Manakampat Kesavan Unni Nayar (22 April 1911 – 12 August 1950) was an Indian military colonel, journalist, and diplomat who was killed in the Korean War while working on behalf of the United Nations.

Early life and education

He was born 22 April 1911 at Manakampat house near Parli, from

Palakkad Palakkad (), formerly known as Palghat, historically known as Palakkattussery is a city and municipality in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of the Palakkad District. Palakkad is most densely populated municipal ...

in the state of

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

in southern India. After an uneventful early education, he took his honours in Literature, from the

Madras Christian College Madras Christian College (MCC) is a liberal arts and sciences college in Chennai, India. Founded in 1837, MCC is one of Asia's oldest extant colleges. The college is affiliated to the University of Madras but functions as an autonomous institu ...

. His literary talents were first discovered, in the College Magazine. He began his professional career at a humorous weekly publication, ''The Merry Magazine'' of Madras. He soon moved to ''The Mail'', a

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

daily, but continued to contribute to the ''Merry Magazine''.

Career

Later, he worked in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

and various locations in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

and

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

. While serving as a U.N. delegate in Korea in 1950, he was killed (with journalists Christopher Buckley and Ian Morrison) by a land mine exploding under their jeep. A memorial dedicated to him is sited at Waegwan, South Korea. An obituary published by the government of India said:

References

External links

Unni Nayar materials in the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)
1911 births 1950 deaths Indian Army officers Indian diplomats Military personnel from Kerala People from Palakkad district Landmine victims Military personnel killed in the Korean War Journalists from Kerala Indian humorists War correspondents of World War II {{India-journalist-stub