George Fung-On

A Chinese heritage nurtures a son of the soil

George Clarence Fung-On, former minister of the Public Service and chairman of the Public Service Commission, was born Oct. 24, 1921 in Kitty, Georgetown to Walter and Hannah Fung-On.
His father, who arrived in the West Indies at 10-years-old from Canton China, had in his 20s, left his immigrant father and siblings in Surinam to start his own business in British Guiana. His father’s cousin, Fung-A-Fat, had already chosen to migrate to British Guiana after he arrived in the West Indies.
Described as a baker, Walter Fung-On subsequently opened a grocery store in Kingston and then moved the business to Camp Street, then Kitty, in Georgetown.
George became the second of 13 children Walter would have with his second wife Hannah née Chung-Kee-Wong. Walter’s first wife Mamie died during a flu epidemic when their only child, a girl called Verna, was just 9 months old.
Both Mamie née Ching and Hannah were born to parents who arrived from Canton, China. Hannah’s parents were indentured to Plantation Vryheid’s Lust when they arrived on the colony.
George Fung-On grew up with his mother’s brother and her two sisters in Plaisance, ECD, where he attended primary school and worshipped at St Paul’s Anglican Church in the community. His religious background would later serve to make him a devout worshipper and Lay Reader at Christ Church in Georgetown where he would oversee the Eucharist service and on occasion deliver homilies.
Home-schooled during his secondary years, Fung-On obtained his junior and senior Cambridge certificates through correspondence courses. He also obtained his pass in the inter LLB (London) as an external student, and received a diploma in economics and public administration from Carleton University in Canada.
He began his career in the British Guiana public service in 1942 after working as a teacher at St Aidan’s Anglican School in Wismar, and married Gloria née Choy in the late 1940s.
He also became a member of the Chinese Sports Club, (now Cosmos Sports Club) in 1942. He was described as a “reliable” wicket-keeper/batsman, having played up to first division level.  He remained a member until 1975: a year before his retirement from what had by them become the Public Service Commission.
In 1972 Fung-On was appointed secretary to the PSC, and retired in 1976. However, his retirement led him to join the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry as executive secretary, a position he held until he was appointed Minister of the Public Service by the then newly elected President Cheddi Jagan in 1992.
After nine years, Fung-On demitted the ministry in 2001 to briefly hold the post of member of the Public Service Appellate Tribunal before being appointed Public Service Commission chairman in 2004 a position he held up to his time of death on Feb. 16, 2007 aged 85, after a period of illness. He was also on the Guyana Defence Force Commissions Board and the Judicial Service Commission.