Grave of Charles See Kee
Date Published
: cemeteries / graves / headstones
: Darwin
: Darwin
: 2002
Grave of Charles See Kee
Charles See Kee's grave in Darwin General Cemetery.
Charles Tsang See-Kee is a prominent Darwin Chinese leader involved with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Darwin Chinese Recreation Club and the Ethnic Communities Council.
CHARLES TSANG SEE-KEE OAM (1913-2002) Charles See-Kee was born in Hong Kong on 21 January 1913. He was the grandson of Carlos Ga (1854-1931) from the Dinagat Islands northeast of Mindanao, and his Welsh wife Mary Anne Bunyan (1864-1909). His mother was Carlos and Mary Anne’s second child, Mary Espanias Ga (1888-1947), and his father was Tsang Lam Chiu from Hong Kong, a merchant known in Australia as Tsang See Kee (1878-1947).
Although Charles was of Filipino heritage, in appearance he was quite distinctively Chinese. He was working with a shipping firm in Shanghai when the Japanese Marines came, but smuggled himself out and made his way to Darwin where he was briefly an Army censor and Chinese interpreter at Headquarters 7th Military District in Darwin. He later worked with the Primary Producers Board in Darwin, and in 1941 he established the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. He was later seconded to be the Administrator’s secretary at Government House.
During the first Japanese raids on 19 February 1942, he sought refuge with the Administrator and Mrs Abbott and their staff in a bomb shelter under the Administrator’s office: a direct hit brought the office down on them but they scrambled for safety. When the Government departments were transferred out of Darwin, Charles remained, serving as a voluntary Air Raid Precautions (ARP) Warden until they were evacuated on 5 April. Charles served in the RAAF as a wireless maintenance mechanic from 5 December 1942 until 7 December 1945.
In Darwin after the war, Charles was heavily involved in social, civic and community work, and worked voluntarily as an executive member of many sporting and community organisations. He was a founding member of the Multilingual Broadcasting Association, and was President of the Ethnic Community Council (1984-89). He received several awards in the 1980s, culminating with the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1988.
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