Gordon Stifler Seagrave (18 March 1897 – 28 March 1965) was a Burmese-born American missionary, physician and author.

Life and career

Born 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 ...

, he was the son of American Baptist missionaries Rev. Albert Ernest Seagrave and Alice Vinton. As such he represented the fourth generation of a mission tradition begun when his great-grandparents Justus Vinton, Calista Holman, James Madison Haswell and Jane Mason, were sent to Moulmain, Burma in 1834 and 1835 to establish a Baptist mission, work continued in subsequent generations by several family members, including his great-aunt, missionary and physician Calista Vinton Luther. Seagrave followed their path and became a missionary and medical doctor in Burma. He was sometimes referred to by the title of his book, " Burma Surgeon", or as Gordon Surgeon Seagrave. His first language as a boy was

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 ...

. Seagrave was married on 11 September 1920 to Marion Grace "Tiny" Morse. They had four children: Leslie Mae, b. 1921 in Baltimore, MD; Weston M.; John H.; and Sterling V., a journalist and author. Seagrave graduated from

Denison University Denison University is a private liberal arts college in Granville, Ohio. One of the earliest colleges established in the former Northwest Territory, Denison University was founded in 1831. The college was first called the Granville Literary and ...

in 1917 and

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

in 1921. He practiced medicine and surgery on the China border of Burma for nearly 20 years. He joined the US Army Medical Corps in 1942, worked with Gen.

Joseph Stilwell Joseph Warren "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell (March 19, 1883 – October 12, 1946) was a United States Army general who served in the China Burma India Theater during World War II. An early American popular hero of the war for leading a column walking ...

and served with the Chinese

New 6th Army New 6th Army was a Chinese combat command involved in the Burma Campaign of World War II, and later, the Chinese Civil War. They operated in the Shan States and the Karen State of eastern Burma. The New 6th Army's General and Supreme Commander ...

through the Burma Campaign in the China-Burma-India Theater. He helped Stilwell's walking retreat into

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in 1942. He walked back in to work in 1945. He served as chief medical officer for the

Shan State Shan State ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, ; shn, မိူင်းတႆး, italics=no) also known by the Endonym and exonym, endonyms Shanland, Muang Tai, and Tailong, is a administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. ...

s of Burma with the British military government from 1945-46. He was arrested and charged with treason by the newly independent Burmese government in 1950.Hot potato
''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

''. November 13, 1950. Retrieved February 1, 1950. He chose to stand trial rather than be perceived as fleeing. He was sentenced in January 1951 to six years at hard labor, on charges that he wrote a letter that helped

rebels arrest a government commissioner, and that he gave medical help to the Karen rebels. The sentence was later reduced to six months, and in November 1951 the verdict was overturned by Burma's three-man Supreme Court and he was declared not guilty. He suffered dysentery and malaria in part from his time in jail.Sea of troubles
''

''. January 29, 1951. Retrieved February 1, 2015.Final verdict
''

''. November 19, 1951. Retrieved February 1, 2015. Seagrave wrote six books: ''Waste Basket Surgery'', 1930; ''Tales of a Waste Basket Surgeon'', 1939/1942; ''Burma Surgeon'', 1943; ''Adventure in Burma told in pictures'', 1944; ''Burma Surgeon Returns'', 1946; and ''My Hospital in the Hills'', 1955; and he co-authored ''The life of a Burma Surgeon'' with Chester Bowles, 1961. Gordon Seagrave died at his hospital at Namhkam, Burma on 28 March 1965."Dr. Seagrave Dies of a Heart Illness", ''Dallas Morning News'', 29 March 1965

References

External links

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

Archives, 1957 film
LIFE 11 Jan 1963
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seagrave, Gordon Baptist missionaries from the United States 1897 births 1965 deaths Burmese surgeons People from Yangon Baptist missionaries in Myanmar American expatriates in Myanmar 20th-century surgeons 20th-century Baptists