Situated between Canada Hill and the South China Sea in Sarawak, East Malaysia is St. Columba's School. It is the oldest educational Christian institution in northern Sarawak and was founded by an Anglican missionary from Sabah, Father Chong En Siong in 1928.

    During world War 2, parts of the school were used by the dreaded Kempeti, the notorious Japanese Military Police, and many ordinary civilians of various races, colour and creed and several important personalities of the Anglican denomination, including the younger brother of the founder, Catechist Chong En Fei and Reverend Lim Siong Teck, lost their innocent lives to the occupying  Japanese troops. 

    Notably, Catechist En Fei was falsely accused of treason by a Japanese sympathiser,  tortured and later killed; Father Lim, the courageous Hakka humanitarian who had assisted a shot-down allied pilot to escape by distracting the frustrated furious Japanese troops from the escapee, suffered a similar tragic fate with a more sadistic twist-he was nailed to a tree and suffered  an agonising slow death by crucifixtion near  where many of the innocent civilians had dug their execution trench  in Lopeng, near St. Columba's School.

    After the war, many efforts were made to enable academic life continue on as normal as possible. The school was repaired and improved. On numerous occasions, due to the aftermath of a tragic war which caused untold misery everywhere, the school was on the brink of closure. Each time, individual heroes like the late John Chen Kai Ming (Our former first president, Luke Chong's grandfather), SHELL Fire Brigade Chief, gave much of their wealth away just to see the survival of the special institution.A special tribute should also be made to the many European principals and missionaries/priests who sacrificed much of their health, money and time in coming over from Europe and Australia to a long ago disease-ridden Borneo (Not anymore) with deadly and incurable (in those days) diseases such as malaria, typhoid and cholera. St. Columba's School was indeed blessed to have past principals, many of whom were missionaries such as Father Paul Chong En Siong(1929-35); Mr. Yeo Cheng Ho (1935-37); Mr. Lee Kui Choi (1935-37); Mr. Liew Kit Siong (1945-46); Miss Yeo Siew Ngo (1946-48); Mr. Lim Choo Tiong (1948-49); Mr. Tan Ah Beng (1949-50); Mr. Yeo Ah Choo (1950-57); Mr. Perry Clough; Father Harold Rodgers (1958-59); Father Peter Joliffe (1959-61); Father Brian Taylor (1962-65); Mr. Nigel Heyward (1966-69); Miss Leonie Armour (1970-80); Miss Chan Siew Ngo (1981-96)and Mr. Raymond Gai Penting (1997-2000). (

    As the years went by, this school would be one of the most outstanding schools in Sarawak, achieving extraordinary results in academic studies and extra-curricular activities. Some world class athletes would graduate from the school and a number of other graduates would enter various fields of work, from medicine to Intelligence.

     In 1991, some dedicated and loyal alumni came together and decided on more concerted attempts to establish an alumni association. Many past attempts had been made but were unsuccessful due to, allegedly, the amount of red tape involved. Comprising of Bujang Noor, Johnny Leong, James Chabu, Jenny Lau and Luke Chong Thien Voon  they came together and then formed a protem committee after holding a general meeting which was attended by a number of alumni. In this protem committee we had other enthusiastic alumni filling in the various positions. We had Simon Cheong, Dr. Peter Lee, Joseph Lee, Jenny Ho and Molly Arthur. Our first protem president was one of our oldest former headboy, Victor Lee, a SHELL engineer, former student of Father Brian Taylor and son of our beloved late Father Lee Hoi Syn. Several constitutions of other alumni associations were studied and one was eventually rectified and approved. After over 30 years of application by loyal Columbans, the Registrar of Societies presented the association with a certificate that would recognise its legal existence as a registered non-government organization (NGO) in Malaysia.