Nenek Bedok Chia Hood Theam grew up in poverty; one of his childhood memories was gathering eggs of stray chickens and ducks to sell. He studied at Raffles Institution and later became Comprador of the Mercantile Bank of India, a position he passed to his son Chia Keng Tye. Around 1916 he moved his family to "Rosedale", a bungalow in Killiney Road.