November 1922
World-renowned people who lived in Myanmar
In November 1922, 19-year-old Eric Blair (later better known by his pen name George Orwell) arrived in Mandalay for training at the Burma Provincial Police Training School. He lived and worked in Burma for nearly five years and was posted to the Ayeyarwaddy Delta (Myaungmya and Twante), Rangoon (Insein and Thanlyin), Mawlamyaing and Katha. He would grow to hate British imperialism and later wrote one of the most incisive books ever written on colonial life, Burmese Days.
Others who lived in Burma and later made their mark on the world include the pioneering political economist J. S. Furnivall and the Chilean poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda.
This is the only known photograph of Eric Blair (George Orwell) taken when he was in Burma. He is standing, third from the left, in front of the Mandalay police mess.