Mahinder Singh Pujji

Mohinder Singh Pujji

Gravesend, Kent

1940–1, 1974–2010

Mahinder Singh Pujji was a Royal Air Force pilot and an Indian Air Force officer during the Second World War. He served with RAF Squadron 43 and 258 in Britain between 1940 and 1941.

Pujji first arrived in the UK in August 1940, responding to an advertisement in Indian newspapers to join the RAF. He was seconded to RAF Depot Uxbridge on 8 October 1940, until he completed his military flying training. He was awarded his RAF wings on 16 April 1941. He joined RAF Squadron 43, before transferring to Squadron 258 at Kenley (south of London), flying Hurricanes in sorties over the English Channel. He was part of a group of twenty-four Indian RAF pilots who were selected to train in England. Of the twenty-four, eighteen successfully passed their training course. Six, Pujji among them, became fighter pilots, the rest bomber pilots. He asked for permission to fly with his turban, a request which his RAF superiors granted, designing a special cap that would fit over his turban so that he could still use his headphones and oxygen mask. While in London, he was a member of the India League.

He was stationed subsequently with the RAF in North Africa in September 1941 before being transferred to the Indian Air Force, flying in operations in the North-West Frontier Province between 1942 and 1943. In December 1943 he was posted to No. 6 Squadron on the Arakan Coast in the Burma theatre, where he flew tactical reconnaissance missions. In 1944 he transferred from No. 6 Squadron to No. 4 Squadron. He was a squadron leader with the Indian Air Force in Burma in 1944–5, making him one of the few Indian pilots to have served in all three theatres of war. For his outstanding leadership and courage, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

He settled in the UK in 1974. After a successful career with Air India, he retrained as an air traffic controller and a solicitor, then held a managerial position at the Strand Continental Hotel, before retiring in 1982. He was also the Chairman of the Undivided Indian Ex-Services Association, a veterans' association based in Southall campaigning for better recognition for South Asian servicemen and women in Britain. He lived in Newham, where he was made a Freeman of the Borough in 2000, and later moved to Gravesend, Kent, where he died in 2010. A statue in his memory was unveiled in the town in 2014.