SAF captain who was discharged over NSF Dave Lee’s death dies from cancer

SINGAPORE — A 31-year-old Singapore Armed Forces captain died after a battle with Stage 4 cancer on Thursday (Feb 13), about a month after his charge of causing the death of a full-time national serviceman was withdrawn.

Captain Tan Baoshu was granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal on Jan 8 after his diagnosis. He had initially claimed trial to the charge of causing Corporal First Class Dave Lee’s death in a rash act.

According to his online obituary and the Mandai crematorium website, he will be cremated on Feb 17. “He will always be fondly remembered and dearly missed by family, loved ones and friends,” the obituary read.

Lee’s mother, Mrs Jasmine Lee, previously told TODAY that she had forgiven Tan and visited him after he was given the cancer diagnosis.

When approached by TODAY on Thursday, Mrs Lee said that the development was "very sad for both families". "We both lost a precious son and brother... It's painful and I guess such pain is hard for others to understand," she added.

She wrote in a public Facebook post on Thursday morning: “It’s sad to (lose) 2 sons in this way... RIP... Hope you are in a better place with Dave!”

Lee succumbed to heat injuries on April 30, 2018, after spending more than a week in intensive care in hospital.

Tan was Lee’s officer commanding at the support company of the 1st Guards Battalion, and was also the supervising officer for the 8km fast march, in which Lee was one of the participants, on the morning of April 18, 2018.

After the march, Lee showed signs of heat injury. Between 8.25am and 9.10am that day, Tan had allegedly failed to evacuate Lee in a timely manner, and also disallowed the administration of “necessary treatment” to the NSF, which led to his death from heat stroke, court documents revealed.