"A Wonderful Teacher"

".....A teacher I remember well is Mr L. F. Koch, a Eurasian. He was a very good teacher but he was a bit lazy. He would come in about ten or fifteen minutes late and he would straightaway say, "Hepponstall House boys, stand up!" (He was the Heppostall House master).

"Why were you not at the cricket match yesterday? I didn't see you," he would scold them. He was very particular about House matters, you see.

"When we were studying Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Mr Koch did not say anything about the poem for nine months while we read the poem by ourselves. Then, in the final four or five classes, he came to life and took us through the entire poem of several hundred lines,

"We gaped as he walked about the classroom and acted out the whole poem. He was a wonderful teacher - when he wanted to!"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Victorian
August 1940

The untimely death of Mr. Leslie Francis Koch removes a teacher of outstanding ability, and one who was engaged to the last in strenuous and self-less work for the advancement of the cosmopolitan population of this country.

The second son of Mr. Gerald Koch, Supervisor of Customs, a very highly respected member of the Ceylon Dutch Burgher Community of Malaya, and born in Kuala Lumpur on the 10th day of February 1891. Mr. L. F. Koch was educated at the Victoria Institution, Kuala Lumpur.

Joining the school as a pupil in 1898 and completing a brilliant scholastic career in 1908, when he passed his Cambridge Senior Local Examination, he joined the teaching staff of the school in January 1909 at the earnest request of his revered Headmaster and educationist, Mr. B. E. Shaw.

He proved himself a very competent teacher and was made a Super-scale teacher about ten years ago.

At the beginning of the year, Mr. Koch's health began to fail, and he was strongly advised by his doctors to retire from the service. This he did in April to the immense regret of thousands of his past and present pupils as well as his colleagues and well-wishers of the Victoria Institution. Mr. Koch was thus connected with the school for a period of over 42 years, eleven years as a student and over 31 years as a teacher.

His command of the English language - both spoken and written - and his lucidity and brevity of expression soon attracted the attention of Mr. B. E. Shaw who promoted him to the Cambridge classes to teach English Literature. For many years he had continued to take Cambridge classes with conspicuous success. A man of extraordinary intellectual gifts, and a strong and attractive personality, Mr. Koch had little or no difficulty in winning the interest of his pupils.

His ultra-mural activities knew no bounds. He was, for many years, in charge of Hepponstall House, the School Badminton team and the Junior Classes Debating Society. In addition to these arduous duties, Mr. Koch was entirely responsible for the difficult task of arranging the seating accommodation for the numerous guests of the school on the occasions of the Annual Athletic Sports and Speech Days.

Since the very inception of the Selangor Teachers' Association in 1920, he had taken a leading part in promoting its several objectives and aims. He represented the teachers of the Victoria Institution on the General Committee of the Association, and the teachers in general on the Educational Conference and the McGregor Commission. Mr. Koch's remarkable gifts as organiser stood him in good stead when he organised or helped to organise the Education Concert or similar functions with great success.

The VIOBA owes no small debt of gratitude to Mr. Koch for the important role played by him in organising it. He served on the Committee almost every year and his assistance and advice were always very highly appreciated.

His constant love for his alma mater and his unceasing efforts to do his best to maintain its high reputation as a leading educational institution of Malaya were too well known to need repetition alone.

Mr. Koch's field of activities was not limited to his school alone, a considerable part of leisure time being devoted to the social activities of the peoples among whom he lived. He was a valued member of the Rotary Club since its inception. He took a very keen interest in the Co-operative movement and acted as Chairman of the Committee of the Selangor Government Co-operative Society for a good number of years. He was also President of the Eurasian Association, of the Mutual Provident Association and of the Benefits Society for many years.

Self-less work for the betterment of humanity filled the whole of his mental horizon, fired with enthusiasm and absorbed his soul. Few people in this country have dedicated their life to the service of mankind at the terrible sacrifice of their heart. The writer of this article was one of those who had advised him several years ago not to impair his health by overwork.

We cannot conclude this tribute without expressing to his dearest wife, his only child, his beloved mother, his brothers and sisters our feelings of sincere sympathy on the occasion of the cruel and irreparable bereavement which has befallen them, as well as the profound regret which this sad event has given us.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Mr L F Koch's younger brother, Gerald Charles Sydney Koch, was himself a Victorian who taught English and other subjects at Gan Eng Seng School in Singapore in the twenties and thirties, ending up as Acting Principal for a short period in 1938. He wrote a song for the V.I. entitled The Old School in the immediate postwar years.

---

The V.I. Web Page

Created on 1 June 2026.
Last update on 1 June 2026.