Before we get to PM Lee, let's set out some context for this story.

Back in 1971, the Economic Development Board (EDB) convinced German company Rollei to relocate to Singapore.

Rollei is a company well-known for its cameras, which are still sought after by collectors and photography enthusiasts today.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="496"] Rollei camera. Source: Wikipedia[/caption]

The company moved their entire production operations here, setting up a factory at Kampong Chai Chee to manufacture cameras and their accessories.

The factory created jobs for Singaporeans, as founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew recounted in his memoirs:

"Together with the EDB, Rollei set up a centre to train workers in precision mechanics, precision optics, tool-making and electro-mechanics."

Needless to say, it was a real source of pride to know that a reputed foreign corporation like Rollei would choose Singapore as its base of operations.

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Cameras gifted to Queen Elizabeth II in 1972

It was perhaps a natural choice, therefore, for us to present three gold-plated, made-in-Singapore Rollei 35 cameras to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, as well as her husband Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh and their daughter Princess Anne, when the three royals visited in 1972:

Here's an example of the Rollei 35 camera, sans gold plating. It's quite a beautiful thing, nonetheless:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Source: Wikipedia[/caption]

And she actually used it

The Queen must have liked our gift to her very much as PM Lee recently spotted photographs of her using the made-in-Singapore Rollei 35 camera in some pictures of her through the years.

The pictures were published by the BBC to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Queen's marriage with Prince Philip.

"Came across this BBC News article that shows 1970s/1980s photos of Queen Elizabeth taking pictures. I recognised her camera – a Rollei 35, the type made in Rollei’s Singapore factory in the 1970s.

The Queen had visited Singapore in 1972, and I wondered if we could have presented her the camera. A Google check of the NLB archives confirmed this – President Sheares had indeed presented the Queen, her husband, and her daughter, gold-plated Rollei cameras as state gifts. (http://bit.ly/2mJKAVg) The wonders of the internet!

The Rollei factory in Kampong Chai Chee was an important project in our industrial development. EDB had persuaded the famous German company to make cameras and lenses here. It provided thousands of jobs, and gave our workers skills which were later very useful in helping us to do precision engineering and wafer fabs.

The BBC story was for the Queen’s platinum wedding anniversary with Prince Philip. They married 70 (!) years ago today, on 20 Nov 1947. Many congratulations to both of them! – LHL"

We found this picture of the Queen using the camera too. She was on a visit to Oman in February 1979 in this one.

Seems like she enjoyed taking it around with her.

Unlike the Queen's long-lasting marriage, however, Rollei did not quite have a happy ending. LKY sums it up in his memoirs:

"Rollei (Singapore) made excellent cameras, but changes in the market and in technology caused poor sales. Their R&D was in Germany, their production base in Singapore. This led to poor planning and coordination. They concentrated their R&D on the slower-moving, professional photographic equipment area, whereas the Japanese moved into ever simpler cameras with viewfinders and other gadgets like auto-focus and talking range finders, all made possible by the computer chip the Germans were slow to develop. After 11 years, Rollei, both in Germany and Singapore, went into receivership."

Top image adapted from Wikipedia and Getty Images.