George Hogg (adventurer)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
George Hogg (1914-1945) was an adventurer from England; a graduate of Oxford University in economics, he was headmaster for a short time of a school called Shandan Bailie School, where most of the pupils were war orphans or from refugee families.
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[edit] Early life
George Hogg grew up in the small town of Harpenden in England. He attended St. George's School, where he captained the First XV Rugby team and was Head Boy in his last year.
After schooling, in 1937 he sailed on the Queen Mary to New York, hitchhiked across the United States, and joined his aunt, well-known English pacifist Muriel Lester, on a trip to Japan. From Japan in January 1938 he embarked on a 2-day visit to Shanghai China, a visit that lasted many years.[1]
[edit] Life in China
George Hogg was known as a heroic adventurer during the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War, during which, in 1944, he led pupils from his school on a 700-mile journey through dangerous mountain passes, in order to escape the approaching Japanese secret police in the Shandan area.
Upon arriving in China in 1938, he found himself caught in the middle of the upcoming war between the Chinese and Japanese, and witnessing the brutality of the Imperial Japanese Army, he decided to help the Chinese civilians, choosing to stay in China without his parents' knowledge.
During his stay in China from 1937-1944, he met various people and witnessed many incidents that greatly changed his perceptions of life. Primarily, he worked with the New Zealand-born communist Rewi Alley and helped him run a school for wayward boys, first in Shaanxi Province and then, after marching the boys over 600 miles, at the Shandan Bailie School Alley founded in Gansu Province. There George died from a tetanus infection from a toe injury while playing basketball[2]. His pupils had tried to keep him alive. When his death was unavoidable, they all sang him school nursery rhymes until he finally passed away.
He also befriended Communist general Nie Rongzhen during his stay in Shanxi, and participated, with the 8th Route Army, in guerilla raids against the Japanese.
[edit] Popular Culture
An abridged account of his life and adventure have been portrayed in the feature film The Children of Huang Shi (2008), starring Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as George Hogg and Chow Yun Fat as the intelligence agent Chen Hansheng.
His life has also been chronicled in a book written by James MacManus, entitled Ocean Devil: The Life and Legend of George Hogg, published by the HarperCollins publishing house.
