The Hessman Room

Exterior of the Hessman Room. I am proud to say that I built it myself (without a degree in Architecture or Engineering), in memory of two people, my father, Carl and my great grandfather Arthur Hessman Goodenough, after whom the room is named. ALL the tools used to build the Hessman room belonged to my dad and some belonged to my grandfather, William Hessman Goodenough (his set square and spirit level). On display in the room are photos, family heirlooms like Arthur's ceremonial sword, dad's pottery that he dredged up from the sea in Singapore many years ago, the lounge suite he built and many other things as well. The room is in the entrance to FranStan House, named in honour of Frances and Stanley Gillett, my wife's grandparents, who owned the house from the day it was built in 1949 to the day Frances died in 1996.
 

Interior of the Hessman Room. The chairs made by my father Carl, were actually the inspiration for the room. After dad passed on, I inherited dad's 'sitting room set' and many other items and needed to find somewhere to put them. There was not enough space in the house, so I decided to build a room to put them in. From that came the idea of a special room for the Goodenough artifacts. The ladder in the picture was made by dad out of pine, so that we could climb up to the top bunk of our double decker beds when my brother Sean and I were little. The ladder has become unstable now (29 years after it was made), so I decided to turn it into a large picture frame. The family ladder, as I call it, holds 4 pictures. My grandfather William when he was a child, My father, Carl, also when he was a child, me as a child and my daughter, Amariah; in descending order. Thus, it shows Amariah, that she is the eldest daughter of the eldest son, of the eldest son of William Hessman Goodenough.

The Chestable as I call it is my own little addition to the room. The legs of the Chestable are off Dad's sewing machine. The cabinet had rotted away and I wanted to display dad's Hermes typewriter which has been restored. Instead of putting a plain table top to it, I thought it would look more impressive if I added one of the teak chests to it. Stripping years of grime and hardened polish wasn't easy, but with a little elbow grease, some linseed oil and methylated spirits, it all came together nicely. On the typewriter is a photo of my dad and his MG. The wall in the background has since been re-painted Tuscan Red and the floors redone.

Some of the items that is on display in the room. The porcelain artefacts were found when dad was part of a dredging team off Singapore many years ago. It came off a sunken Chinese vessel and one can only guess at the age of these items. The little box in the middle hold a little marble seal which spells out the name "GOODENOUGH" in Chinese. On the second shelf are military items, that include Arthur Hessman's ceremonial sword, the cap bands of Sir William Edmund Goodenough and Frederick Cockerell Goodenough. Sir William's Naval Crest in his cap band has actually got 22 carat gold wire interwoven into the rest of the band. His Victoria Cross is displayed within a glass and silver box. Next to that is the George Medal, issued to all personnel who served for more than 6 months from 1939 -1945. After writing to the British government and providing them with copies of his, employment and discharge certificates, my grandfather, William Hessman was awarded his medal in 1998, 17 years after his death. It should be noted though, that they were unwilling to stamp a serial number on the back, as all claims for medals for members of the Commonwealth, 25 years or more after the end of the war, are regarded as being "issued as a token after the fact"

The Ceremonial Sword of Commander Arthur Hessman Goodenough. If only it could speak, the number of stories it could tell, mainly of my father, wielding it and chasing the neighbour , threatening to chop his head off during an argument over drainage after a heavy shower during the Xmas season. Dad also used it to break up blocks of tar (so he could melt it to seal leaks in the roof!), used it as a lawn edger, a tree branch pruner..etc. In 1993, I decided that enough was enough and I had my brother Sean send it away to be repolished, re-weighted and electroplated. It is now close to what it would have looked like in its heyday. In this picture, it is sitting on one of the "coffin- chests" that I inherited. The big chest is now a coffee table in the Hessman room (pre-restoration in the picture). Both the big and small chests has since been restored and lined internally.