Charles Chellapah

Biography

Early life and career Chellapah was born on 2 May 1940, the fourth of ten children. Of Sri Lankan descent, Chellapah's father worked as a water district supervisor in the City Council. Chellapah was born in Singapore, when it was a part of the Straits Settlements. In a 1997 Straits Times article, photographer Tay Kay Chin initially reported that Chellapah was born in the Dutch East Indies, but corrected himself in 2020. Known to be adventurous in his youth, Chellapah studied at Monk's Hill Primary School and Gan Eng Seng School.

After completing his secondary education, he joined the Singapore Free Press as a sports reporter and usually reported on soccer matches. He additionally taught himself photography and became a freelance photographer. Chellapah then moved to Malaya, working for The Malayan Times in Kuala Lumpur and subsequently for the Sabah Daily Express in Sabah. He was also a sportsman and participated in local Grand Prix races. His parents were surprised to hear that he had travelled to Vietnam to cover the war. He took close-up photographs of casualties and combat, prompting his AP photo editor Horst Faas to warn him to be more cautious. On 14 February, Chellapah accompanied American soldiers to Củ Chi, northwest of Saigon, on a road-clearing mission. Củ Chi's dense forests were known to have multiple VC snipers and tunnels, and was termed "Hell's Half Acre". During the mission, a VC claymore mine was set off, injuring many. Chellapah, the company's commander, and a medic went to tend to the wounded before a second mine exploded, killing everyone instantly. The last photograph he took was of an American soldier holding a fellow wounded soldier. Faas reported Chellapah's death to the company's president.

Aftermath and legacy

AP flew his body back to Singapore, where a funeral was held for him in Woodlands. Chellapah was later cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea off Bedok. an article by Shirlene Noordin suggests that it was instead the BBC World Service.

A month after his funeral, a letter he sent to his family detailing his plans to travel to Hong Kong and get insurance arrived, along with his intention to return to Singapore a month earlier and set up a photo-agency business. Chellapah's photographs were featured internationally in newspapers covering the Vietnam War. Requiem was later exhibited in Singapore in 2007.

Chellapah, Khoo, and Sam are also named on the in Bayeux, France, which was established by Reporters Without Borders in 2007 to commemorate journalists killed since the 1944 D-Day landings. Chellapah is in the 1966 section, though reporter Toh Yong Chuan wrote that his name was misspelt as "Charles Chellappah". In an interview by Toh with Chellapah's brother, C. Tharmalingam, he said that he believed Chellapah was killed by a sniper as "his body was clean – no injury at all." Tharmalingam also considered Chellapah someone who was "driven by a strong sense of purpose" and "destined to be at the heart of the action," with "the battle ground [seeming] to him where the action was".