chaperoned by their teachers. Both Ho and his future wife were baptised on April 12, 1914 by the Reverend W. G. Parker. After passing her Senior Cambridge and Teacher’s Normal examinations, Wong became a teacher with an initial salary of $30 a month.

The wedding was reported in the Malay Mail: “A very pretty wedding took place yesterday afternoon at the Methodist Episcopal Church, Petaling Hill, the parties being Miss Wong Hong Neo and Mr Ho Seng Ong. The bride and the bride-groom belong to the staff of the Methodist Girls’ and Boys’ Schools respectively, and their popularity was testified to by the large attendance at the church as well as at the reception held at Holt Hall.”^[2]

The couple had four children. Robert was born in 1921, Edward in 1924, Mary in 1925 and Ruth in 1927. Ruth later became principal of Methodist Girls’ School Ipoh.

On September 4, 1927, Ho sailed alone for England to further his studies. “Mr Ho, don’t expect to get a penny more in your salary when you return,” his superior at the school had told him when the ambitious young man wanted to go to England. At that time, all the top posts in the Department of Education were monopolised by Westerners. 

Ho earned his B.A. (Honours) degree in geography at the University of London in just one year.  Eight years later, he returned to the Institute of Education at the same university to obtain his Teacher’s Diploma in education and Master of Arts with distinction. He was also inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS). 

On his return to the Methodist Boys’ School Kuala Lumpur, he was promoted to senior teacher. On January 20, 1930, he became the principal of the Anglo-Chinese School Malacca. 

“He is a man of fine literary ability and an excellent teacher. He also bears a character which is of a high order. He is courteous and a gentleman. His Christian values are many and he takes his stand for righteousness, truth, temperance and purity of life. The boys of Malacca A.C.S. will find in their new Principal, a scholar, a teacher and a man who plays the game in every department of the life,” said the Reverend W. E. Horley when introducing Ho Seng Ong to the school staff and students.^[3]

Reverend C. C. Underhill had started ACS Malacca on January 24, 1910 with seven pupils in the home of a Chinese gentleman in Heeren Street. When Ho took over as principal, it was the turning point in the school’s history. He devoted all his time and energy to the task of re-organising and improving the school and started a boarding school in Tranquerah Road to cater to boys from the surrounding towns of Alor Gajah, Jasin, Tangkak and other states. 

The school enrolment grew rapidly and he launched a campaign to raise funds for a new building. The staff donated a month’s salary each. The new school building on a seven-acre site was officially opened in November 1941. 

Unfortunately, war broke out less than two months later and the school was occupied by the Japanese who used the building as a Naval Training Centre. Sadly, all the new furnishings and furniture were completely looted.

War years

World War II arrived in Malaya on December 8, 1941 when Japanese troops set foot in Kota Bharu. The atrocities committed by the Japanese army against the Chinese during the Sino-Japanese conflict caused many Chinese in Malaya to fear for their lives. On January 9, 1942, the Ho family left Malacca for Singapore, then considered “an impregnable fortress”. Twenty young girls from Shellabear Hall (the Methodist Girls’ School hostel) accompanied them. The convoy of nine vehicles stopped at Yong Peng to spend a night at a friend’s house in a rubber estate. The roads were full of vehicles, many of which were army trucks. After a journey of 150 miles, they arrived in Singapore. By God’s providence, the family managed to stay temporarily with friends. Singapore was under constant bombardment and most of the time, the evacuees had to seek refuge in the nearby air-raid shelters. 

On the night of February 8, 1942, the Japanese crossed the Causeway linking Johor Bahru and Singapore. A week later on February 15, 1942, the British commander, Lt-Gen A. E. Percival, surrendered to Lt-Gen Tomoyuki Yamashita. All evacuees to Singapore were ordered to return to their homes in Malaya. After a gruelling and harrowing journey past many Japanese sentries, the Ho family, with the 20 girls in tow, arrived safely back in Malacca. The next four years were uncertain times. 

When the war ended, the family moved to the Manse in Bickley Park in Malacca. It was next to the Anglo-Chinese School which was re-opened on September 24, 1945. About 900 students applied for admission, compared to the pre-war years of 350 students. 

“Our schools are a mere skeleton of what they were. Boys have no books and they are more like a mob than a set of school children,” observed Ho.^[4]

He quickly renovated and furnished the damaged school. The playing field was enlarged and a new tuck shop was built. 

Post-war years

On September 1, 1946, Ho became the principal of the Anglo-Chinese School Ipoh. He proceeded to renovate the school which had been partially damaged during the war. Under him, a Form Six or post-senior class was introduced, the first in the country, and studies in  Chinese, Tamil and Malay were started. Between 1946 and 1948, Ho also served as the pastor of Wesley Church Ipoh. In 1948, he left for the U.S. for a year to further his studies. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Education (EdD) by the University of Denver, Colorado. Upon his return in 1949, he was appointed as the first Asian principal of Anglo-Chinese School Penang. 

Ho then returned to his alma mater, Methodist Boys’ School Kuala Lumpur, as its first Asian principal from 1952 to 1955. He completely renovated the main block, the Assembly Hall was redesigned, and a stage was built with improved acoustics. In 1954, a Form Six class was started, with its own library. 

Ho’s role as a pioneer Methodist educationist spanned a period of almost 50 years until his retirement in December 1963. He was also a man of God. In January 1939, he was ordained a deacon in the Methodist Church. He was the first Asian minister of Wesley Church, Malacca and Kuala Lumpur, the first Asian secretary of the Annual Conference and the first Asian member of the Methodist Board of Mission in New York. Ho was the first chair of the Malaya Annual Conference-Historical Society and president of the Malayan Christian Council.

On December 19, 1949, Ho was ordained an elder of the Methodist Church by Bishop Arthur J. Moore. He was then serving as principal of the Anglo-Chinese School Penang. 

His contributions to the country were no less as he served as a member of the Malayanisation Committee, Central Advisory Education Committee, Staff Side of Federation Arbitration, director of YMCA and member of the Singapore Public Service Commission. 

“We are interested in how men live and earn their living. We are concerned that people shall live decently and under the best conditions of wages and housing. We are against exploitation of any kind and favour the greatest amount of freedom for men consistent with the need for security, peace and order,” he declared when speaking at the Methodist Southeast Asian Central Conference in Singapore in 1960.^[5]

He also served with distinction as a member of the board of missions under the Division of World Missions of the Methodist Church in the New York office from 1959 to 1960. A major part of his role was to travel all over the U.S. to speak about the new nation of Malaya. 

Ho wrote Education for Unity in Malaya (Malayan Teachers’ Union Penang, 1952, 209 pages) which stressed on nation-building through proper education in a multi-racial society. In his view, the British did very little to bridge the gap between races and classes. He believed that although education was not the only means of achieving unity, it was the single most important factor for social integration in the context of Malaya’s racial, religious and cultural fabric.  

Towards the end of his career, he published Methodist Schools in Malaya, Their Record and History (843 pages). The book is a valuable historical record of the Methodist schools of his era. 

Ho passed away in Singapore in 1965. In a tribute at his memorial service, the late Bishop Emeritus Dr T. R. Doraisamy said: "Although a man of superb talents and ability he was a humble, affectionate and compassionate man. He liked to help, as he said, 'the lame duck' and to 'help a lame dog over a stile'."^[6]

The Voyager, the magazine of the Anglo-Chinese School Ipoh where he had served as principal between 1946 and 1948, paid tribute to him in its November 1965 issue by quoting Bishop Hobart B. Amstutz: “We are proud that we have such a man as Ho Seng Ong: teacher, pastor, leader in educational matters, a delegate to world conferences in Africa, Scotland and India, a world citizen wherever he has been sent.” It added: “The life and career of Dr Ho Seng Ong provides a striking example of what the people of Malaysia can do for their country if they use their talents and opportunities wisely and carry out their daily duties loyally, conscientiously, and with a sense of vision and mission.”^[7]

His contributions as an educationist led to his being conferred the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) in 1955 by Queen Elizabeth II. In 1956, the University of Malaya awarded him an honorary LLD degree in recognition of his many achievements.