PETALING JAYA, MALAYSIA: It's been over half a century, but Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad could never forget how he felt when he was finally allowed back to school.

It was 1945 and Japan had just surrendered at the end of World War 2.

Bounding out of his home in Alor Star, Kedah, a young Dr Mahathir rushed straight to Sultan Abdul Hamid College, which had been off-limits to civilians during the three years of Japanese occupation.

Unable to contain his excitement, he did what any young man would instinctively do -- grab the nearest thing he could find and drew graffiti all over the school.

"I was approaching 20 at the time. I was so excited to get back to school after three years, I just picked up a piece of charcoal and started writing my name all over the walls.

"Of course I was caught by Mr Lim Chen Chai, one of the teachers at the time, who scolded me and made me clean up the walls," the former prime minister said with a smile recently.

Dr Mahathir spoke with pride of the school days he spent at Sultan Abdul Hamid College, or SAHC as the old boys call it.

And it helped that it was his father, Mohamad Iskandar, who was the founding headmaster of the school, which in the beginning was the nurturing ground of the aristocracy.

From educating royals, the school went on to mould many great men, some of whom would eventually lead the nation.

Among the most notable allumnus was Malaysia's father of independence, Tunku Abdul Rahman, who was not spared the cane by "master" Mohamad Iskandar, as teachers from the school were addressed then.

Dr Mahathir would also follow in Tunku's footsteps as the fourth prime minister.

"A lot of old boys ended up in important posts, two of them became prime minister. Leaders just came up naturally in Kedah."

And today, a year after the school celebrated its centenary, SAHC can lay claim to another milestone.

In what Dr Mahathir calls a beacon of the school's innumerable contributions to the nation, the Sultan Abdul Hamid Old Collegians' Association (Sahoca) now has a place to call home at Wisma Sahoca here.

"I think SAHC has contributed quite a lot to education in the country, so it deserves some prominence."

Dr Mahathir believes the establishment of Wisma Sahoca would have been a point of pride for his father, if he were still around to enjoy the moment.

"My father was one of the few Malays who ran away to school to get an education.

"His parents were against the idea of him going to a missionary school to get an education, so he ran away from home and went to Penang Free School to study.

"I'm quite sure if he was alive, he would feel elated, everything he did was justified ... to see the school he helped found last 100 years would have been very satisfying.

"I hope the students will appreciate the school, like how we old boys feel about our alma mater.

"Loyalty to the place where you gained your education is important ... it helps us understand the concept of hutang budi (gratitude)."