Singapore

History of Sentosa Blakang Mati Artillery Barracks

Located at Gunner Lane, off Artillery Road, of present-day Sentosa, Blakang Mati Artillery Barracks was built in 1904.

The former British stronghold was named after the island where it was established.

Pulau Blakang Mati, which means “behind death” in Malay, would be renamed as Sentosa in 1970 as a redevelopment project to turn the island into a place of leisure and recreation.

Before the construction of Blakang Mati Artillery Barracks, the British had already reinforced

the island as early as 1860 with gunneries and forts. In 1878, new gun batteries were added to each end of Blakang Mati (Blakang Mati East and Siloso). The reinforcement was due to the threats by Tsarist Russia, who was thought to harbour territorial ambitions in the central

and other parts of Asia.

At the start of the 20th century, two more batteries were deployed on Blakang Mati’s Mount Serapong and Mount Imbiah, but by the 1920s, the Great Depression in the United States of America had hit the global economy badly.

The British Empire was not spared as it struggled to rebuild its economy.

When the Second World War hit Singapore in 1942, military personnel and volunteer units were given duties to defend the forts of Blakang Mati.

In three days of intensive battle, the defense of Blakang Mati was lost to the Japanese invading forces. The British deliberately destroyed some of the gunneries to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Japanese.

After the Japanese occupied Pulau Blakang Mati, they used the barrack to house the prisoners-of-war (POWs). There were horrific stories of the inhumane treatment of the POWs, who were tortured and starved throughout the Occupation.

After the surrender of Japan at the end of the war, the same barracks was used to imprison the Japanese POWs.