Satyawant Mallannah Shrinagesh - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

General Shrinagesh, born in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, was son of Dr. Mallannah, and became the second Indian to become Chief of Army Staff. He was in charge of the Kumaon Regiment for several years. On retirement from the army, he was Governor of Assam, Mysore and Andhra Pradesh. He was also the principal of Administrative Staff College of India at Hyderabad.

General Satyawant Mallannah Shrinagesh assumed charge of the Indian Army, as the 3rd Chief of Army Staff, on 14 May 1955. He was the eldest son of Dr Shrinagesh Mallannah, who was the personal physician to the His Exalted HighnessMir Sir Osman Ali Khan Asaf Jah VII, the Nizam of Hyderabad. Born in 1903 at Kolhapur, Maharashtra he went to a public school in England and entered Cambridge University in 1921.

Among the earliest batches of Indians to be nominated for the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst in the U.K., he won the Quetta Cup for the best man at arms entering the British Indian Army in 1923. He was subsequently commissioned into the 19th Hyderabad Regiment (presently known as the Kumaon Regiment) on 30 August 1923. After a brief association with the North Staffordshire Regiment, he was posted to the 2/1 Madras Pioneers with which he served mostly in Burma until it was disbanded. In 1933, he joined the 4/19th Hyderabad Regiment and served in Singapore as its adjutant. In December 1939, he was posted as an Instructor at the Indian Military Academy, Dehra Dun.