The telling of the amazing ACS story is long overdue. Therefore I approached this 350-page volume with much expectation. Unfortunately, it is not written as a narrative history of the great school, or family of schools, which I had expected the book to be.

Nevertheless, it is a tremendously useful reference book, especially for anyone who desires to know how a humble schoolhouse in Singapore's Chinatown started in 1886 with 13 little boys grew and evolved into a great institution that parents would clamour for over a century to send their sons to, for that much sought-after ACS brand of education.

"The ACS Story" contains a fascinating collection of carefully-researched materials about the early pioneers of the school - Methodist missionaries, teachers and students, and most fortunately, generous benefactors who gave much to the school for their belief in a good well-rounded character-buiding education for their children. There are also nuggets of information about the Old Boys Association and the exploits of their members in building the ACS camaraderie that is so well known and enduring.

The chief sources of information came from past issues of the annual ACS magazines or yearbooks, published materials about the school, individuals with special knowledge of the people who played important roles in ACS history, and the archives of the Methodist Church.

The editor, Mr Earnest Lau, a second-generation Old Boy and outstanding teacher and ACS principal for many years, is eminently qualified to undertake the task of writing and compiling the data and facts into a single volume.

Our current ACS students may not know enough of their enviable heritage; the selfless dedication of the pioneers, from the much-revered Founder William F. Oldham and Bishop James Thoburn to the outstanding and legendary teachers and educators like Hoisington, C B Paul, T W Hinch, Thio Chan Bee, Lee Hah Ing, Chee Keng Lim, Wan Fook Weng and a host of others, far too many to name here.

Then there are the products of the school - the scholars and sportsmen, businessmen and bankers, top civil servants and politicians, and countless others who made Singapore the nation we know today: three finance ministers (Dr Goh Keng Swee, Lim Kim San and Richard Hu), Olympians M. Jegathesan and Ang Peng Siong, legendary ACS benefactor Tan Chin Tuan, just to name a few - all ACS Old Boys.

A first book of this significance can never be complete. There are obvious gaps of omission, such as the absence of mentioning many other outstanding old boys who finished school in the later years. Or even from the decades of the 1950s. Obvious ones include ahtletic great Chan Onn Leng, and former ACS teacher and later EDB Chairman Chan Chin Bock, and many more in government, in commerce and industry, in medicine and in academia and the arts.

Hopefully some day, some alumni will fill in the gaps and contribute a sequel or two with the yet untold stories of teachers and Old Boys, and some "old girls" who have contributed much to the Old School we all loved so much and are so indebted to. As every ACSian knows, "The Best is yet to be".