Ilyas Din

Ilyas was born on 12 March 1951 in Alor Setar, Kedah as the first son of Din Ahmad and Com Jaafar.^[2]

He received his primary education at Kandut Malay School in Alor Setar and his secondary education at Kolej Sultan Abdul Hamid. In 1968, he joined he joined the Malaysian Armed Forces at the Royal Military College, Sungai Besi Camp before being selected to undergo Overseas Officer Cadet Training at the Britannia Royal Naval College in 1970 and he completed his training in 1972.^[3]

He also graduated Diploma in Engineering Business Management from University of Warwick.^{[citation needed]}

He was commissioned to Acting sub-lieutenant on 1 January 1972 and he was appointed as the Acting Officer of KD Sri Sarawak on 27 April 1972 shortly after his return to Malaysia.^[1] After that, he held several positions, including as Commanding officer of KD Sri Selangor in 1975, KD Ganas then KD Gempita in 1980 and KD Hang Tuah in 1986. He also had been assigned as Branch Head of Officer Training, Captain of Training also the Commanding Officer of RMN Education and Training Command. Then he served as Commander of Naval Region I and he served as Commander of RMN Fleet Command in 2000.^[2]

During his tenure as the Commander of RMN Fleet Command, he successfully led the RMN Fleet Command HQ to achieve several quality awards at both the navy and ministry levels. He was also a driving factor that brought success to the Fleet Headquarters in obtaining the MS ISO 9001:2000 certification on 30 May 2003. With success after success achieved, he is nicknamed the 'Father of Quality' of the Royal Malaysian Navy. He was also responsible for instilling quality management values and applying the 'Balanced Scorecard' to measure the performance of each unit within the navy.^[4]

After serving as Commander of RMN Fleet Command, he appointed as Deputy Chief of Navy on 13 August 2003 and then he appointed as the 13th Chief of Navy on 28 April 2005 following appointment his predecessor Mohd Anwar Mohd Nor as the 15th Chief of Defence Forces. The position he held until his retirement on 14 November 2006 and succeeded by Ramlan Mohamed Ali.^[2]

He was married with Meryam binti Harun on 24 February 1978 and blessed with one son and two daughters.^[2][5]

Ilyas died at around 10:10 pm on 6 July 2018 at his residence in Kampung Datuk Keramat, Kuala Lumpur after nine days following a heart attack due to kidney complications and receiving dialysis treatment before being brought home and taking his last breath.^[1] Then the next morning, he was buried at Raudhatul Sakinah Muslim Cemetery in Selayang.^[5]