Every stamp tells a story. These valuable pieces of paper unfold the past events and tell us lesser heard stories. The story that these collectable pieces of paper are telling us today is the story of a Great War, The World War I, and about a series of stamps, called ''Indian Air Warriors of World War I''. There seems to be little awareness about the role of India's air warriors in the Great War, and sadly very little is known about them. Four of these almost forgotten Indians flew as combat pilots, Lieutenant Hardit Singh Malik, Lieutenant S.C. Welinkar, 2nd Lieutenant E.S.C. Sen and Lieutenant I.L. Roy, DFC.
Lt H.S. Malik. He was the first Indian to fly as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. He was born on 23rd Nov 1894 in a Sikh family of Rawalpindi. At the age of 14 years, Hardit left his childhood and went to Britain in the pursuit of higher learning. War broke out as soon as he finished his second year of college at Oxford University. He joined the Air Force and became honorary 2Lt H.S. Malik, RFC, Special Reserve on 05 Apr 1917. Not only was he the first Indian in any flying service in the world, but he was also the first non-Brit with a turban and beard to become a fighter pilot, which was against every British Army regulation of the day.
He went into action in Sep 1917, initially from St Omer airfield and then from Drogland in Belgium. In one such flight, he shot down one enemy aircraft but was attacked by four enemy aircrafts. He got shot in the leg, crashed, but was saved. After recovery he returned to France to continue operational service. Malik relinquished his RAF commission in 1919.
He passed the Indian Civil Service exam in 1921 and joined in 1922 as assistant commissioner in Sheikhupura. Later, he served as India's High Commissioner to Canada and later as Ambassador to France after India's independence. Highly respected by British, Canadian and European comrade-in-arms. He also played first-class cricket between 1914 and 1930. His awards include Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, Order of the British Empire and the Order of the Indian Empire. He retired in 1957 when he was promoted to the rank of a group captain. He died in Delhi in 1985.
Block of four stamps, Lt Indra Lal Roy, DFC, Rs 15.
Lt Indra Lal Roy, DFC. Known as India's ''Ace'' Over Flanders, he was one of India's World War I, flying ace who served in the RFC and claimed 10 aerial victories, in a span of two weeks in July 1918. Born on 2nd Dec 1898, he grew up in Calcutta in the household of a barrister. His family was originally from the Barisal district in the present-day Bangladesh. When the war broke out, he was still in school, at the 400-year-old St. Paul's outside London. After turning 18, he joined the RFC, which was a corps of the British army. He was commissioned in 1917.
One of his experiences in war is breathtaking. In late 1917 while posted with 56 Sqn RFC, he was knocked unconscious, taken for dead and left in the morgue along with the dead. When he came to, he banged on the morgue door and shouted for help. After his recovery, he returned to duty and was posted to 40 Sqn. Over the next two weeks he achieved 10 victories. However, on 22 July 1918, he was attacked by four Fokker DVI. two of the attackers were shot down, but Roy was seen going down in flames over Carvin. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in Sep 1918, three weeks before his 20th birthday.
He claimed five aircraft destroyed and five ''down out of control'' in just over 170 hours flying time.
Lt S.C.Wellinkgar, (Shrikrishna Chandra Wellingkar). He was born in 1894 in Bombay. A member of the Gwalior royal family household, he attended St Xavier's School in Bombay, after which he joined Jesus College, Cambridge, in Lent. In 1917, he was commissioned a temporary 2nd Lt in the RAF and was conferred the rank of flying officer in June 1917.
He joined a little earlier than Lt. Roy, but they were on the same mission. He was shot down on 27 June 1918 flying his Dolphin (No D3691) and died of wounds on 30 June 1918 in a German field hospital in a town named ''Rouvroy''. He was initially buried in a cemetery under the name ''Oberleutnant S.C. Wumkar'' and that believing him to have been a German officer, the French authorities had reinterred his body in Maucourt German Cemetery. In 1920, the grave is believed to have been opened and tentatively identified the remains as belonging to an RAF flying officer, based on the airman's boots and watch the corpse was wearing. The body was reinterred in the Hangard Communal Cemetery. During his service, he was awarded the Military Cross. His death in action is commemorated at the Hangard Communal Cemetery Extension, at Somme, France.
Lt E.S. Chunder Sen (Erroll Chunder Sen). was born in Calcutta. At an early age he moved with his mother, brother and sister to England. At the age of 18 years, he was awarded a temporary honorary commission in the RFC as a 2nd Lt. After two months at Reading, followed by 25 hours of elementary flying training and 35 hours in frontline aircrafts, Sen was posted to the western front along with Lt Roy and Lt Wellingkar. While taking part in an offensive patrol, he experienced engine failure and dropped behind the rest. In an attempt to catch up with the others, he was lost in a cloud and was attacked by four enemy aircrafts. He was hit and crashed outside Menin (outside Belgium Province). He was in a prisoner-of -war camp for the remainder of the war. He was repatriated to the UK in Dec 1918.
Following the repatriation, Sen was promoted Lieutenant in Apr 1919 and was transferred to the unemployed list of the RAF. He returned to India and joined the Indian Imperial Police as an assistant superintendent in 1921. Lt Sen also witnessed World War II and was doing war duty. It is said that he spent the last few days in Burma and is believed to have died there.
Sadly, very little is known about Indian Air Warriors of World War I, beyond the bare facts, in British records. They were from well-off families, attended prestigious schools, and fought gallantly with courage.
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