Prior to the outbreak of World War II, he was a prominent businessman among the overseas Chinese community in Singapore and Malaya.

He is remembered as a war hero in contemporary Singapore and the Lim Bo Seng Memorial at Esplanade Park was constructed in 1954 to commemorate him.

His father, Lim Loh (Chinese: 林路; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lîm Lō͘; pinyin: Lín Lù; 1852–1929), owned businesses in various industries, including construction, rubber, brick manufacturing and biscuit production, as well as properties in China and Southeast Asia.

Around February 1938, Lim travelled to Dungun with Chuang Hui Chuan (Chinese: 莊惠泉; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chng Hūi-choân; pinyin: Zhuāng Huìquán) of the Anxi clan association to carry out their plan.

On 11 March 1938, Lim and the Singaporean Chinese community held a welcoming ceremony for the workers, who later resettled and found employment in Singapore.

On 11 February 1942, Lim left Singapore for Sumatra and later travelled by sea to Calcutta, India before taking a flight to Chongqing, where the Chinese government was based during the war.

The Chinese government sent him to India to assist the British military forces in logistical operations such as firefighting, medical support and supply transportation.

On 24 May 1943, the first group of Force 136 agents, codenamed "Gustavus I" and led by Captain John Davis of the Special Operations Executive,[4] departed the British naval base in Ceylon on board the Dutch submarine O 24 and arrived in Perak, Malaya.

[5] He travelled under the alias "Tan Choon Lim" (Chinese: 陳春林; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tân Chhun-lîm; pinyin: Chén Chūnlín) to avoid identification and claimed to be a businessman when he passed through checkpoints.

[3] In Perak, Davis and Lim re-established contact with Major Freddie Chapman, who was part of a British unit that stayed behind after the Malayan Campaign and had been carrying out small-scale attacks against the Japanese in Malaya.

A communist guerrilla who was captured by the Japanese in January 1944 revealed the existence of the Allied spy network operating on Pangkor Island.

On 24 March, the Kempeitai arrested a fisherman, Chua Koon Eng (Chinese: 蔡群英; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chhòa Kûn-eng; pinyin: Cài Qúnyīng), at Teluk Murrek on the Perak coast.

Chua was working on Pangkor Island when Li Han-kwong (Chinese: 李汉光; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lí Hàn-kong; pinyin: Lǐ Hànguāng) of Force 136 approached him and requested to use his boat for their communications.

Lim died in the early hours of 29 June 1944 at the age of 35,[10] and was buried behind the Batu Gajah prison compound in an unmarked spot.

Upon arrival, the hearse was sent off by a large procession of British officers and prominent businessmen from the station to Hock Ann Biscuit Factory in Upper Serangoon Road via Armenian Street.