Seagrim, Hugh P.

   (1909-1944)

   British officer who worked with Force 136 during World War II to establish an anti-Japanese base in the hills of what is now Karen (Kayin) State, near the Thai-Burma border. Operating on his own with a small force of Karens (Kayins) after the Japanese occupied Burma in early 1942, he established radio communication with India in October of the following year and sent a Karen agent to Rangoon (Yangon) to contact Karens and antiJapanese Thakins in the city. Sent on a punitive expedition to locate Seagrim's base in the Karen hills, the Japanese Kempeitai (military police) caused such a reign of terror that Seagrim decided to give himself up in order to spare the Karens further retaliation. He was executed at Rangoon on September 22, 1944, but he and his Karen comrades had succeeded in opening up a line of communication between the British in India and disaffected Burman and Karen elements. His story is told by Ian Morrison in Grandfather Longlegs, and to this day he remains a hero among the Karens.

   See also Japanese Occupation.