Pin made in China, in the cultural revolution period. St. Paul’s College is an Anglican day school for boys in Hong Kong. It was established in 1851, the oldest continuously-operated school in Hong Kong. The college first opened in 1851 with only one tutor and nine pupils. Today, it has more than 1,200 pupils in the secondary section and nearly 600 pupils in the primary section.
This pin once belonged to Mrs. Koomen. In the 1960’s and early 1970’s Mrs. Koomen (who was Dutch) lived in Canada and began to trade in Chinese artificial flowers and later Chinese antiques. She often went to China and was a welcome guest. As the story goes she was one of the first Western woman to meet Mao Zedong. Her brother Theo Koomen was a well known Dutch sports reporter who tragiclly died in a car accident in 1984. On the pictures there is a news article about Mrs. Koomen and a inventation for a fireworks show on her husband’s name.