KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 -- In January, 1928, a young Irishman named Mervyn Cecil ffrank Sheppard - the eldest of three children, including a twin brother - stepped off a slow train at Mentakab station, carrying just a long metal uniform case and a saddle.

Born on June 21, 1905, in Ireland, the Cambridge graduate had passed his civil service examination in London the previous year before beginning what would become a decades-long love affair with Malaya.

First steps in Malaya

As recorded in his memoir Taman Budiman: Memoirs of an Unorthodox Civil Servant, Sheppard's introduction to Malaya was a humble one.

A Malay clerk greeted him with an old Model T Ford taxi for the six-mile journey to Temerloh, Pahang.

His first home was "a low L-sh...