Lim Bo Seng

Millionaire. Activist. Romantic. SOE Operative.

Note: Chinese names are written surname-first in this article. Locations are referred to by their English names from the period (e.g. Bombay, Ceylon, etc).

Singapore in the 1930s was — as it had been for centuries — a bustling port city. Situated at the southern tip of the Malayan peninsula, its wide, placid waterways connect the Indian…