이동녕 李東寧

Independence activist; chairman of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea and first speaker of the Provisional Legislative Assembly

Life & career

Yi Dong-nyeong, pen name Seogo, was born in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province. He was active in the Independence Club and the People's Joint Assembly during the late Korean Empire, was imprisoned in 1897 alongside Syngman Rhee and Yi Jun, worked as a reporter for the Jeguk Sinmun, and helped found the New People's Association.

Fleeing to North Gando in Manchuria in 1906, he joined Yi Sang-seol in establishing Seojeon Seosuk, the first Korean school founded abroad, and accompanied Yi on his journey to the Hague Peace Conference. In the 1910s he founded the Sinheung Military Academy in West Gando and served as its first principal, training independence fighters. In 1919 he took part in founding the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea and became the first speaker of its legislature.

He later served multiple terms as premier and chairman of the Provisional Government alongside Kim Gu, and in 1932 helped direct the bombing missions of Yi Bong-chang and Yun Bong-gil. He died of illness in 1940 in Qijiang, Sichuan, China; in September 1948 Kim Gu arranged the repatriation of his remains for a public funeral and burial at Seoul's Hyochang Park. He was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit for National Foundation, Grand Cordon, in 1962.

Grave

Hyochang Park, Seoul (repatriated and interred in 1948)

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