Mr Wesley Foung Timber Donation to Trinity 2023

When you look at a Beautifully crafted piece of workmanship you rarely see the series of events that take place to create it. Its wonderful craftsmanship is enough to captivate your audience and spark your interest. 

However the story for this jewellery box and Trinity extends back in time to 1942 World War II in the Pacific Theatre. An area with historical figures like Admiral Yamamoto, the architect of the attack on Pearl  Harbour, who controlled the Imperial Japanese Military at his base in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea. With two future US Presidents, John F Kennedy on his Patrol Boat PT109 and Richard Nixon, who was a logistics officer on Green Island, actively participating in the war, it is rich in wartime history. 

Interned by the Japanese in a prisoner of war camp in Ratongor near Rabaul, was a young Wesley Foung who had to survive by dodging air raids and the cruelties of war. With Imperial Japanese Army officially surrendering in Rabaul on the 12th September 1945. There was a generation of children who had grown up in the middle of war without any formal education. Rabaul itself was continuously bombed and attacked for about 48 months, virtually the whole duration of the war in the Pacific.

Wesley was sent to a school in the Blue Mountains but coming from a tropical climate, he advised my father James Seeto '53 to find somewhere warmer. In 1952, my father, after looking at various schools settled on Trinity Grammar School in Summer Hill because of its small school feel. Based on these decisions generations of Foung's and Seeto's families have been enrolled into the school ever since. 

Wesley sent his three sons Winston '80, Adrian '84, and Quinten '90 to Trinity. After many decades doing business in PNG he retired to Sydney, Australia. Wesley passed away 23rd of May 2022. Quinten, going through Wesley's garage, found a stockpile of PNG Pacific Maple that had been there for many years. The family generously decided to donate this wood to Trinity for the boys to use in their projects. Just like Wesley's boys did when they were at TGS.

As a gesture of appreciation and thanks, the TAS department's Mr Gio Costaganna and Mr Carlos Ramos,  made a jewellery box from some of this wood. It was presented to Wesley's wife Agnes who said it was beautiful. She was very touched and very thankful. The jewellery box even when empty contained a lot of sentimental value. 

By Roderick Seeto '91