Hugh Paul Seagrim, (24 March 1909 – 22 September 1944), nicknamed "Grandfather Longlegs", was a

British Indian Army The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which co ...

officer notable for his leadership of

Karen Karen may refer to: * Karen (name), a given name and surname * Karen (slang), a term and meme for a demanding woman displaying certain behaviors People * Karen people, an ethnic group in Myanmar and Thailand ** Karen languages or Karenic l ...

rebels in fighting Japanese invaders in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Seagrim's brother was Derek Seagrim, a recipient of the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

. He and his brother have the distinction of being the only siblings awarded the

and the

George Cross The George Cross (GC) is the highest award bestowed by the British government for non-operational gallantry or gallantry not in the presence of an enemy. In the British honours system, the George Cross, since its introduction in 1940, has been ...

, both posthumously.

Early life and military career

Seagrim was born in

Ashmansworth Ashmansworth is a village and civil parish in the Basingstoke and Deane district of the English county of Hampshire. Geography The village is about south west of Newbury in Berkshire, and north east from Andover in Hampshire, just south west ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

, England, on 24 March 1909. He was educated at

Norwich School Norwich School (formally King Edward VI Grammar School, Norwich) is a selective English independent day school in the close of Norwich Cathedral, Norwich. Among the oldest schools in the United Kingdom, it has a traceable history to 1096 as a ...

, graduated from the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry a ...

, and joined the

, becoming an officer in the

19th Hyderabad Regiment The 19th Hyderabad Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. It was formed at the time of reforms of the Indian Army after the First World War, when it moved from single-battalion regiments to multi-battalion regiments. The reg ...

. He was later seconded to the

20th Burma Rifles The Burma Rifles were a British colonial regiment raised in Burma. Founded in 1917 as a regiment of the British Indian Army, the regiment re-used the name of an unrelated earlier unit, the 10th Regiment (1st Burma Rifles) Madras Infantry, which evol ...

with the temporary rank of major, becoming an expert in several Burmese languages. When the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

invaded Burma, he was given the task of raising irregular guerrilla forces from the

Karens The Karen, kjp, ပ်ုဖၠုံဆိုဒ်, my, ကရင်လူမျိုး, , th, กะเหรี่ยง ( ), also known as the Kayin, Kariang or Kawthoolese, are an ethnolinguistic group of Sino-Tibetan language ...

and other groups. The British were driven from Burma by May 1942, and Seagrim and his force were isolated for a long time. Eventually

Force 136 Force 136 was a far eastern branch of the British World War II intelligence organisation, the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Originally set up in 1941 as the India Mission with the cover name of GSI(k), it absorbed what was left of SOE's Or ...

dropped agents and wireless operators who made contact with his guerrillas in October 1943. Seagrim led Karens in a campaign of sabotage against the occupation. His force enjoyed much support from Karen civilians despite a series of brutal Japanese reprisal killings against Karen villages. His force was gradually wiped out by a concentrated Japanese manhunt. To prevent further bloodshed Seagrim surrendered himself to the Japanese forces on 15 March 1944. He and eight of his Karen companions were executed by the Japanese on 22 September 1944 in

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

. For gallantry under captivity, he was posthumously awarded the George Cross in 1946.CWGC entry
/ref>

George Cross citation

Seagrim's George Cross citation appeared in the ''

London Gazette London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

'' on 12 September 1946:

Notes

Seagrim was tall, and sometimes referred to as "Grandfather Longlegs".

References

Sources

* Allen, Louis
''Burma: The Longest War''
(Orion Publishing, 2000) * Davies, Philip
''Lost Warriors: Seagrim and Pagani's Burma: The Last Great Untold Story of WWII''
(Atlantic Publishing, 2017) * Morrison, Ian
''Grandfather Longlegs: The Life and Gallant Death of Major H.P. Seagrim''
(Faber & Faber, 1947)

External links

"Karen Remember a World War II Hero"
karennews.org. Originally published in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', 15 August 2015.
"Searching for Burma's forgotten World War Two heroes"
bbc.com.
"One Thousand Miles to Freedom, by [Mark Felton
describing the extraordinary story of British NCO Roy Pagani who met and served Maj Seagrim" {{DEFAULTSORT:Seagrim, Hugh 1909 births 1944 deaths Military personnel from Hampshire People from Ashmansworth People educated at Norwich School British Indian Army officers British recipients of the George Cross Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Indian Army personnel killed in World War II 20th-century executions by Japan Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Executed people from Hampshire