As mentioned in my first story, I am a Christian. I have had "supernatural" incidents happen around me, but mostly not affecting me exclusively nor directly. I believe the Holy Spirit keeps unwelcome entities at bay. On to my next topic, Mowbray Camp. While each experience below might not be significant individually, the fact that they all happened in the same place (the 1st 6 around the same building) makes them worthy of mention.
While I was still a conscript, I was posted to Mowbray camp (which was the main Military Police training camp at that time) to begin training as an MP. After graduating as an MP, I stayed on in the camp until the end of my 2.5 years of service. The camp was built on a hill in the early part of the 20th century to house a British Gun Battery, and many of the older colonial-style buildings in the camp have dates inscribed above the main entrances. Most of them are 4-5 storey structures, and the older ones (the ones with dates on them) were built in the 1920s and 30s. There were different kinds of buildings, like the bunks, cookhouse, ammo dump, armouries, dog kennels etc scattered all over the hill, and a football (soccer to some of you) field carved out of the slope near the apex of the hill. About half of the camp was located at a cross junction (a pretty busy intersection), and the other half was surrounded by thick forest that also formed the border of an adjacent military camp (School of Military Medicine). During the Japanese occupation, I'm pretty sure the Japs used the camp for their military activities, although it does not seem to have been documented in the public domain. Both camps have since been relocated to other parts of the Island, and the old Mowbray premises is now used by the police force. These were several events that I witnessed while I was there that may or may not have been "paranormal", but seemed strange to me & my buddies.
The camp is generally believed to be "haunted" by all who have spent time residing there. Also there were rumours and unconfirmed "sightings" of withe figures in the forested parts (in Southeast Asia these things were generally called "Pontianaks". I have never seen those figures myself.
1. Dogs howling at odd hours
In Asia, it is believed that dogs are sensitive to "supernatural" beings. Within the camp there were several dog kennels that dotted the area. These were to house both the narco and security (attack) dogs that the Regimental Police (RPs) and MPs handle. While I was in the MP training course, our quarters was about 1/4 from the top of the hill (google maps 1.320986, 103.773512), and one of those kennels was not too far behind the building. Occasionally (maybe about once or twice a week), at odd hours, and mostly during late nights / early mornings, the dogs in the kennel behind our building would suddenly start to bark / howl fiercely in unison, for about a minute, and then suddenly they would all start whimpering for about half a minute or so, followed by silence almost as suddenly as they had began. We checked with our friends who were dog handlers and they confirmed that there were no duties (feeding / cleaning etc) that were scheduled during those hours (everyone was sleeping). This also happened to kennels further away from us, but the dogs located behind us were the most noticeable as they disturbed our sleep!
In the first couple of weeks there was a feeling of unease whenever it happened, but as time went by most of us were able to sleep through these incidents.
2. Bed shaking & dust pictures on the bed
We slept on very old simple iron-framed double decker bunks. Basically each of the 4 corners were held up by 2 iron poles screwed together, and the frames for the mattress were made of T-shaped beams with a "netting" made up of interlocking iron links, on which a foam / sponge mattress was laid. There were some beds that were prone to "bed shaking" -- basically occasionally the beds would vibrate when someone was lying there. It was not due to any movement (the beds shook even if just 1 person was on the bed), nor harmonics from traffic (our quarters at least 200m away from the nearest roads, uphill distance). I can't remember whether the beds shook on their own or only when there were people on them, but it was another phenomenon that spooked those affected at first, but gradually we got used to it.
There was one of my course mates, a Malay who had "dust pictures" formed on the corner of his bed, about every other week or so. These would look like they were made of fine dust / dirt, the kind that you would find in your dust pan after sweeping a neglected area. Sometimes it would be a random pattern, sometimes a recognizable picture (I remember that a few of them said that one of the pictures resembled a goat's head). Occasionally there would be long strands of hair (all of us were almost practically bald!) on his bed. This only happened to 1 course mate, unlike the bed shaking that affected several others. That guy also had a shaking bed =)
3. Phantom soldier?
One of my section mates (I trust him, he doesn't lie) told us about this incident. As he is of a timid disposition, he waited one night for someone else to go to the loo as he needed to relieve himself urgently. Finally he saw someone walk from a further bunk across ours on the way to the loo and so he immediately followed. As he crossed the doorway of the bunk into the corridor that led to the loo, he saw that there was no-one there, and when he used the toilet (although it was an old building, the loo was brightly lit with fluorescent tubes), no one was there (all doors were open). Needless to say he did what he had to do and ran back.
4. Storeroom lights.
The way the bunk floor was designed, there was a central stairs in the middle of the building, and 3 bunks that housed a section each on each wing of the building (6 sections in total). The loos were in the middle next to the stairs. There were also storerooms at the end of each wing furthest from the stairs. These held our training stores, and were always kept locked (keys were at the company-orderly sergeant's room downstairs). The last bunk in each wing next to the store had some sort of window / glass pane (I don't remember which) in the wall that partitioned the storeroom. On several occasions, stores were kept, lights turned off and the rooms locked, only for us to notice that the lights were turned on the next morning. This was about 20 years ago when motion sensors were a novelty and in a camp where the wiring is older than all of you reading this.
5. Clothes jumping racks
Our bunk had 2 rows of windows facing each other. The other 2 walls were a partition wall separating us from the next section, and the doorway to the loos. The beds were against the walls, and as there was limited space, we placed our old iron lockers against the rear row of the windows such that they covered the row of windows almost completely. There were racks and wires just outside both rows of windows for drying clothes / equipment, but we only used the ones facing the parade square cum basketball courts in front as the other row (facing the above-mentioned kennel) was almost entirely covered. Towards the last few days of our course, one of my section mates was observed complaining and dragging a couple of iron lockers away from the rear row of windows. Apparently a couple of times a week, the clothes that he hung out the front windows would mysteriously appear hung outside the middle of the row of windows behind the lockers. He asked us to own up (not aggressively, he just wanted to know who had been pranking him). None of us in the section had done it (we had no reason to), and we had not observed anyone from the other sections doing it either throughout the whole 3-4 month period of the course.
6. Locker door opening on its own
There was a locker in our bunk which was unused, mainly because the door was bent off the hinge such that it was a pain to close and open. You literally had to kick it in hard a couple of times before the rings aligned enough for you to put a lock bolt through, and if you wanted to open it you would have had to jerk the door quickly and violently towards yourself a couple of times (and risk having the darn locker fall on you in the process) to get it open. It was rumoured that an upside-down cross was found inside by someone from an earlier batch of trainees.
Anyway we kept the door closed so as not to obstruct the walkway, but every once in a while the door would open overnight and we'd notice it the next morning. All the events up to this one happened at the same building.
7. Flickering lamp-post
A couple of times a month, we had to do guard duty. This entails about 8 of us split into 2 details (4 men each). 2 men from the active detail would man the guard house & barrier at the main entrance, and the other 2 would have to walk along the perimeter of the camp in our gear. Each detail would be on duty for about 3 hours and then switch with the other detail. Each duty was from about 7pm until 7am the next morning.
At the back of the camp, there was a lamp post at the bottom of the hill near to the forest and facing the rear gate that was rarely used. If you stood off a distance from the post, the light would be steadily on. But as we approached it (it was along the prowling route), often it would start flickering. Not at a high frequency, but intermittent like an old fluorescent tube that is about to fail completely. Again, there are no motion sensors, the lamp posts in the camp were probably erected in the '60s or '70s. We weren't stepping on wiring as the wires were strung overhead, and it wasn't electronic interference either (at that time 1999 / 2000 mobile phones were not allowed in camp, and most of us could not afford one anyway with the paltry allowance). As you walked away from the lamp post, the light would come on steadily again.
8. Black figure
After MP Basic training, I was posted to a Company with quarters nearer to the bottom of the hill and nearer to the main road, mostly we did drill and honour guard, but also trained for our wartime duty of handling, escorting and transferring POWs. In our final months there we had to perform Company Orderly Sergeant duties as Senior Corporals. Basically we'd be in the COS room and would have to take care of the company line, make sure cleaning duties were done, register visitors, handle the keys to rooms and vehicles, etc. Also we had to sleep in the COS room overnight, so we hated getting weekend duties!
Generally the day duties were fine, and it wasn't an issue during the night, but on weekends when the camp was deserted, it was a different story altogether. Keep in mind the camp was very old, believed to be "haunted" and pretty dark during the night (except along the perimeters). During my duties there, occasionally I'd get goosebumps, but nothing more. Sometimes you may have thought you placed something at a specific place, only to find it somewhere else, but it could have been psychological or put down to forgetfulness.
I did have a batch-mate who experienced something strange though, this guy, I don't trust that much (he was juggling 2 girlfriends and was a smooth talker), but his story about his experience was pretty consistent, so I'm putting it down last. One weekend when he was doing his COS duty, he had completed all his tasks and went to bed. Some hours later, he awoke to see a black "spiderman-like" figure crawling on the ceiling above him. If I recall correctly at this time he was also experiencing some form of sleep paralysis and couldn't move. Time has eroded my memory of his story so I'll have to leave out the details.
After my active duty, I was posted to another formation (Guards) for reservice as a grenadier, and so never set foot in that camp again.
Loading comments....
