A king's commissioned Indian officer (KCIO) was an Indian officer of the British Indian Army who held a full king's commission after training at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, as opposed to the Indian commissioned officers (ICOs), who were trained at the Indian Military Academy at Dehra Dun, and the viceroy's commissioned officers (VCOs), who were treated in almost all respects as commissioned officers, but only had authority over Indian troops.
KCIOs were introduced in the early 20th century under the Indianisation process. They were equivalent in every way to the British king's commissioned officers (KCOs), held the same ranks, and unlike VCOs had authority over British troops. In fact, most KCIOs served on attachment to a British unit for a year or two early in their careers.
One of the first KCIO was Rana Jodha Jung Bahadur. Commander-in-Chief of Tripura State Forces, Col. Jodha Jung Bahadur Rana MBE, Military Cross Medal, MID Award, GSM Medal, Allied Victory Medal, King George V Silver Jubilee Medal, King George VI Coronation Medal, British War Medal, KCIO first (1st) king's commissioned officer fought in Great World War I commanding Tehri-Garhwal Sappers and Miners 1914-1919 in France, Flanders, Egypt and Mesopotamia. He later commanded forces in Afgan War and Wazirstan War as well. He received 5 bullet wounds in the neck and upper shoulder during The Great War and recovered in London Hospital.
Many officers who later held high rank in the post-independence Indian Army and Pakistan Army began their careers as KCIOs. Kodandera Madappa Cariappa, Hanmantrao Mohite, Kodendera Subayya Thimayya, S. P. P. Thorat, B. M. Kaul, Ishfakul Majid and Ayub Khan were a few of the Sandhurst-trained officers.
The last of the KCIOs in Indian Army Service was General P. P. Kumaramangalam, who retired in 1969.
Those king's commissioned officers who were captured by the Japanese in Malaya, joined the Indian National Army. They were subsequently tried by the British for treason and courtmartialled at the Red Fort trials. Colonel Abdul Aziz Sultan Mohammad Tajik of Peshawar and Prince Burhanuddin of Chitral were two such officers. As they joined Pakistan, they never got their pensions and dues.
Famous quotes containing the words king, commissioned, indian and/or officer:
“There is something behind the throne greater than the King himself.”
—William, Earl Of Pitt (1708–1778)
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—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)
“We crossed a deep and wide bay which makes eastward north of Kineo, leaving an island on our left, and keeping to the eastern side of the lake. This way or that led to some Tomhegan or Socatarian stream, up which the Indian had hunted, and whither I longed to go. The last name, however, had a bogus sound, too much like sectarian for me, as if a missionary had tampered with it; but I knew that the Indians were very liberal. I think I should have inclined to the Tomhegan first.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“When Prince William [later King William IV] was at Cork in 1787, an old officer ... dined with him, and happened to say he had been forty years in the service. The Prince with a sneer asked what he had learnt in those forty years. The old gentleman justly offended, said, “Sir, I have learnt, when I am no longer fit to fight, to make as good a retreat as I can” —and walked out of the room.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)