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Professor Hla Pe spent his early years in a rural village near Moulmein in Southern Burma. His love of books and his gift for learning took him to high school in Moulmein, and to University in Rangoon, where he studied Burmese literature. He then won a scholarship to England where he took a Diploma in Education at the University of London, worked as a Burmese language broadcaster for the BBC during the war years, and wrote a thesis on Burmese literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies, also in the University of London, for which he was awarded the Ph.D. degree. In 1948, he joined the teaching staff of the School as Lecturer in Burmese. He was made Professor in Burmese in 1966, and retired in 1980 after many years spent teaching students of diverse interests, dispensing advice and information to inquirers from many countries, delivering lectures both in England and the continent of Europe, and publishing numerous articles and books on Burmese life, literature and language. On retirement, he returned to Burma and is now once more living in Moulmein.