Independence patriot · Righteous army (의병) · Presidential Medal (대통령장, 1962)
| Life | 1856 ~ 1940 |
| Era | 근현대 |
| Clan | 전주 이씨 |
Lee Beom-yun (1856-1940), born in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, the son of military official Lee Gyeong-ha, spent several years in Yanji, Manchuria before entering government service. From 1903 to 1905 he served as the Korean Empire's administrator for the northern border region of Gando (Jiandao), organizing hunters into a militia to protect Korean settlers there. After the Russo-Japanese War he fled to Russia's Maritime Province, where, with the backing of the wealthy patron Choe Jae-hyeong, he organized the Yeonchu righteous army and fought Japanese forces around Gyeongheung alongside fellow activists An Jung-geun, Yi Sang-seol, and Hong Beom-do.
He went on to take part in several independence organizations, including the Sipsamdo Uigun, the Gwoneophoe, the Uigunbu, and the Sinminbu, and served as president of the Gwoneophoe in 1911, publishing its newspaper Gwoneop Sinmun to rally the Korean community in the Russian Far East. He died of illness in Gyeongseong (Seoul) in 1940, and was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit for National Foundation, Grand Order, in 1962.