In 1938, the British built the former British Military Hospital to serve as a principal hospital for the British in Asia. Japanese troops attacked the hospital on 14 February 1942 in retaliation against retreating Allied soldiers who fired at them from the hospital grounds. They killed an estimated 50 staff and patients that day and 150 more on the following morning. In 1971, the Singapore government took over the hospital and it officially became a public hospital.
