User:Kohlrabi Pickle/sandbox/Gurcharan Singh (Singapore military officer)

Colonel (Ret) Gurcharan Singh Sekhon
Native name	ਗੁਰਚਰਨ ਸਿੰਘ ਸੇਖੋਂ
Nickname(s)	"Father of the Engineers", "The Unsmiling Colonel", "Guru"
Born	1937 (age 86–87)
Allegiance	Singapore
Service / branch	Army
Years of service	1966–1989
Rank	Colonel
Commands	Assistant Chief of General Staff (Operations) Chief Engineer Officer Commandant, Singapore Command and Staff College
Other work	Managing the design and construction of golf courses

Colonel (Retd.) Gurcharan Singh Sekhon (Punjabi: ਗੁਰਚਰਨ ਸਿੰਘ ਸੇਖੋਂ, born 1937) is a retired Singaporean army officer. Nicknamed "Father of the Engineers", he is a pioneer of the Singapore Armed Forces, credited with setting up the Singapore Combat Engineers. He served as the 6th Commandant of the Singapore Command and Staff College from 1979–1981, and thereafter as the Assistant Chief of General Staff (Operations) of the Singapore Army, an appointment today held by an officer of one-star rank. He is a graduate of Singapore's first batch of officer cadets in July 1967. Of that batch, he was the first to command a specialist branch, to hold this command alongside command of a battalion, to command the Singapore Command and Staff College, and to command the First Division of the Singapore Armed Forces.

Early life and education

Gurcharan Singh Sekhon was born in 1937 to Gurdial Singh, a disciplinarian who owned a farm in Aljunied with cows and buffaloes, and later became Assistant Commissioner of Police.

His early life was disrupted by the Japanese invasion and subsequently occupation of Singapore, and he described these experiences as formative. He attended a Japanese school, with strict and uncaring teachers who caned their students. At home, he lived with a reality of Japanese raids. Following the Surrender of Japan in 1945, he joined Saint Andrew's School, which he enjoyed and where he held multiple leadership positions, a rare occurrence for non-Christians in the school at that time. Singh secured a place at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur in 1959, and went on to secure a degree in engineering. Following his graduation, he worked for a dredging company in Malaya.

Military career

Some time after he began working, his father, who by then had become Assistant Commissioner of Police in Singapore, called to ask him to enter the uniformed services. Singh was reluctant, but did not want to disappoint his father, so he returned to Singapore in March 1966 and underwent recruitment tests. He joined the Singapore Armed Forces three months later, at the age of 29.

As one of the oldest recruits and the few with a university degree, he became an obvious choice as a group leader. He eventually became a platoon commander. When the Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute was established in 1967, a plan was included for a wing to train combat engineers. Alongside Chng Teow Hua (who would later become Commissioner of the Singapore Civil Defence Force), he was selected to attend a basic engineer officer's course in Fort Belvoir, Viriginia. He left for the course having just completed his training as an officer cadet, leaving him unable to attend his own commissioning ceremony. When they returned from the course, the two junior officers and their commanding officer, Major George Mitchell, conducted the first Engineer Commanders’ Course in Singapore, spanning April to August 1968. Singh remained with the combat engineers until 1984. At that point, Singh was one of three Sikh colonels in a group of seven colonels in the Singapore Armed Forces.

He was later selected to attend the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, from which he graduated in 1975.

Retirement

Following his retirement, Singh applied his engineering knowledge to the design and construction of golf courses. He also became a member of the Singapore Sports Council, the Singapore Rugby Association, the Singapore Cricket Association and was President of the Singapore Khalsa Association.