On October 27, the Indian Army will celebrate the 75th Infantry Day, marking the anniversary of the dispatch of first Indian soldiers to Srinagar to repel Pakistani invaders. However, there were events that took place on that day that can only be termed as a strange coincidence of fate.
It was certainly a twist of fate that the battalion that was first sent that day was 1 Sikh, commanded by Lt Col Dewan Ranjit Rai, and on that same day he died in action near Baramulla, a British officer of the Sikh Regiment, Lt Col DOT Dykes, who was the officiating Commandant of the Sikh Regimental Centre, was killed along with his wife, Biddy, at Baramulla by the invaders.
Ironically, Lt Col Dewan Ranjit Rai and Lt Col Dykes of the same seniority, though Dykes had graduated from RMA Sandhurst. Another friend of Dykes and course mate of Dewan Ranjit Rai was Lt Colonel Sam Manekshaw who was then serving in the Military Operations directorate, who came from a battalion, 4/12 FF, which had Sikh lineage. Manekshaw and Dykes had done their attachment together with the same battalion, Royal Scots in Lahore in 1934-35.
A word first about 1 Sikh, the battalion that was sent into action on that fateful day. The battalion was deployed in areas abutting Gurgaon on internal security duties because of the communal riots taking place in the aftermath of partition. The unit had been inspected by the GOC-in-C, Lt Gen Dudley Russel, and his had come away highly impressed with the CO, Lt Col Dewan Ranjit Rai. Therefore, when the decision to send in the first troops was taken, he chose Rai and his battalion.
Lt Col Dykes was in Baramulla on leave after having moved with the Sikh Regimental Centre from Nowshera, Pakistan, to the temporary location in Ambala. His wife was expecting their third child and he had moved with his family to the Convent in Baramulla expecting calm and peace away from the turmoil of Punjab. How wrong was he proven! He and his wife were killed by Pakistani invaders on October 27, while defending the convent nuns who were being attacked by invaders. Their three sons were spared but were held captive for 10 days before being taken to Rawalpindi by the retreating invaders.
On October 25, anticipating trouble, Lt Col Dykes wrote a letter on a Sikh Regimental Centre letter pad seeking evacuation from Baramulla. Lt Col Dykes wrote, “I understand that a convoy is shortly leaving for Lahore. I have come here to collect my wife who has been in hospital here and is now fit, when we were overtaken by present events. My particulars are as follows, A.I. 405 Lt Col DOT Dykes, The Sikh Regimental Centre, Ambala. Family: wife and three children, Bearer: one, Baggage 5 mds”.
Lt Col Rai was the first CO to be killed in action in Independent India and was posthumously awarded the Maha Vir Chakra for bravery. The infant son of the now dead Lt Col Dykes and his wife Biddy was taken care of by the wife of General Frank Messervy, the Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan Army, in Rawalpindi. Many years later, the two elder sons of the British couple, Tom and Doug, returned to Baramulla to pay a visit to the convent where their parents had died and still lie buried.
Lt Col Dykes had agreed to stay on in Indian Army after Independence for some time to help the Sikh Regimental Centre get on an even keel after its move from Nowshera in NWFP. It will only be befitting on the 75th anniversary of the couple’s murder that the local Army formation in Baramulla pays respects at their graves.
