Born on 5th March, 1911, Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee, OBE was the first Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Air Force. His career spanned almost three decades and had been awarded with many honours until his untimely demise in 1960. He has been called the “Father of the Indian Air Force”
He was commissioned in the Indian Air Force (IAF) as a pilot in October 1932 and became chief of air staff in April 1954.
Subroto was one of the six Indians selected for training as pilots at the RAF College, Cranwell.
Mukerjee was the youngest of four children in the family of a civil servant in the colonial British administration in India. He was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), and the family lived in and around that city in what is now India’s West Bengal state as well as in England for periods of time.
He received his education in both Indian and British institutions. From a young age he showed a strong desire to pursue a military career, following the example of one of his uncles, who had served in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I.
Subroto’s paternal grandfather, Nibaran Chandra Mukherjee, was a pioneer in social and educational reforms in the country. He joined the Brahmo Samaj and was ostracised and left his ancestral home in Hoogly to settle down at Bhagalpur. His wife, Dinatarini Mukherjee was a simple, unassuming person well known to the poor for her quiet charities.
At the time of India’s independence from Britain in 1947, Mukerjee was the highest-ranking officer in the IAF. He was promoted to the rank of air vice marshal and posted as the deputy chief of air staff, under the British air marshal in India, Sir Thomas Elmhirst.
Mukerjee served in that capacity for nearly seven years under three different British chiefs, which helped prepare him to take over the top post. In April 1954, after having undergone a course at the Imperial Defence College (now the Royal College of Defence Studies) in London, Mukerjee was named commander in chief of the IAF. In 1955 the position was renamed the chief of the air staff.
When he had been younger, he had once tried to pacify his worried mother by noting that his death would not be caused by flying planes. This would turn out to be strangely prophetic as Subroto’s life was tragically cut short in 1960.
He was one of the passengers of Air India’s first ever flight to Tokyo and was enjoying a rather uneventful trip when on November 8, while having a meal with a friend in a restaurant in Tokyo, he choked on a piece of food that had lodged in his windpipe. Despite every effort, he met with an untimely demise.
Upon his death, his 28-year-old service was commemorated by the country and homages poured in from across the world.
Defense Minister VV Krishna, himself paid rich tribute by noting, “The Air Force has lost an experienced and courageous officer and leader; the country, a patriotic and devoted servant and citizen; and his colleagues, a loyal comrade and an understanding leader. Air Marshal Mukerjee has left his mark on his Service, which is a greater tribute than I or anyone can pay in words.”
