홍범도 洪範圖
Patriot of Independence · Manchuria Theater · Grand Order of the Republic of Korea (Daehanmin-guk-jang) (1962)
| Life | 1868 ~ 1943 |
| Era | 근현대 |
| Clan | 남양 홍씨 |
Life & career
Hong Beom-do (洪範圖, 1868–1943) was a leading righteous-army commander and independence-army general who led the victories at the battles of Bongo-dong and Cheongsan-ri. Born into a poor family in Pyongyang, he spent a hard youth as a farmhand, miner and hunter, and won renown for his marksmanship and his mastery of mountain terrain.
In 1907, when Japan sought to confiscate hunters' firearms, he rallied the mountain hunters of Hamgyong and rose in arms. Waging elusive guerrilla warfare in the rugged mountains, he was nicknamed the "Flying General Hong." He later crossed into the Russian Maritime Province and Gando to continue the armed independence struggle.
In June 1920 he led the Korean Independence Army to a great victory over Japanese forces at Bongo-dong, and that October he took part in the Cheongsan-ri campaign alongside Kim Jwa-jin's Northern Military Administration Office army. After the Free City Incident he remained in the Maritime Province; in 1937, under Stalin's forced-deportation policy, he was moved to Kyzylorda in Kazakhstan, where he lived in hardship until his death in 1943.
He was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit for National Foundation (Republic of Korea class, 1962), and in 2021 his remains were repatriated and interred at Daejeon National Cemetery.
Source: public records including the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs archive.