Major-General Sohan Lal Bhatia CIE, MC, FASc,

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

, FRCP (5 August 1891 – 16 July 1981) was a distinguished Indian physiologist, medical administrator and decorated Indian Army officer.

Biography

Bhatia was the eldest son of Rai Bahadur Hira Lal Bhatia, an eminent surgeon practising in Lahore. Educated in Lahore at the Central Model School, Lahore, and the Government College Lahore, he began his medical studies at

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...

in 1910. He subsequently pursued his clinical studies at

St Thomas' Hospital St Thomas' Hospital is a large NHS teaching hospital in Central London, England. It is one of the institutions that compose the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. Administratively part of the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foun ...

, London. On the outbreak of war in 1914, Bhatia volunteered as a surgical dresser on HMHS ''Guildford Castle''. He completed his degree in 1917, and following graduation was appointed a temporary lieutenant in the Indian Medical Service (IMS), effective from 8 April 1917. In May 1918 he was attached to the

105th Mahratta Light Infantry The 105th Mahratta Light Infantry were an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. The regiment traces their origins to 1768, when they were raised as the 3rd Battalion, Bombay Sepoys. The regiment's first action was during the Mysore Cam ...

(now the Maratha Light Infantry, then part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force). In September 1918, he was awarded the Military Cross (MC) for courage under fire during the Battle of Megiddo; the award was gazetted in April 1919: Bhatia was the sole IMS recipient of the Military Cross in 1918. After the war, he received a regular commission in the IMS, with effect from 15 March 1920. He was promoted to substantive

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

on 8 April 1920, with seniority from the same date. The same year, he was appointed professor of physiology and hygiene at Grant Medical College in Bombay, becoming its first Indian dean in 1925. He was promoted to

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

on 8 April 1928, with promotion to lieutenant-colonel on 8 October 1936. On 27 October 1937, Bhatia was appointed principal of the Grant Medical College and superintendent of the Jamsetji Jeejeebhoy Hospital Group. During the Second World War, Bhatia was appointed an additional deputy director-general of the IMS on 19 August 1941, serving in this capacity for most of the war. On 1 June 1945, he was appointed inspector-general of civil hospitals and prisons in Assam Province, receiving promotion to colonel on 11 June (seniority from 8 October 1939). He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in the

1946 New Year Honours The 1946 New Year Honours were appointments by many of the Commonwealth Realms of King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and to celebrate the passing of 1945 and the beginnin ...

list.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhatia, Sohan Lal Indian Medical Service officers British Indian Army officers Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire Recipients of the Military Cross Indian physiologists Indian Army officers 1891 births 1981 deaths 20th-century Indian medical doctors