Sir Laurence Hartnett

 

Man of Armour

 

Englishman Sir Laurence Hartnett’s confidence in Singapore’s engineering and manufacturing capabilities led to the establishment of its first defence technology firm, which became a centrepiece for the independent country’s industrialisation efforts. The firm is now part of the multinational Singapore Technologies Engineering, with Singapore able to sell defence systems to major world powers.

 

When newly-independent Singapore was establishing its own military, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), then-Minister for the Interior and Defence Dr Goh Keng Swee believed that it was crucial to develop defence-related companies that could support the SAF while being commercially viable. By April 1968, the first home-grown defence company, Chartered Industries of Singapore (CIS), was producing small arms ammunition, and was on its way to manufacturing other types of armament.

Sir Laurence Hartnett’s advice and assistance was invaluable to the endeavour. At the opening of CIS, Dr Goh, who had then taken on the Finance portfolio, said that Sir Laurence had, after assessing the skills of workers and engineers in Singapore, recommended that the government proceed with manufacturing ammunition, even when other experts believed that the high standard of precision engineering required for such industries could not be achieved in Singapore. Sir Laurence had also stressed that the quality of production was paramount. Said Dr Goh, “He predicted that when other armament manufacturers visit the plant and see for themselves how standards are maintained, this would lead to expansion in other fields. This forecast has happily come to fruition.” Indeed, local industries went on to benefit from the expertise and business activity generated by CIS. In a 1997 interview, Dr Goh said, “CIS was a centrepiece of Singapore’s effort in industralisation.”

Sir Laurence had an impressive career that spanned several continents. Born in the United Kingdom, he joined an armaments firm after leaving school and trained as a pilot with the Royal Navy Air Service and Royal Air Force towards the end of World War I. In 1923, he accepted a job in Singapore, importing and marketing motor vehicles for trading firm Guthrie and Co. In February 1925, he married his childhood sweetheart Gladys Winifred Tyler at St Andrew’s Cathedral. The couple had three daughters of whom the youngest and only surviving one, Deirdre Barnett, now lives in Australia.

Sir Laurence was energetic and ambitious. Subsequently, he took up the post of southern Indian field representative for General Motors Corporation, later doing stints in the United States and Sweden, before taking charge of exports for General Motors’ British subsidiary, Vauxhall Motors Ltd. In 1934, he joined General Motors-Holden Ltd in Australia and managed to turn the ailing company around, through overhauling management procedures, improving book-keeping and riding on the country’s economic revival by building and opening new assembly plants.

Sir Laurence prized public service, and following the outbreak of World War II, he helped Australia with its defence planning. In 1939, as director of ordnance production in the Australian Ministry of Munitions, Sir Laurence was responsible for constituting the Optical Munitions Panel which decided on ways to equip Australia’s defence industry. According to a biography of him in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, he “found the frenetic pace of this work ‘wonderfully exhilarating’ and in January 1942 volunteered to fly to Singapore in a perilous last-ditch effort to salvage manufacturing equipment—a mission aborted when Japanese forces got there first.”

After the war, Sir Laurence resolved to help Australia develop its own automobile industry. At a time when car ownership was exclusively for the rich, he advocated a car which would be designed “within Australia by Australians to suit Australian conditions”. However, a disagreement with the American head office over car designs led to his removal as head of General Motors-Holden in December 1946, and while he was offered a position with General Motors Corporation in the United States, he chose to remain in Australia. It was around this time that
Dr Goh met Sir Laurence, who impressed him “a great deal”, the minister said in Singapore Technologies’ (ST) 30th anniversary commemorative book. Dr Goh invited Sir Laurence to advise the government on developing a defence industry in Singapore.

Sir Laurence’s first task at the CIS was to produce large quantities of 5.56mm rounds, the most commonly used bullets. While doing so, he noticed a problem: the humidity in Singapore dampened the explosives that filled the cartridges. So he visited the British naval base and decided that the filling operations could be carried out in a cold room. CIS’ first product, the 5.56mm rounds, was used for the M-16 rifles, the service rifle of the SAF. He tried to lobby for 240 acres of swampland in Jurong for the factory but had to settle for 69 acres—a luxury in land-scarce Singapore. CIS managed to stay competitive in a cut-throat small-arms industry owing to his innovations, Dr Goh said in the ST commemorative book. When Singapore wanted to expand beyond producing ammunition in 1972, Sir Laurence suggested starting Ordnance Development & Engineering (ODE), an engineering company for weapons development. Although the fledging ODE grappled with difficulties in the beginning, by 1988, it had unveiled Singapore’s first locally-designed howitzer—the FH-88.

Today, ST Engineering is amongst Asia's largest defence and engineering groups. According to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute published in 2013, Singapore is ranked the world’s 20th biggest arms exporter—a notable feat given the country’s small size. Singapore sealed a $286 million deal with the United Kingdom in 2008, delivering 115 of its locally-designed Broncos. These armoured all-terrain carriers were deployed in Afghanistan in 2010 by the British Army. The news made waves in the field because the sale debunked the widely-held perception that small states do not export defence systems to major powers.

Sir Laurence died in 1986 in Frankston, a suburb of Melbourne in Australia. While he did not live to see the recent successes of Singapore’s defence industry, he often spoke with great pride about the role he had played in Singapore’s industrial development, said Sir Laurence’s friend, Arthur Ranken, whom he was acquainted with in the last 13 years of his life.

Sir Laurence was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 1967 and awarded the Public Service Star in 1973.

References

Bhavan Jaipragas, “Singapore Gains Toehold in World Arms Industry,” Defense News,
March 18, 2012.

Hoe Pei Shan, “Singapore is World’s 20th Biggest Arms Exporter,” The Straits Times, March 21, 2013,
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/singapore-is-worlds-20th-biggest-arms-exporter

Ron Matthews and Curie Maharani, “Singapore’s Arm Sales to UK: A Defence Export Breakthrough,” RSIS Commentaries, January 2, 2009.

Joe Rich, “Sir Laurence John Hartnett,” Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2007,
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hartnett-sir-laurence-john-12602

Interviews with Arthur Ranken via email in July 2015, and Deirdre Barnett over the phone
in September 2015.

 

 

Sir Laurence Hartnett
United Kingdom, 1898-1986