Gurcharan Singh Sekhon
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Gurcharan Singh Sekhon | |
|---|---|
| Native name | ਗੁਰਚਰਨ ਸਿੰਘ ਸੇਖੋਂ |
| Nicknames | "Father of the Engineers", "The Unsmiling Colonel", "Guru"[1] |
| Born | 1937 (age 88–89) |
| Allegiance | Singapore |
| Branch | Army |
| Service years | 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 (RET) 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.[2][3][4] He served as the 6th Commandant of the Singapore Command and Staff College from 1979 to 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.[5] In July 1967, he became a graduate of Singapore's first batch of officer cadets.[6] 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.[2][7]
Gurcharan Singh Sekhon was born in a Jat Sikh family in 1937 to Mall Singh, a disciplinarian who owned a farm in Aljunied Road with cows and buffaloes, and who later became a successful moneylender.[2] 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.[8] Gurcharan 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 Malaysia.[2]