Brigadier Brigadier ( ) is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore (rank), commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several t ...

Surendra Singh Panwar (19 October 1919 – 29 April 2002) served as an artillery officer in the

Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...

Early life and education

Surendra Panwar was born in

Dehradun Dehradun (), also known as Dehra Doon, is the winter capital and the List of cities in Uttarakhand by population, most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous Dehradun district, d ...

, and attended Colonel Brown Cambridge School as a child. He pursued post-secondary studies at

Allahabad University The University of Allahabad is a Central University located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. It was established on 23 September 1887 by an act of Parliament and is recognised as an Institute of National Importance (INI). It is the 4th oldest mode ...

Military career

Surendra Panwar entered the

Indian Military Academy The Indian Military Academy (IMA) is one of the oldest military academies in India, and trains officers for the Indian Army. Located in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, it was established in 1932 following a recommendation by a military committee set up ...

and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Regiment of Indian Artillery on 3 May 1942.Defence Department. (1946, April). ''The Half Yearly Indian Army List''. New Delhi: Manager of Publications, Government of India. He went on to serve with the Dagger Division ( 19th Infantry Division) in Burma during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. In 1949 he entered the British Long Gunnery Staff Course at the School of Anti-aircraft Artillery in Manorbier,

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. A graduate of the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington, his service continued in the

Sino-Indian War The Sino–Indian War, also known as the China–India War or the Indo–China War, was an armed conflict between China and India that took place from October to November 1962. It was a military escalation of the Sino–Indian border dispu ...

of 1962 and the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965. In between the wars, Brigadier Panwar created the Air Defence Brigade for New Delhi in 1964. In 1968-1969 he represented India, serving as chairman on the

International Control Commission The International Control Commission (abbreviated ICC; , or CIC), was an international force established in 1954. More formally called the International Commission for Supervision and Control, the organisation was actually organised as three sep ...

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. At the end of his tenure he served as Sub-Area commander for Lucknow from 1969 to 1971, and Ambala from 1971 to 1972. Among his many appointments, he was Chief Instructor at the School of Artillery in Deolali and the Deputy Director of Artillery at Army Headquarters. He retired as a Brigadier in 1973. Indian Officers Meeting

Later life

He would later serve as President of the All India

Gurkha The Gurkhas or Gorkhas (), with the endonym Gorkhali ( Nepali: गोर्खाली ), are soldiers native to the Indian subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of North India. The Gurkha units consist of Nepali and ...

Ex-Servicemen Welfare Association from 1983 to 2002, providing guidance and looking after the welfare of ex-Gurkha soldiers and their families. Surendra Panwar would also serve on the board of trustees for Cambrian Hall and the Gurkha Military College.

References

* Air Cmde (Retd) N. B. Singh, Defence Watch, 1:9, May 2002, p 42.

Footnotes

External links