Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Faridoon Noshir 'Billy' Billimoria,

PVSM Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM) (IAST: ) is a military award of India. It was constituted in 1960 and since then it is awarded in recognition to peace-time service of the most exceptional order and may be awarded posthumously. All ranks of the ...

(1933–2005) was an

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

officer who was the 15th General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Central Command. He commanded a battalion in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. He was also the commandant of the Defence Services Staff College in 1986.

Early life and education

Bilimoria attended The Doon School and then joined the 2nd course of the Joint Services Wing (JSW), a forerunner of the National Defence Academy (NDA).

Career

Bilimoria was commissioned into the Indian Army on 7 June 1953 in the

5 Gorkha Rifles (Frontier Force) 5th Gorkha Rifles (Frontier Force), also abbreviated as 5 GR(FF) is an infantry regiment of the Indian Army comprising Gurkha soldiers of Nepalese origin. It was formed in 1858 as part of the British Indian Army. The regiment's battalions serve ...

. He graduated from the Defence Services Staff College. He served as aide-de-camp to the first

Indian President The president of India (IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu i ...

, Dr Rajendra Prasad between January 1959 to May 1961. He moved to Congo with his battalion as part of the United Nations Forces between 1962 and 1963. He took command of 2/5 Gorkha Rifles in October 1969 and saw action during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. He was the Indian Army liaison officer with the School of Infantry, Warminster from 1973 for three years. After being promoted to a Brigadier, he commanded an infantry brigade in

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

and then was posted as Brigadier General Staff to a corps in the Northern Sector and subsequently as a Deputy General Officer Commanding to an Infantry Division in the Northern Sector. On promotion to Major General, he commanded a Mountain Division in the Eastern Sector and then became the Deputy Commandant and Chief Instructor at the Indian Military Academy. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and took over as

Commandant of the Defence Services Staff College The Commandant of the Defence Services Staff College is the head and overall in-charge of the Defence Services Staff College. The Commandant of the Academy is a Three-star rank officer from the Indian Army. He is supported by the chief instructor ...

in February 1986. He took over command of 10 Corps in October 1987. He took over as Army Commander of Central Command on 1 November 1989. Bilimoria, while he was the Central Army Commander, was also sent by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

in 1990 to review the work of the

Indian Peace Keeping Force Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was the Indian military contingent performing a peacekeeping operation in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990. It was formed under the mandate of the 1987 Indo-Sri Lankan Accord that aimed to end the Sri Lankan ...

which had been deployed during the Sri Lankan Civil War under the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, and it was on his recommendations that the force was recalled in 1990, ending India's military engagement with the LTTE.

Legacy

The Lieutenant General F N Billimoria trophy, named after him, is awarded to the best officer in the graduating class of Army Medical Corps Centre & School in the Lucknow Cantonment.

Personal life

He married his wife Yasmin in January 1960 at

Secunderabad Secunderabad, also spelled as Sikandarabad (, ), is a twin cities, twin city of Hyderabad and one of the six zones of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Telangana. It ...

. They have two sons. Karan Bilimoria (Baron Bilimoria), the

British Indian British Indians are citizens of the United Kingdom (UK) whose ancestral roots are from India. This includes people born in the UK who are of Indian origin as well as Indians who have migrated to the UK. Today, Indians comprise about 1.4 mil ...

entrepreneur who founded

Cobra Beer Cobra Beer is a beer brand manufactured in the United Kingdom and India. The group's primary product is a premium beer with an alcohol strength of 4.5% by volume (originally 4.8%). The beer was founded in 1989 by Karan Bilimoria and Arjun Reddy. ...

is his son.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Billimoria, F. N. The Doon School alumni Parsi people Indian generals 1934 births 2005 deaths Recipients of the Param Vishisht Seva Medal Commandants of Defence Services Staff College