He was born Hoe Min Sein to landowner parents U Sine Hu and Daw Yin Cane on 26 December 1898 in Pyapon in the Irrawaddy delta in British Burma.

[1] He went to high school in Rangoon (Yangon), and studied medicine at the University of Calcutta, and graduated with an MB in 1925.

[4] He joined the service right before the outbreak of an open rebellion by Burmese peasants hit hard by the Great Depression.

The colonial era medical community was mainly made up of foreign-born physicians and specialists that existed primarily in Rangoon (Yangon).

[note 1] Indeed, in 1942, he was one of the only four Burmese officers (alongside Lt. Col. Henry Aung Khin, Lt. Col. Alfred Ba Thaw and Capt.

[4] (To be sure, some highly qualified Burmese physicians like his own wife Yin May or his RGH colleague Ba Than, both of whom were already FRCS surgeons, did not join the IMS.

[note 2] Yin May did join the BMS after the war in 1946 as a Lt. Col. to run the Lady Dufferin Maternity Hospital.

[8] His wife remained in Burma, and ended up founding and running the main maternity hospital in Rangoon throughout the war years.

[9] (Hoe, Yin May and their son fled Rangoon in early 1942 to escape the invasion but the family somehow got separated in Upper Burma.

[11] He was awarded the title of OBE by the British government in 1947,[2][12] and promoted to the rank of Lt. Col. (although he is commonly, if imprecisely, referred to as Col. Min Sein in Burmese publications.