Dhunjishaw Jamshedji Batliwala

My father, Dhunjishaw Jamshedji Batliwala, known to friends and family as Dhun, sometimes spelled Dhan, was born on the 4th of October, 1904, in the town of Dharwar, then part of Bombay Presidency and now in the state of Karnataka. His father, Jamshedji Batliwala, was serving with one of the companies that constituted India's vast railway system. These companies were nationalised in 1951, not long after independence, when the separate railway companies were merged into a single state entity. My father served with The Madras & Southern Mahratta Railway, which became Southern Railway after the merger and nationalisation.

My father was educated in English, taking the Senior Cambridge examination. To the best of my recollection, he attended a Catholic school in Madras called St. Mary's. It was common then, and still is, for Indian parents to choose Catholic schools for the education of their children, no matter their own religious affiliations. He then underwent a five-year mechanical engineering course in the Madras Government Technical College, becoming a member of the Institute of Locomotive Engineers.

In my father's biographical details, he notes his 'firsts' as an Indian officer: "In May,1922, I was appointed as a special class apprentice on the M & SM Railway Co. Ltd. with a view to be absorbed as Asstt: [sic] Mechanical Engineer on the Railway. I was the first Indian to be appointed to this post.

In 1937 my father went on leave to England where he was given the opportunity to study "the Workshop and Running Shed practices of some of the British Railways."

During World War II, my father volunteered his services to the Indian Army from 1941 to 1943. He served in the Assam area as an Officer commanding a railway company with a rank of Major. In 1943 he was recalled to railway service and posted in charge of Madras district which, he notes, had to handle very heavy war traffic. My father was awarded the Burma Star, the 1939-1945 Star and what I believe is the George VI Defence Medal 1939 to 1945.

With pride he mentions that in 1946 he was posted as Loco: Works Manager, a post that had always been held by English Mechanical Engineers, noting that he was the first Indian Mechanical Engineer to receive this posting. In June 1946 my father received a high honour: the title of Khan Bahadur was conferred upon him as it had been on his father before him. In my father's case it was for meritorious war and railway service.