Our Hero,


Sunday, 24 March 2013
Our Hero : Lim Bo Seng at 04:16

Biography

Lim Bo Seng ( 林谋盛 ) 
Born27 April 1909

was a Chinese resistance fighter based in Singapore and Malaya during the World War II He is regarded as a war hero in Singapore.He was born in Nan'an, Fujian, China in the final years of the Qing Dynasty, as the 11th child but the first son in the family. In 1925, Lim Bo Seng came to Singapore at the age of 16 to study in Raffles institution under the British colonial government. He discontinued his education at the University of Hong Kong in 1929 when, upon his father's death, he inherited senior Lim's businesses which included the Hock Ann Biscuits and factories for brick manufacturing. In 1930, he married Gan Choo Neo, a Straits-born Nyonya with whom he had seven children. Theirs was a love marriage, unusual in those days. 


Lim was also a prominent figure in the Chinese community in Singapore nominated to take on several posts :
  • Chairman of the Singapore Building Industry Association
  • Board Member of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce 
  • Executive Member and Education Director of the Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan






Being the head of the Labour Services Corps, he provided the British government with labourers for the war effort before the Japanese invasion. When the Japanese troops began advancing towards Singapore from Malayan, he and his men dynamited the Causeway. 

on 11th February,

Lim left Singapore and travelled to SumatraIndonesiawhere he was trained to fight in the jungle and later recruited resistance fighters for Force 136. (special operations force formed by the British in June 1942 to infiltrate and attack enemy lines. )


Operation Gustavus

Lim Bo Seng sent the first batch of Force 136 agents to Japanese-occupied Malaya in 1943 to set up an an intelligence network in the urban areas in Pangkor, Lumut, Tapah and Ipoh.  To avoid detection by the Japanese, secret messages were smuggled in empty tubes of toothpaste, salted fish and even in the Force 136's members' own diaries.

To avoid identification by the Japanese, Lim Bo Seng even pretended tp be a businessman at checkpoints. He used the alias Tan Choon Lim.

Unfortunately, there were many traitors who led to the downfall of Force 136 and Lim Bo Seng. Lai Teck, one of Force 136's members leaked out valuable information that allowed the Kempeitai to pick up coded messages from Force 136. This led to the captures of many of the members in Force 136.

Capture and death


Lim Bo Seng was captured by the Japanese in March-April 1944.
He was taken to the Kempeitai headquarters for interrogation and he refused to provide the Japanese with any information about Force 136refused to reveal the names of the people who worked with him against the Japanese. ) despite being subjected to severe torture.

In prison, Lim Bo Seng often shared his food with the other prisoners. Due to the lack of food and unhealthy living conditions in the prison, he fell ill .He protested against the ill treatment of his comrades in prison. He fell ill with dysentery and was bedridden by the end of May 1944 . Lim died in the early hours on 29 June 1944.






Skit on Lim Bo Seng : 


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We from from Greendale Secondary School , Class 2E1 , bringing you the history of our Singapore Heros , Lim Bo Seng and Elizabeth Choy
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