Fort Pasir Panjang

Fort Pasir Panjang or Labrador Battery is located within the lush Labrador Park at the southern tip of Singapore island. It was one of the 11 coastal artillery forts built by the British in the 19th century to defend the western passageway into Keppel Harbour against piracy and foreign naval powers. During the 1942 Battle of Pasir Panjang, the fort played a supporting role but a limited one in defending the Malay Regiments against the Japanese invasion at Bukit Chandu. In 1995, the site was gazetted by the National Heritage Board as one of the 11 World War II sites in Singapore.

Labrador was named after Labrador Bay which it overlooks the deep and calm water off its shores. The Long Ya Men or "Dragon's Teeth Gate", two craggy granite outcrops formerly stood on each side of the entrance to the New Harbour (now Keppel Harbour) as a navigation landmark to ancient mariners. The two rock outcrops were subsequently blown up by the Straits Settlement surveyor, John Thomson, in August 1848 to widen the entrance to the harbour. Labrador's strategic value was recognised by the British as early as 1843 when plans were made to set up defences to protect Singapore, an important trading post founded by Sir Stamford Raffles of the British East India Company in 1819.

The New Harbour was later renamed as Keppel Harbour in 1900 after Admiral Sir Henry Keppel of HMS Meander, who carried out an on-site survey to build an anchorage in the harbour in the 1880s. He was also known for his successful campaigns against the pirates in 1842 that were boldly harassing merchant ships in close proximity to the harbour. Piracy became less of a danger to the trade of Singapore only from the 1850s.

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