Min Sein was a distinguished Burmese physician and a keen sportsman, He was born in Pyapon, Burma, the son of U Sine Hu, a landowner, and his wife Daw Yin Cane, and educated at Rangoon High School and the University of Calcutta, where he graduated in 1925. After graduation he spent two years as assistant lecturer at the Government Medical School, Rangoon, before coming to England to undertake postgraduate studies.

From 1927 to 1930 he studied at Guy’s Hospital, London, becoming clinical assistant to Sir John Conybeare and Sir Charles Symonds. He took the Conjoint in 1928 and his membership of the College in 1929. In the Burma Rebellion of 1931 -1932 he was a battalion medical officer with the British Forces. He remained in Burma at the close of the rebellion, and in 1938 was appointed senior physician and lecturer in medicine at Rangoon Medical College.

Min Sein married in 1936 Daw Yin May, herself a distinguished physician and surgeon, and they had two children: a son and a daughter.

During the second world war he served with the British Forces from 1942 to 1946 as ADMS and DDMS, Civil Service, 14th Army. He was awarded the OBE in 1947.

In 1946 he was appointed senior physician to the General Hospital, Rangoon, a post which he held until his retirement. He was also medical superintendent, Rangoon, from 1946 to 1948, and wrote many papers on various aspects of medicine in Burma.

He was a member of the Burma Medical Council, the National Health Council and the National Fitness Council; a member of the Opium Enquiry Commission and of the Racing Enquiry Commission. He led a special mission to the USSR in 1954 and was a member of special missions to the United States in 1952, and Japan in 1958. From 1956 to 1958 he was president of the Burma Medical Association; he was president of the Burma Britain Association, vice-president of the Burma Veterans League, and president of the Medical College Research Society. He was also a member of the Technical and Scientific committee, WHO. In 1959 he was elected a fellow of the College.

Outside of his profession and family, his interests lay in the field of sport. He was a Guy’s Hospital tennis Blue; inter-collegiate long jump champion, Calcutta; president of the Burma Olympic Association, 1948, and captain of the Burma Golf Club. He was president of the Burma National Amateur Athletic Federation, and also of the Weight Lifting and Body Culture Federation, and director and steward of the Rangoon Turf Club.

Sir Gordon Wolstenholme
Valérie Luniewska