WWI Major Gurdial’s First Flight & Sikh Infantry Unit, 1916 Print
A 1916 print showing Major Gurdial Singh’s first flight and a Sikh infantry unit in WWI. There is scant information about these Sikh soldiers. The little that has been gathered is that Major Gurdial Singh had fought in WWI and WWII. Here he is shown standing beside a war biplane, not sure as a pilot or passenger.
He had fought for India against Pakistan in 1948. Gurdial Singh passed away at the age of 103. However, the British Royal Air Force (RAF) had the first ever Indian who enlisted in WWI as a pilot. He was Hardit Singh Malik, one of the first flying Sikhs in the RAF. The second image shows “Officers of the 1st Rajindar Sikh Infantry with the tank.” The battle tank was likely captured and destroyed by this Rajindar Sikh unit in WWI.
Read more on Flying Sikhs – A History of Sikh Fighter Pilots.
Did you know – it was another Sikh – the Maharaja of Patiala, Bhupinder Singh – who procured the first Bleriot monoplane and Farman biplanes in 1910.
Past posts – ‘Farmhouse’ British-India Watercolour Painting 1940., Apollo Bunder & Harbour British Era Bombay, 1900 Photo., Cochin Maharajah At Onam Celebrations – Old Postcard 1948. 1926.
