Originally published in The Gateway Issue No. 21 (February 2010)
Brother Anthony is sometimes referred to as a Hong Kong product, not in the commercial sense but because he was born and bred there and all his life he was conscious of his roots.
His ancestral roots, however, was the village of Hing Ling in the northeastern part of the Kwangtung province of China. His Catholic grandfather sent Anthony’s father, Benedict, to study in Hong Kong at St Joseph’s College. Benedict later joined the staff of St Joseph’s, and married in Hong Kong. Cantonese became the spoken language of the family. Brother Anthony was born on the 10th May 1922, the first of a family of six: three boys and three girls.
Since the family lived in Holy Infant Lane in Wanchai, Anthony attended the local primary school of the same name which was run by the Canossian sisters. His father, a devout Catholic, had the habit of attending daily Mass and communion and from early years would wake Anthony at 5.30am to accompany him to church. It was a habit he was to keep for a lifetime.
At the age of eleven he transferred to St Joseph’s College where he was admitted to Class 8, Primary 5. After three months he was promoted to class 7, Primary 6, where he came under the tutelage of Mr Francis Boey Kah Sing who took no nonsense. Brother Cronan Curran was his teacher when he entered Form 1. The Director was Brother Matthias and at the end of Form 1 Anthony had made such progress that he was given a double promotion to Form 3 where he had Brother Brendan Dunne as form teacher.
Things were moving predictably until one day Brother Hubert Pilz went from class to class inviting those interested in the religious life to a meeting the following day. Anthony went home and talked it over with his father who gave him every encouragement. He turned up at the meeting with a number of other boys including Henry Pang. Henry and the Pang family were close friends. Anthony had in fact been thinking of becoming a Brother when he was in Form One.
At the end of the meeting Brother Hubert invited those interested to see him later. Anthony went home and discussed matters at length with his father. His father went to consult Henry Pang’s father and together they agreed to send their sons to the Brothers’ formation centre, called the Juniorate, that had recently been set up in La Salle College, Kowloon. So began their life-long faith and friendship journey as Lasallians in September 1935.
Numbers rose and in August 1936 Anthony was ready for further training in the Juniorate in Penang, to be joined by Henry Pang in the following year. Anthony was fourteen when he arrived in Penang and joined a cosmopolitan group of aspirants. Besides preparing to become Brothers, they were being prepared for the matriculation examination. Anthony fitted in well from the start and profited from the facilities and opportunities available to him. For example he took up music, largely on his own, and spent spare time learning how to play the organ. Brother Michael Jacques remembers those times:
“I have known Brother Anthony since 1936 when first he arrived on our shores, fresh and enthusiastic and determined to embark on the first steps towards becoming a De La Salle Brother. From the start, little Anthony impressed me as a boy of exceptional talent”.
On the 1st July 1938 he received the habit of the Brothers and began his Novitiate, a year of spiritual formation.
The Sino-Japanese war had begun in 1937 and by late 1938 Guangzhou had fallen to the Japanese. Anthony’s family in Hong Kong was affected especially since links with their ancestral village were broken. The Novitiate year, however, went off smoothly for Anthony, followed by further studies in the scholasticate next door. He did well in his studies and had a taste of teaching in the nearby St Xavier’s Branch School. All seemed set fair for his vocation as a Brother and teacher.
The war clouds burst on the 8th December 1941 with the Japanese invasion. Brother Anthony himself writes: “We were celebrating the feast of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in the chapel when we were informed that war had started. After Mass we could see the Japanese planes flying overhead on their way to bomb the town. We camouflaged the wide drain running between our property and the seminary next door, and it was here we took refuge from the bombing and machine gunning, often remaining there for several hours. It was here in this drain that I got hooked on chess, playing game after game with another Brother.”
A limited amount of teaching was permitted, but in Japanese. Brother Anthony qualified. Otherwise, for the best part of four years, it was hand to mouth existence and virtual house arrest. The planting and harvesting of vegetable crops became a priority as well as fishing. Food was generally scarce and luxuries unknown until after the war. And that war lasted for the best part of four long years.
When peace finally came the Brothers reopened the schools with minimum delay and Brother Anthony was posted to St Xavier’s Institution, Penang. The school had been bombed by both the Japanese and the Americans so makeshift sheds had been constructed around the playing field. It was here that classes were conducted. It was in these less than comfortable circumstances that Brother Anthony honed his teaching skills and exercised his passion for music. He joined the school orchestra, playing in both the woodwind and strings sections. His ambition seemed to be to play all instruments! In his spare time he taught Catechism in the parish and saw to the material purchases for the Brothers.
In 1948 he received the sad news that his father, aged 63, had passed away in Hong Kong. In those days it was not customary for the Brothers to go home. He was allowed home the following year after making his final profession. He had left home at the age of fourteen and was now returning at the age of twenty five. After his home leave he returned to his teaching and other duties in St Xavier’s.
St George’s Institution in Taiping was the next school to benefit from Brother Anthony’s dynamic style. He was transferred in 1954 and was to spend six happy and eventful years there. Although the pace of life was not as hectic as in Penang, he found scope for his energies in school events like concerts, sports days and the annual funfair. Above all, he set his sights on forming a school orchestra, starting with a violin class. Before long he was conducting an orchestra composed of students, Brothers, teachers and old boys. He spent many hours coaching the orchestra, his pride and joy.
In 1954 he was appointed Sub-Director which added to his many responsibilities. Besides running the orchestra, he was in charge of the school bookshop, weekly cinema shows and duplicating material for class use. When people needed something Brother Anthony would be called upon and he was always obliging.
The happy years in Taiping came to an end in October 1960 when he was transferred to his ‘home city’, Hong Kong. Part of the reason was a plan to set up a Juniorate for boys who showed an interest in the Brother’s vocation. He was posted to La Salle College, Kowloon, under the directorship of Brother Felix Sheehan. His long-time friend, Brother Henry Pang, was Headmaster in the Primary School. Anthony was first assigned to teach in Form 1 and later in Form 3. He had developed the habit of telling jokes and performing magic tricks at the start of every class and if the class was especially attentive there might be bonus magic at the end as well.
In La Salle his days were as full as usual. He was given 30 teaching periods a week, was in charge of the bookshop. He also set about reorganizing the school orchestra, bought new instruments and coached the boys in both primary and secondary in the violin and other instruments. In addition he was asked to pay special attention to the children of the families of the school domestic staff. He would pray the rosary with them and then give a cinema show. During the long summer holidays he took these children for boating and swimming outings.
At weekends he would visit his mother, but in 1960 she fell critically ill. Evening after evening Anthony would leave the school at 4pm and take a bus and ferry to Hong Kong island, to St Paul’s Hospital to visit her. He would stay there for several hours, returning at 11pm. Then a short sleep to be up at 5 a.m. to join the community at morning prayer and Mass. Such a hectic pace could not last. He himself recalls:
“One morning I fell down in the bathroom. Luckily Brother Eugene was up early and found me on the floor. He picked me up and put me in bed. I felt very sick and had to be taken to the nearby hospital. It was there that they found I had an ulcer attack and I had lost a lot of blood.
It was during this time that my younger sister, Agnes Seck, came from Singapore to visit mother. She was in time to see mother before she died. The whole family came to see me after the burial. Brother Henry, who walked with my brother Dominic, was mistaken by many for me. He became our brother after that”.
That was in January 1961. His mother was sixty-six. Anthony made a good recovery and resumed his busy routine. Although he tried hard to interest young men in the religious life and had established a Juniorate programme, the results were meagre. Nevertheless his experience in this area was soon to be utilised in Malaysia.
He bade farewell to his beloved Hong Kong in October 1966 and was shortly appointed Director of the Juniorate in Ipoh which at the time had an enrolment of forty one. Every Saturday he would take them to follow the Novena prayers. Although not a sportsman, he would join them in games. To nobody’s surprise he managed to form a small band and orchestrated a few musical shows.
It was at this time, 1966, that he also took over as Editor of the very popular magazine called the “Crusader”, later called the “Young Lasallian”, which made its way into classrooms in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. The magazine was full of interesting stories, jokes, advice and useful hints, magic tricks, quizzes, cartoons, news from around the Lasallian schools and a pen pals corner. He featured many articles on astronomy, one of his passions. These magazines opened up a vast network of friends all over the world and his pen pals pages became popular with many a teenager. The last issue of the “Young Lasallian” was that of April 1988.
Meanwhile, Brother Anthony’s term as head of the Juniorate came to an end in 1971 when he was posted as Director to La Salle University Hall. Petaling Jaya where there were both Brothers and lay students in residence. He became the District recruiter, public relations officer, editor of the District Newsletter and later, in 1979, District Bursar. He took this variety of responsible positions in his stride, doing everything with speed and efficiency according to his catchword: ‘Fast or not?’ As always he became fully involved with the local church.
As he mellowed with age he looked forward more and more to his regular home visit to Hong Kong where he enjoyed the company of his family and of the Brothers, as well as to the Cantonese cuisine. He had been gradually slowing down, partly because of the onset of Parkinsons disease and partly because of a history of diabetes. He spent time playing mahjong and chess on the computer. In December 1998 he paid a final visit to Hong Kong. Since he could not move about freely, he stayed most of the time with the Brothers.
In April 1999 his foot developed a stubborn infection. The condition was exacerbated by his diabetic history and one of his small toes had to be amputated. Despite some pain, he remained a good patient, until the Lord called him on Tuesday 25th May 1999. The funeral Mass at St Francis Xavier’s Church was celebrated by the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur and there was a large attendance. In the eulogy, an old friend, Brother Michael Jacques had this to say:
“Dear Brother Anthony, we are gathered here to bid you a fond but temporary goodbye, till we shall meet again and be with the Lord. You have done us proud by making use of your God-given talents to the full in the service of the Lord in his Church and in our Order, to which you dedicated your whole life so generously. We can thank you best by trying to emulate your good example”.
Brother Anthony himself can have the last word:
“I enjoy being a De La Salle Brother during all these many years. I’m happy in my vocation and in my various assignments. My days are filled with meaningful and challenging activities and really I have not yet encountered a dull day. Someone once told me that if I were not a Brother, I might have become a good banker! But I do think I am that and more! I used to enjoy teaching Mathematics and Scripture in school, and teaching music and conducting orchestras outside school hours. Then I enjoyed my work in the training of future Brothers and now, for the last fourteen years, I think I am doing much good editing the magazine, the Crusader. Thanks be to God!”
