DEATH AND GLORY28-09-2006Less than a year after his death, the poverty-stricken family of Sergeant Umrao Singh have been coming under pressureto sellthe Victoria Cross he was awarded for gallantry during World War Two. John Mellor pays tribute to him ...and them Sergeant Umrao Singh was awarded the Victoria Cross, for unbelievable acts of gallantry in Burma whilst serving with the British forces in late1944. His artillery unit, operating in support of a British advance against the Japanese near the Bay of Bengal came under sustained attack, and during the second of these all but two of his gun crew were killed. Singh and his surviving colleagues still manged to beat them off, and so were subject to a third onslaught. This time he led his men into hand to hand fighting before they were finally overhwelmed and left for dead.
Six hours later, the position was recovered in a counter-attack, and Singh was found alive but unconscious and virtually unrecognisable because of the severity of his head wounds. Ten dead Japanese lay around him.
A year later, after he recovered, he became the first and last non-commissioned officer in the Indian Artillery or RoyalArtillery to be awarded the VC in World War Two.
After finishing with the army, Singh retired to his family's small-holding in the Punjab where in 1983 he was surviving on the Indian army pension of just £14 per month.
When his plight came to light, he wasoffered £32,000 for his medal. Although poor he never sold it. The answer was always the same.
"If I sold it, it would stain the honour of those who fell in battle with me"
Sergeant Singh diedlast year, and his family - still poor -have recently been offered £70,000 for the VC. His son, Ved Prakash has refusedto sell it, saying : "To me such a sum is a great fortune, but money is only money. After it is spent. I shall be left with nothing. My father gave his blood for this medal and the honour of his memory is more important than money." A truly remarkable man with a family with great dignity and pride. We should never forget the part played by the Indian Army in the battles of the last 200 years.
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©2006 The Stirrer