He studied at St. Joseph's Institution for secondary school,[6] and subsequently attended seminary at the College General in Tanjung Bungah, Penang (another territory of the Straits Settlements).
[9] Chan's first pastoral assignment was as assistant parish priest at the Church of St. Michael in Ipoh, then part of the Federated Malay States.
[11][12][13] On the first day of every month, he organized a communal Rosary and offered a Mass to pray for all family members of parishioners who had died during the Japanese occupation of Singapore.
[12][15] Chan was appointed as the first Bishop of Penang on 25 February 1955,[3] the same day on which Pope Pius XII established the first two dioceses in Malaysia (the other being Kuala Lumpur).
Lau would later become the vicar general of the Archdiocese of Singapore and was made a Prelate of Honour of His Holiness in 2000, in recognition of his service to the local church.
[28][29] He made three trips to Hong Kong for specialist cancer treatment, the last one being in April 1967,[24] and eventually he went blind in one eye as a result of the disease.
[6] He fell into a coma at his Macalister Road residence on the night of 20 October 1967 and died an hour and a half later, surrounded by four of his siblings who had arrived from Singapore and Ipoh earlier that same day.
[31][32][33] Chan had three brothers – Joseph, Anthony, and John – who resided in Singapore at the time of his death, and at least one sister, Teresa, who lived in Ipoh.
During his years in the seminary, he played the flute for their orchestra, and frequently sang as a tenor for the choir at the Church of the Sacred Heart.