Havildar Piru Singh Shekhawat

Havildar Piru Singh Shekhawat

Born: 20th May 1918
Died: 18th Jul 1948

Shri Piru Singh Shekhawat was born on 20th May 1918, in village Beri, Rajasthan to Lal Singh. During his childhood, Singh disliked going to school and was not able to cope with the restricted environment. Once his class teacher scolded him due to an argument with one of his classmates, after being scolded Singh never returned to school. He then helped his parents at their farm and grew up to be a sturdy and handsome young boy. His favourite sport was Shikar. Singh always wanted to join the army since childhood, though he got rejected twice, as he was too young. He finally got accepted at the age of eighteen. 20th May 1936, Singh joined the 10th Battalion of the 1st Punjab Regiment at Jhelum. After completing his training, Singh was posted to the 5th Battalion of the same regiment, on 1st May 1937. Despite his earlier hatred towards schooling, he took education seriously and passed the Indian Army Class Certificate of Education. On 7 August 1940, after passing a few other tests, Singh was promoted to lance corporal (lance naik). During the tenure with the 5th Battalion of the 1st Punjab, he noticed some activity on the North-West Frontier.

In February 1942, he was promoted to havildar.
Singh was an outstanding sportsman and represented his regiment in several sports such as hockey, basketball, etc at both inter-regimental and national level championships. He got promoted to company havildar major in May 1945. He served as an instructor until October 1945. After the end of the Second World War, he was sent to Japan as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force, where he stayed till September 1947. Following the partition, Singh got a transfer to the 6th Battalion of the Rajputana Rifles. After independence, he took part in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, serving with the Indian Army’s 6th Rajputana Rifles.

Singh was part of the major section of a company that was allocated to capture a Pakistani post at Tithwal, Jammu and Kashmir. Soon after their attack, the company suffered heavy loss. During the time, Singh, fortunately, occupied a Pakistani medium machine-gun post. But, by that time, his entire team was dead or brutally wounded. Singh was the only one, left to achieve the target. He moved forward and threw grenades at the next enemy post and before moving to the next trench, he received a lethal bullet in his head and died on the spot. On 17th July 1948, Company Havildar Major Singh was posthumously honoured the Param Vir Chakra, India’s highest military decoration. In Jhunjhunu, a road called “Shahid Piru Singh Shekhawat Circle” was named after him, by the Government of Rajasthan. Also, an intersection called “Piru Singh Chowk” has been named after him in Himachal Pradesh. In the 1980s, the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), named fifteen of their crude oil tankers in honour of the Param Vir Chakra recipients. The crude oil tanker named MT “Company Havildar Major Piru Singh, PVC” was named after him which was delivered to SCI in October 1984.

Comments

No comments yet. Why don’t you start the discussion?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *