The bungalow on Tanjong Lobang Cliff

House a treasure trove of memories of former Miri Resident and his family

A view of the beautiful Luak Bay from Tanjong Lobang Cliff.

VERY few people ever had the chance to catch the panoramic sight of Luak Bay from the garden at the bungalow on Tanjong Lobang Cliff, as the couple who had lived there for over five decades was very private.

I was amongst those who had the privilege of having visited the place.

The property owner was Dato Sri Arni Lampam, hailed as the first Malay science graduate from the University of Malaya, back when the institution was still based in Singapore.

He was also amongst the first administrative officers in the pre-Independence Sarawak era who were locals – previously, all the officers were British-born.

Later on, he became the first Malay appointed as the Resident of Miri Division.

He was in the Sarawak government’s service for two decades before joining Shell Company.

Arni came from a distinguished family. All his siblings were brilliant individuals and notably, there is a road in Miri named after his father, Haji Lampam.

His wife, Datin Sri Jill Lampam, hailed from the Isle of Man in the UK and the two met when they were working in the State Secretariat in Kuching.

The couple later became a significant part of the Miri community after they bought a land at Tanjong Lobang in the 1960s and built the bungalow there.

The couple was later blessed with a daughter, whom they named Julia.
“This house has a perfect view of Luak Bay, which always reminded my mother of her birthplace (Isle of Man),” Julia told thesundaypost in a recent interview.

The afternoon tea was one of the things that Jill, whose maiden name was Gillian Margaret Keggin, brought from home.

Like clockwork, she would serve tea at 4pm every day. Sometimes, the couple would receive guests too and a regular visitor was Bishop Anthony Galvin, the First Roman Catholic Bishop of Miri.

Julia was just a little girl when the bishop, who lived in the Bishop’s House not far down the road, first paid her family a visit.

Julia regarded him as being ‘very kind and fatherly’. She called him ‘Apai’ (‘father’ in Iban) which, later on, he used to sign all his letters and postcards to the family.

Bishop Galvin remained close to the family until his passing on Sept 5, 1976.

The family upheld his memory by keeping all the books that he had given to them.

An old photo shows Bishop Galvin with his congregation in Miri. Julia’s family had remained close with the bishop until his passing in 1976.

‘Designed with love’

I had visited the family a few times and every time I was there, I could feel the harmony and serenity.

Jill always served delicious butter cookies during tea time and her floral arrangements around the house made the whole surrounding vibrant.

The overall layout, with its spacious patio and the rattan furniture, carried the post-Colonial era look.

“I grew up in this home with lots of love, gentleness and kindness,” said Julia.

“Every brick has a memory. My parents designed it with love – they instructed the architect what they wanted from their hearts.

“The visitors were always kind and respectful, and they loved our Tanjong Lobang home.”

This old photo, still kept by Julia, shows her parents during their younger days.

‘A humble man’

Retired nurse Betty Bong remembered Arni as ‘a fair and humble man’.
She chuckled when she recounted their first encounter in 1968.

“When I first came to work in Miri Hospital across the river, I met this very nice tall man who came down to help register a very sick patient.
“He was so friendly.

“When I asked for his name, he said: ‘Just Arni’.

“Luckily, I did not write down ‘Just Arni’ on the paper for contact!

“It was not long after that when I found out that he was actually the new Resident of Miri Division!

“From that encounter, I would regularly see him coming down to the hospital to help register patients or visit his friends – he was always smiling.

“Years later, I was told that he joined Shell Company and after that, he became very busy.”

Arni was described by those who knew him as ‘a generous man with his words and wealth’.

He supported many charity causes and had been known to ‘quietly’ channel assistance to deserving individuals and families.

He also chaired the committees that built mosques in Miri and Lutong.

Professionally, he was a straightforward person and expected all his staff to always carry out their responsibilities with integrity.

He seldom raised his voice and any serious rebuke would be addressed within the confines of his office.

“He was a dear friend,” said Rosli Ahmad.

“I met him when I joined Sarawak Shell Berhad as its head of public affairs in December 1985 and at the time, he was the company’s administrative manager.

“He was an affable, soft-spoken man. At first encounter, many saw him as being aloof and stand-offish, but once they got to know him, they realised that he was a simple man and had no problem in mixing freely with people from all walks of life.

“He was a good communicator, and was very meticulous in his choice of words and use of proper grammar.”

‘A brave woman’

Julia described her mother as ‘a brave woman’.

As the wife of Miri Resident, Jill was Arni’s solid pillar of support, making full use of her skills and talents to help develop the local community.

Many Mirians today would not know that the sophisticated library at Gymkhana Club Miri was largely her work.

Jill was also instrumental in organising the events held in connection with the visit by Queen Elizabeth II to Sarawak in 1972.

When her husband joined Shell, she remained active. She renovated the Shell House at Membedai Beach in Labuan, turning it into an elegant lodging for the company’s VIP guests when the hotels in those days were still in the infant stage of development.

She also helped run the orientation programmes for the British volunteer teachers and also the new British Shell employees who came to work in Miri.

Puan Sri Elizabeth Moggie, a good friend of Jill, hailed the couple’s life story as ‘a revelation to the young ones who had no clue about what it used to be like in the 1960s’.

“In the late 1960s, Borneanisation was in progress. Dato Sri Arni Lampam was the bridge between the colonial authorities and Malaysia.

“He knew all the British civil servants who were merely names to us.

“Both of them (Arni and Jill) contributed a great deal to the Oral Archives of Sarawak.

“Hopefully, some people would do some documentation about their lives in Sarawak,” said Elizabeth, whose husband is former federal minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Leo Moggie.

An old photo of a fresh-faced young Arni.

‘Home’s where the heart is’

Julia with her parents in this photo, taken 15 years ago.

The proverb ‘home is where the heart is’ aptly described the attachment that Arni and Jill had to the house on the cliff.

After Arni’s retirement in the late 1980s, the couple spent most of their time at home, where they occasionally hosted gatherings for friends coming from all over the world.

Arni would do his grocery-shopping at the nearby ‘tamu’ (farmers and jungle produce market), where he made everyone happy with his friendly greetings and chats.

He brought the same positive energy whenever he came for his appointments at Miri Hospital, striking cheerful conversations with his friends who were also in the queue.

Such routine continued until Jill’s death on Oct 24, 2017, at age 80.
Arni passed away on Jan 22 last year, at age 87.

I managed to take some photos around the house during the recent interview with Julia.

As I set the angle for the lens to capture the sight of Luak Bay from the patio, I could imagine Arni and Jill sitting on their rattan chairs and exchanging loving glances to each other, while enjoying their cuppas at that very spot.

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