The Forgotten Memorials...

Salam and greeting.

Do you remember this memorial stone? Have you seen it? Do you know of its existence? Do you know where it is?

This is one of Taiping and even Malaysia forgotten historical site and landmark. Not only that, the site where this memorial stone was mounted has recorded two important visits done by two well known men in Perak and Malaysia history.

Welcome to Birch Hill. This hill is located about 2.5 kilometers from the top of Bukit Larut (Maxwell Hill) station. With its peak of approximate 1320 meters from the sea level, many might not believe that it was twice visited differently by two well known men, a British and almost hundred years later by a Perak royalty.

Thus, we from TaipingHeritageCult have done a mini expedition in searching for this lost memorial. Based on verbal information and a set of old pictures of the memorial stone, we managed to trace the off-track route going towards the peak of Birch Hill.

Walking and tracing back this forgotten trail does create an exhilarating feeling. Furthermore we were informed that the trail is abound with blood thirsting leeches, hunger for human blood that are rare to them. And making it worse the trail was not explored for many years to date. We were lost at first when following a wrong trail. But finally we manage to find the correct trail entrance just few meters away.

After about 200 meters from the side of the tarred road, we finally reach the top of Birch Hill. There was an abandoned shack structure that is covered by overgrown jungle creeper plants. The sight of the memorial was not there.

We were thinking that we had again explored into another wrong trail. However, after further examining the area, we notice that there was this overgrown fern plants at the side of the shack that looks a little bit awkward. It seems like covering 'something' which has been left for a long time.





We cleared-off some of those overgrown ferns and surprising it was hiding the memorial stone that we were looking for. It was and still there in its original state not being moved although it may be forgotten. This is the memorial stone, commemorating the visit of the first Englishman to this hill. However we were a bit surprise when there is an engraved error. The writing on the stone is:

"THE FIRST ENGLISHMAN TO CLIMB THIS HILL WAS MR T.W.W. BIRCH. FIRST BRITISH RESIDENT OF PERAK IN 1875"



But who was this T.W.W. Birch? At first we thought there was a mistake done when engraving Mr. J.W.W. Birch name which was really the first British Resident. However, he was killed in that same year 1875. Then there was another source saying that the letter 'T' was supposed to be an 'E'. It was the initial for Mr. J.W.W. Birch son, Mr. Ernest Wheeler Woodford Birch. But one question arose, why didn't the engraver carved as the following?

"THE FIRST ENGLISHMAN TO CLIMB THIS HILL WAS MR T.W.W. BIRCH. THE SON OF FIRST BRITISH RESIDENT OF PERAK IN 1875"



We then cleared the area to look for any other interesting remains that might be available. And our intension has struck yet to another forgotten timepiece. While clearing the area, we have found a signboard depicting another visit that was done here at Birch Hill. The time of this second important visit has been specifically mentioned at 8:02 AM 23 of July 1973, just two years short of a century after the memorial stone date. The writing on the signboard is:

"LAWATAN PERTAMA KALI D.Y.T.M. RAJA MUDA PERAK KA-BUKIT INI PADA 23.7.73 JAM 8.02 PAGI"



We have found out that, the Raja Muda of Perak during that time was D.Y.T.M. Raja Musa ibni al-Marhum Sultan Abdul Aziz. He was the Raja Muda of Perak from 1963 to 1983. He was indeed an adventurer when he managed to be here at this hill. We find it a bit amusing when comparing his visit signboard and an Englishman visit memorial stone.



We then spend about one hour clearing the surrounding of both memorials. At least the place is cleared for visitors for couple of week. After clearing up the area, we have check with our compass the memorial stone were aligned accordingly to the cardinal directional points. The face of the stone where the engravement carved is facing north.





After satisfying ourselves with photo snapshots, we left the memorials sites and ascend back to the tarred road. It was indeed a worth rediscovery of forgotten memorials. TaipingHeritageCult would like to thank Mr Rahilme in providing the photos and his photography skills during this mini expedition.





If you are interested to go to this trail, do call Mr Wan at 012-3912916 or send your inquiries by email to taipingheritagecult@gmail.com