Lieutenant General Premindra
Singh Bhagat VC, PVSM (14
October 1918 – 23 May
1975) was an officer in the Indian Army during World War
II and a recipient of the Victoria
Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in
the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British
and Commonwealth forces, and the
PVSM, India's highest
military service award. The Victoria
Cross was conferred on him for his actions in the Sudan
theatre
during the World War II.
General
Bhagat is an alumnus of the famous Prince of Wales Royal Indian
Military College, Dehradun
.
Biographical information
Bhagat was
born on 14 October 1918 in Gorakhpur
, British India.
He attended the
Royal
Indian Military College, a public school in
Dheradun, and the
Indian Military Academy. He was
commissioned in the
British Indian
Army on 15 July 1939.
He later achieved the rank of Lieutenant General in the Indian Army, serving as the General Officer
Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) of the Central Command, and later
raised the Northern Command which is headquartered in Udhampur
, Jammu and
Kashmir
as its first GOC-in_C. He was also awarded
the
Param Vishisht Seva
Medal (PVSM), India's highest military service medal.
When he was not appointed as the
Chief of Army Staff
by
Indira Gandhi despite his
seniority, he chose to sidestep out of the Army on deputation to
the
Damodar Valley
Corporation where he made a definite impact in improving the
organisation's working climate, ethos and productivity.
The Victoria Cross
He was 22 years old, and a
Second
Lieutenant (
King's Commissioned Indian
Officer) in the
Corps of
Indian Engineers,
Indian Army, attd.
Royal Bombay Sappers and
Miners during the
Second World War
when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the
VC.
References
Footnotes
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