THE film of the bravery of a former St George s School student is to be shown in Harpenden next Friday, April 9. George Hogg, who was born in 1915 to a well-known Harpenden family living near Rothamsted, became famous after taking 60 orphans on a journey

THE film of the bravery of a former St George's School student is to be shown in Harpenden next Friday, April 9.

George Hogg, who was born in 1915 to a well-known Harpenden family living near Rothamsted, became famous after taking 60 orphans on a journey of hundreds of miles across war-ravaged China in the winter of 1944.

The crossing was made with Japanese forces snapping at their heels but just one year after successfully completing his mission, Hogg contracted tetanus and died of lockjaw aged 29.

A statue to Hogg and his friend and mentor, the New Zealand philanthropist Rewi Alley, was put up in the town of Shandan on the Mongolian border but it was not until many years later that James McManus wrote a book about him entitled Ocean Devil.

A film has subsequently been made of the book starting Jonathan Rhys Meyers as George Hogg and it is being shown at Fowden Hall in the Rothamsted Conference Centre from 8pm next Friday.

Tickets are �4 on the door and further information is available from Gill Tattersfield on 01582 762919.