Birth Place : Johal, Jalandhar, Punjab
Service: Army
Last Rank : Lt Col
Date of Demise : Jun 28, 2016
Lt Col Pritam Singh Jauhal was born on 04th October 1920 in Johal Village of Jalandhar district in Punjab. He was the eldest son among four children to his parents Ram Singh and Hukam Dev Kaur. Lt Col Pritam Singh Jauhal’s father had also served in the army and had taken up farming afterwards. His family stayed in a mud walled houses with no paved roads, running water or electricity. By seeing this poor condition Lt Col Jauhal’s mother wanted him to go to school and do higher education so that he might get a Government job rather than spending his life as a farmer. In his family no one never had formal education like him.
Lt Col Jauhal joined the school which was two miles away from his village. He used to go to school by walk and in the evening he used to do his homework by the light of a kerosene lantern. He was the third person from his village to obtain a high school education. As a son of soldier he had a small wish that he should be able to join the army but his mother objected his military ambition. At the age of 12 Lt Col Jauhal was engaged to a nine year old girl Harjit and they got married after two years of their engagement. When Lt Col Jauhal was 20 years old he went to live with a relative in Delhi, in the hope that he would find an office job. However, he had to wait for one year.
Army life :
In 1938, Lt Col Pritam Singh Jauhal joined the army and in the month of June he was enrolled into the Indian Signal Corps. After one year of his joining army, the second World War was began and he too participated in the war. He was trained as a radio operator. In August 1940, he was shipped to East Africa with the 5th Indian Infantry Division. They fought the Italians in Eritrea and Abyssinia, where Jauhal had his first experience being shelled by enemy artillery. The following year, his brigade was deployed to Libya and became part of the British 8th Army. As a wireless operator who rode to the front in a Bren armoured vehicle, Jauhal took part in the First Battle of El Alamein in July, 1942, which stopped the German offensive in Egypt.
By the end of the war, Lt Col Jauhal was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant. He continued in the army and was involved in country’s conflicts against Pakistan, in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947-48, and the 1965 war in West Punjab. He received 13 medals and stars for his bravery and service. In 1976, he retired as a Lt Col. He served 38 years in the army and Central Reserve Police Force.
Life After Retirement :
Lt Col Pritam Singh Jauhal settled in Surrey, B.C Canada after four years of his retirement in 1980. As a retired service man, he thought he could do something by helping the widows of army men staying in Canada who couldn’t get their widows’ pensions due to endless red tape. Lt Col Pritam Singh Jauhal resolved 35 cases for widows or veterans by espousing the cause at every fora and sending letters to Indian President. He also created the Indian Ex-Serviceman Society of B.C., an organization that helped veterans with Indian pensions, property, and legal matters as well as Canadian issues such as citizenship and employment insurance.
Lt col Jauhal, after leading a fulfilling 95 years of life, breathed his last on June 28, 2016 due to old age.
Lt Col Pritam Singh Jauhal is survived by his daughter.
Honourable Minister of National Defense for Canada Harjit Sajjan remembers Lt Col Jouhal :
Speaking at the funeral, Sajjan—a former soldier himself—said that his memories about Jauhal go back to when he was very young. Sajjan had joined the army as a reserve only about four years before Jauhal’s defiant stand against racism.
He noted that although there were problems at the time, he never imagined that World War veterans could also face this in the Legion.
He added that Jauhal knew his fight at the Legion was a different kind of battle, which he would not battle with bullets or get upset over. According to Sajjan, Jauhal fought back through education about the dastaar (turban) both nationally and internationally. Sajjan also acknowledged he learned from Jauhal that the only way to counter ignorance is through education and learning.
Talking to the newspaper Straight separately after the funeral at a defence policy review public consultation hosted by Surrey Centre Liberal MP Randeep Singh Sarai, Sajjan acknowledged: “If it wasn’t for him [Jauhal] then our positions of who we are [as MPs] would have never been possible.”
To read more please click the link given below:
Lt Col Pritam Singh Jauhal had penned a book “A solider Remembers”.
The link to the book by him is placed below.
https://www.ufv.ca/media/
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Ashvin Dilip jagatap
2024 at 2:10 pmVery good sir