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Born on 3 April 1914 into the Manekshaw family at Amritsar
Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, India's first Field Marshal, has 3
brothers and 2 sisters. At Amritsar,
Dr. Hormusji started a medical practice and a chemist shop/pharmacy, where
his prescriptions were formulated, so that his patients could have easier
access to medication especially when pre formulated patented drug
formulations were few and far between!
With all their children born in Amritsar, Fali, the eldest,
had his schooling in Bombay while the other boys Jan, Sam and Jemi went to
school at "Sherwood College" at Nainital. The two sisters went to
school at Murree now in Pakistan. All the Manekshaw children imbibed a very
strong sense of humor.
He was commissioned into the Indian Army as a Second
Lieutenant in "The Frontier Force Regiment" on 4th February 1934.
It was in 1937, that he met his future wife, Silloo Bode at
a social gathering in Lahore where she was visiting her sister and
brother-in-law, a Colonel in the Army Medical Corps. It was "Love at
first sight" and they were married on 22nd April 1939. Silloo had her
education at Bombay from where she graduated from "Elphinstan
College" and later from the "JJ School of Arts" there. An
insatiable reader and a talented painter, she had a multi faceted
personality with a great grooming and equally great talent. A very
intelligent and a well informed person, her greatest quality was her
incisive mind and a very earthly approach to problems. A gracious mother
and an affectionate wife, she always gave the right advice to her husband
and family without hesitation. She was the anchor that kept the family's
feet firmly on the ground. She always had time for her husband's staff
officers, knew their wives and families and their problems. The only time
she was ever seen to exercise 'rank' was when she was collecting for a
charity or getting something done for someone who otherwise, would have had
to wait or do without.
Silloo gave birth to her first daughter Sherry on 11 January
1940, while the second girl whom they called Maya was born on 24 September
1945. Sherry joined the "Travel Trade" beginning with Air India
and working with Mercury Travels for a long time, in fact she retired from
there! She married Dinky Batliwala who was working with "Swiss
Air". The Batliwalas who now live in Chennai, have one daughter named
Brandy who lives abroad. Maya the younger one became a stewardess with the
then "British Overseas Airways Corporation" (BOAC) now called
British Airways. It was while flying for them that she met her husband Dhun
Daruwala who was an Engineer with "Air India." The Daruwalas have
two sons Rahul Sam and Jehan Sam. Maya did her degree in Law from London
University and went on to become a Barrister from "Lincolns". She
is currently heading an NGO for Human Rights in Delhi.
In the Second Great War, he saw service with his unit on the
Burma front as a part of the famous 17 Infantry Division. On 22nd February
1942, Sam was wounded while gallantly leading his company to capture a
vital enemy position, when he took the impact of a burst fired from a
Japanese machine gun in his stomach and body. He was taken to the
"Regimental Aid Post" from where the regimental medical Officer,
Captain GM Diwan, evacuated him to the Hospital at Pegu. Here the surgeon
who examined him asked him what had happened? Sam told him, "I was
kicked by a bloody mule!" Hearing this response, the surgeon laughed
and said "Given your sense of humour, it will be worth saving
you!" After being operated upon, he was evacuated to Rangoon, from
where he sailed for India in one of the last ships to leave that port
before it fell to the Japanese. For this act of gallantry he was awarded
the "Military Cross."
Once discharged from the hospital and reunited with his
family after a long separation, Sam was detailed to attend the "8th
Staff Course", at the Staff College Quetta (In Pakistan) from 23
August 1943 to 22 December 1943 in the rank of a temporary Major. On completion
of the Staff College Course, he was posted as the "Brigade
Major", (BM) a critical appointment, to the "Razmak Brigade"
in Waziristan close to the North Western Frontier Province, now in
Pakistan. He remained in this job from 13 January to 22 October 1944
whereafter he was posted to 9/12 Frontier Force Rifles (FFR) in Burma (now
known as Myanmar) who were then on the move astride the Rangoon-Mandalay
highway as a part of the victorious 14th Army under General Slim. During
the closing days of the war, he went as a staff officer to General Daisey
to Indo China, where, after the Japanese surrender, he helped in the
rehabilitation of over 10,000 Japanese prisoners of war. He was then posted
to the Staff College Quetta as General Staff Officer, Grade -2 (GSO-2).
Before he could take up this assignment, he was selected by Field Marshal
Lord Claude Auchinlek, the Commander-in-Chief of India to go on a lecture
tour to Australia for a period of six months in 1946. The main purpose of
this tour was to bring home to the Australians, Indias' war effort and the
achievement of its' Armed Forces since it was perceived that this was not
too well known in that region!
On his return from the Australian lecture tour, he was
promoted to the rank of a local Lieutenant Colonel and while continuing to
be on the panel of Frontier Force Regiment, he was posted to General
Headquarters at New Delhi as General Staff Officer, Grade-1 (GSO-1),
Military Operations-3 (MO-3) till then the sole preserve of the British
Officers. He was the first Indian posted to the MO Directorate. In December
1946 when the division of assets and regiments between Pakistan and Indian
Armies crystallized a little, and it became clear that the Frontier Force
Regiment would remain with Pakistan, Sam was empanelled on the panel of
16th Battalion of The Punjab Regiment, and posted as GSO-1, MO-1. Here he
served from 1st January 1947 to 21 July 1947. On 15th August 1947, when
India became independent, Sam was transferred to the panel of the 5th Royal
Gorkha Rifles, (FF) and was posted to command the 3rd Battalion of the 5th
Gorkha Rifles. However, before he could proceed to take over this
Battalion, Pakistani tribals with the help of Pakistan Army had attacked
parts of Kashmir and managed to reach close to Srinagar. Considering the
operational situation, his posting to command the Battalion was cancelled
and he continued to serve with the MO Directorate as GSO-1 (ops) at Army
HQ. It was thus that the future and first Field Marshal of the Indian Army
was denied a chance to command a Battalion in the Army! This has always
been disappointing for him.
At the time of these operations, Sam Manekshaw, the first "Field Marshal" after independence, in the Indian
Army, had a ringside view of events. Then a Lieutenant Colonel, he
accompanied V P Menon on his historic mission to Kashmir, to get the then
ruler of the State of Jammu & Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh to sign the
"Instrument of Accession" and accede to the Indian Union.
Later he was granted the acting rank of a Brigadier and
appointed Director, MO (OPS). Sam continued in this assignment till 10th
March 1952. During this trying period, Sam had numerous opportunities to
interact with Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel who was the Home Minister in the
Union Government. The Sardar was constantly in touch with Sam seeking
update on the operations in Kashmir Hyderabad and so on and in the process
both got to know each other well.
In 1948, Sam and Thimayya, then a Major General, were a part
of the Indian Delegation to the UN, led by Sir BN Rau, as military
advisors. It was here that he first met with Mrs. Indira Gandhi, who was on
board the same ship along with her father, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, the
Prime Minister of India, sailing to Paris. The two Generals, spent nearly
three months in Paris where the session was held.
In March 1952, Sam was posted to Ferozepur in command of 167
Infantry Brigade. It was his first command assignment after the war. In
1953, he was appointed Colonel of the 8th Gorkha Rifles. Having finished
with the command of the brigade, Sam was posted to the Army HQ as
"Officiating Director of Military Training" (DMT) from April 1954
to January 1955. In May 1955, Brigadier Sam Manekshaw was posted as
Commandant to the Infantry School. He was the first Indian to be posted to
that Institution.
In November 1956 Sam left for the UK to attend the course at
the "Imperial Defence College" (IDC) till December 1957. On
completion of this course and his return in December 1957, he was posted to
command 26 Infantry Division at Jammu. He took over the Division from Major
General PP Kumaramangalam, DSO., who was posted to the Staff College at
Wellington as Commandant. It was here, at Jammu, that a life long
friendship developed between Sam and Mr DP Dhar, who was then a minister in
the State Cabinet of the State of Jammu & Kashmir. It was also here
that he had a spat with the then Defence Minister, Mr VK Krishna Menon.
After command of the division Sam was posted to the Staff College at
Wellington to replace General Kumaramangalam, yet another time! While
commanding the Staff College, he was cleared for his next rank. Before he
could be promoted, Krishna Menon and General BM Kaul, a Kashmiri Officer
with his lineage rooted in the Nehru clan, ordered an inquiry against Sam
as the Commandant of the Staff College. Having been exonerated of all
charges, Sam was appointed to command 4 Corps after General Kaul resigned
in the wake of the Chinese war!
General Manekshaw was appointed GOC-in-C Western Command
with its' Headquarters at Simla after the tragic death of Gen Daulat Singh
in a helicopter crash in Poonch in J&K, in November 1963. He assumed
command of Western Command on 4th December 1963, and moved to replace Gen
Kumaramangalam in Eastern Command in 1964. On 8th June 1969, Sam took over
as the Chief of Army Staff, once again from General Kumaramangalam, where
apart from other contributions his finest hour was the surrender of the
Pakistan Army in Dacca in 1971. In recognition of his service to the
nation, he was created as the first "Field Marshal" in
independent India on 1st January 1973.
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