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Apprehensive because that job would take her son to a no-man’s land 11,286 kilometres (or 7,015 miles) away!
Going by ship those days easily meant six to eight weeks at sea. And it did turn out to be a voyage of no return.
That destiny started when Francis first joined the Borneo Service in March 1898.
Mat Salleh’s attack created Jesselton & Atkinson made 1st DO
The door to his short-lived glory and demise happened like this.
On the night of 9 July 1897, Mat Salleh attacked and burnt the colonial trading settlement on Gaya Island.
Come 1899, the settlement was moved to the mainland just across Gaya Bay, and named it Jesselton, after a Chartered Company Director, Sir Charles Jessel.
Come January 24, 1901, Francis was appointed Jesselton’s first District Officer.
Exactly how and when he arrived we are not sure.
But alas, on 16 Dec 1902 – less than two years on the top job, he was dead at 28, killed in his prime by so called ‘Borneo fever’ or malaria – a terrifying disease then and historically fatal.
Parasites, particularly Plasmodium falsiparum, can kill by destroying red blood cells, with life threatening anaemia, organ damage, leading to cerebral malaria which blocks blood vessels in the brain, triggering seizures, liver and kidney failures, spleen rupture, coma and death.
Francis was buried in the Labuan Cemetery, not shipped back to Channel Island where he came from.
There is no report of his mother ever visiting her son’s grave or Jesselton to see the clock tower.
Search as we did for records of his mother’s words on Francis’ death found none.
Two-faced clock gift – most visible enduring wish
But the most visible evidence of her enduring heart-felt wish is for the world to see – her gift of a two-faced clock to Jesselton town, which we see and hear its mellow chimes everyday, is clear.
The clock was made by Leeds-based William Potts and Sons and is reportedly still active today even after it was acquired by Smith of the Derby Group in 1935.
According to Google, Edith Mary specifically requested a tower be built to house the two-faced clock she presented to Jesselton as a memorial to her son.
Site choice: Cliff top
The colonial Government of the day decided to erect the memorial clock tower atop a cliff on Signal Hill instead of Bond Street, a decision that for sure spared it from 1000-lb bombs dropped on Jesselton by the heavy American Consolidated B-Liberator bombers in ww2.
Another big point of note is construction of the tower with local Merbau wood, a reddish brown colour timber which is unique for its exceptional durability, natural resistance to fungal decay and insect attacks like wood borers and termites , and noted for it being friendly to salt water and saline soil – a feature rare in many woods.
Reportedly a very friendly and popular DO, friends, colleagues, the public and shipwrights (ship builders) chipped in the money.
Construction of the all Merbau wood nail-free tower which relies on the traditional joinery technique, began in 1903 and was completed and commissioned on April 20, 1905.
A Governor’s verdict: ‘What an acquisition’
The then Sandakan-based North Borneo Governor, Edward P. Gueriitz, dropped by the newly completed Clock Tower in 1905 when he visited Jesselton.
His comments are quoted in an article ‘The Atkinson Memorial Clock Tower, Sabah (1905), author unknown, reads as follows:
"The clock tower now looks quite imposing now that the scaffolding has been removed, and as the hour was chimed the rich mellow tones coming over the water proved what an acquisition it is to Jesselton and called to remembrance the late first District Officer F.G. Atkinson, to whose memory it is erected. “
During the early colonial hey days in the 1900s right up to the 1950s, the clock tower was illuminated at night.
That served as an important beacon and landmark for ocean going ships coming into Gaya Bay when the sea was very close to the tower.
Clock Tower: Oldest of only 3 buildings survived relentless allied bombings
Come Japanese occupation of Jesselton, Allied forces practically bombed beautiful Jesselton into oblivion, starting with the airfield on 17 Dec 1944 and then Jesselton town many times till July 1945.
Only three pre-war buildings miraculously escaped the relentless bombing with 500-1000lb bombs dropped by either US Army B-Liberator bombers or the Royal Australian Airforce.
The Atkinson Clock Tower has the distinction of being the oldest standing structure in whole Sabah that survived the WW2 destruction of Jesselton.’
The other two being the Government printing house built 1916 turned Jesselton post office, treasury 1936, on Bond Street, now Sabah Tourism Board building, Gaya Street and the old Land & Survey building/ Sabah Welfare Building built in 1918 – 20s now called House of Pillars after destroyed by a fierce fire on 31 Dec 1992.
Which makes the Atkinson Clock Tower the oldest pre-war building standing in Kota Kinabalu.
While the Sabah Tourism Board building and the Welfare Building apparently escaped intact, the cog and dial of Atkinson Clock were damaged by either flying shrapnel of sheer force of exploding bombs or bullets from the straffing.
Damaged cog and dial repaired by local experts
While the tower was spared, its clock was basically disabled because the cog is the toothed wheel that powers the hands while the dial is the visible face that displays time.
The damaged cog and dial were repaired by Wah Kai Yung of Yick Ming Watch Dealers in 1946 and the descendants have continued to be the maintenance contractors and wound up the clock every six days according to one report.
The clock tower stands at 14.63m (or 48ft) high.
Over the years, through repairs and extensive renovations, the original façade has altered significantly.
Declared ‘State Heritage’
The Sabah Museum took over the care and maintenance of the Clock Tower in 1979 and the site was gazetted as a Government reserve in August 1983.
Sabah Museum manages it under its Antiquity and History Section.
It was also declared a “State Heritage” under the State Heritage Enactment 2017.
