Lim Bo Seng

His father, Lim Loh (1852–1929), owned businesses in various industries, including construction, rubber, brick manufacturing and biscuit production, as well as properties in China and Southeast Asia.

Lim Loh had six wives and a total of 19 sons and nine daughters; his first ten sons and first two daughters were adopted by his first four wives, while his fifth wife bore him seven sons and six daughters, and his sixth wife bore him two sons and a daughter.

Lim Bo Seng was born to Lim Loh's fifth wife Fang Mudan (1885–1930) and he was Lim Loh's 11th son but the first biological son in the family.

Lim initially attended an English school (now part of the Fujian Xiamen No. 2 Middle School) in Gulangyu, Xiamen before he moved to Singapore at the age of 16 and studied at Raffles Institution.

After graduating, he went on to pursue a degree in business at the University of Hong Kong.

Lim Bo Seng (27 April 1909 – 29 June 1944) was a Chinese resistance fighter based in Singapore and Malaya during World War II.

Prior to the outbreak of World War II, he was a prominent businessman among the overseas Chinese community in Singapore and Malaya.

After his father died in 1929, Lim inherited the family businesses and continued running them with his brothers.

He was also very active in the overseas Chinese business community in Singapore and Malaya, and had held key positions such as Chairman of the Singapore Building Industry Association, Board Member of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Executive Member and Education Director of the Singapore Hokkien Association.

Following the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, he participated in fund-raising activities to assist the war effort in China and boycott Japanese goods.

Towards the end of 1937, hundreds of overseas Chinese working in Japanese-owned industries in Malaya went on strike.

At the time, the Japanese government owned an iron mine in Bukit Besi near Dungun, Terengganu, where about 3,000 workers were employed.

The iron ore was shipped to Japan and used as raw material to manufacture weapons.

Lim believed that if the workers in the Dungun mine went on strike, the Japanese would suffer a huge loss, so he planned to make the workers go on strike.

On the Double Tenth Day in 1938, Tan Kah Kee and other Chinese business leaders in Singapore established a committee to raise funds to help Chinese refugees affected by the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Lim served as the committee's communications director and actively participated in anti-Japanese activities such as boycotting Japanese goods and fund-raising to support the war effort in China.

Around February 1938, Lim travelled to Dungun with Zhuang Huiquan of the Anxi clan association to carry out their plan.

Zhuang went to the mine to persuade the workers to go on strike while Lim contacted the local police and gained their support.

By early March, Lim and Zhuang achieved success as many workers left the mine and followed them to Singapore.

On 11 March 1938, Lim and the Singaporean Chinese community held a welcoming ceremony for the workers, who later resettled and found employment in Singapore.

In December 1941, Lim responded to the British colonial government's call to mobilise Chinese volunteers to join Dalforce (part of the Straits Settlements Volunteer Force) and assist the British in resisting the invading Japanese forces.

After Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942, Lim fled to India, where he joined Force 136, a Sino-British guerrilla task force backed by the Special Operations Executive, to carry out espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance operations in Japanese-occupied Malaya.

The volunteers put up a fierce fight against the Japanese during the Battle of Singapore in February 1942.

On 11 February 1942, Lim left Singapore for Sumatra and later travelled by sea to Calcutta, India before taking a flight to Chongqing, where the Chinese government was based during the war.

The Chinese government sent him to India to assist the British military forces in logistical operations such as firefighting, medical support and supply transportation.

Later, as part of the Allied cooperation between China and Britain, Lim was designated as the Chinese liaison of Force 136, a Sino-British guerrilla task force, and appointed as Force 136's Malaya operations officer with the rank of colonel.

Force 136 agents were trained by the British at Sinhagad, Poona, India.

Operation Gustavus was aimed at establishing an espionage network in Malaya and Singapore to gather intelligence on Japanese activities, and thereby aid the British in Operation Zipper – the code name for their plan to take back Singapore from the Japanese.

On 24 May 1943, the first group of Force 136 agents, codenamed "Gustavus I" and led by Captain John Davis of the Special Operations Executive, departed the British naval base in Ceylon on board the Dutch submarine O 24 and arrived in Perak, Malaya.

The O 24 would rendezvous with "Gustavus I" again in September and November 1943 to transfer supplies and personnel from "Gustavus IV" and "Gustavus V" respectively.

Its sister ship, the O 23 under Captain Richard Broome, transported "Gustavus II" and "Gustavus III" to Malaya on 25 June and 4 August 1943 respectively.

Lim arrived in Perak on 2 November 1943 as part of "Gustavus V".

He travelled under the alias "Tan Choon Lim" to avoid identification and claimed to be a businessman when he passed through checkpoints.

In Perak, Davis and Lim re-established contact with Major Freddie Chapman, who was part of a British unit that stayed behind after the Malayan Campaign and had been carrying out small-scale attacks against the Japanese in Malaya.

They also met guerrilla fighters of the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA), including the Malayan communists Chin Peng and Lai Teck.

They reached an agreement that the resistance group would be placed under British command in exchange for weapons, supplies and training.

In 1944, he was captured by Japanese forces in Malaya and ultimately died in prison due to torture and ill-treatment.

After the war, his remains were transported back to Singapore and buried near MacRitchie Reservoir.

He is remembered as a war hero in contemporary Singapore and the Lim Bo Seng Memorial at Esplanade Park was constructed in 1954 to commemorate him.

Lim was born in Houpu Village, Meilin Town, Nan'an County, Fujian Province (now Manshanhong Village, Shengxin Town, Nan'an, Fujian) towards the end of the Qing dynasty in China.