Punjab-born World War 2 veteran passes away in UK at 103

Announcing Dhatt’s death in a post on X, Tej Pal Singh Ralmill, a British citizen associated with the Sikh Pioneers and Sikh Light Infantry Association in the UK, said his services will never be forgotten. “A life of service and duty ends after 103 years. The last of the war-time generation whose immeasurable contribution to humanity will never be forgotten,” said Ralmill.

He added that Dhatt was a founding member of the Undivided Indian Ex-servicemen Association. “He will be remembered for raising awareness of the contribution and sacrifice of the 2.5 million-strong undivided Indian Army during the Second World War,” wrote Ralmill.

As per information available with the National Army Museum of the UK, Rajinder Singh Dhatt was born on October 21, 1921, in Punjab. He joined the Indian Army in February 1941 as a sepoy (private). He left the newly independent nation’s Army in late 1949 with the rank of Havildar-Major.

Dhatt served as a physical training instructor from 1942 to 1943 and Army storekeeper from 1943 to 1949. He was deployed to the Far East campaign, where he fought in Kohima, northeast India, supporting the Allied Forces in breaking through Japanese defences in 1944.

After the war, Dhatt returned to India before relocating with his family to Hounslow in 1963. There, he co-founded the Undivided Indian Ex-Servicemen’s Association to help unite British-Indian veterans.