John Seaby served in the Shanghai Police from around 1928 to 1938 which included the periods of the Shanghai Incident (the Japanese attack on Shanghai from 28th January to 3rd March 1932) and the Battle of Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War from August to November 1937.

He joined the Hong Kong Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve from Shanghai at the outbreak of WW2 in 1939 as a Warrant Officer in the Mine-Watching Branch. He was mobilised on 27th October 1941.

During the Battle of Hong Kong, after the landing of Japanese forces on the Island of Hong Kong he was ordered ashore to fight in the hills as infantry and was wounded. He was hospitalised at Stanley and taken prisoner at the fall of Hong Kong on 25th December 1941.

He was interned with other Naval personnel, first at North Point Camp and later at Shamshuipo Camp. In September 1942 he was shipped to Japan on the Lisbon Maru. During the sinking of the Lisbon Maru he managed to escape into the sea, he was rescued by Chinese fishermen and recaptured by Japanese Marines when ashore. He was then shipped again to Japan, via Shanghai, and spent most of the rest of the war at Chico Camp, Osaka, working as a stevedore in the docks.

During his return to the UK after the war he survived a plane crash but was badly injured and was hospitalised in Australia and later at Haslar Hospital in Gosport.

In 1948 he went to the Gold Coast in West Africa (later Ghana) to work as a security officer in the gold mines and later joined the Colonial Police Service in the Gold Coast. He remained there when Ghana became independent and subsequently joined the UK Foreign Office, working at Embassies in Ghana, Lebanon, China and Japan.