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At the outbreak of war, H S Malik was a student at Balliol College in Oxford. He wasn't eligible for a commission in the British army because he was Indian so he learnt to drive an ambulance and was accepted as an officer by the French Croix Rouge.

On hearing that his former student might be about to be accepted into the French Air Force his tutor and friend 'Sligger' Urquhart went to General Henderson, then in charge of the Royal Flying Corps, to express his consternation that a British subject should be allowed to fly for the French and not the British. His intervention worked and H S Malik became the first Sikh to fly with the Royal Flying Corps.

Flying appealed to his sense of adventure. On one occasion he managed to get his plane back inside the British lines despite having been shot in the leg and passing out through loss of blood after crash landing. The plane was later found to have more than 400 bullet holes.

As a devout Sikh he was allowed to wear a turban in place of a hat – this he later found had been referred up to the War Office for approval following several run-ins with sergeant majors who accused him of being improperly dressed. He also had a specially designed flying helmet that fitted over his turban which gained him the nickname the 'Flying Hobgoblin', which he took with good grace.

After the war he went into the Indian Civil Service, became a high ranking politician playing an influential role during the transfer of power and represented India as a diplomat in the United States, Canada and France.

Location: Balliol College, Oxford OX1 3BJ
Photograph of HS Malik courtesy of the United Service Institution of India, Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research
Presented by Jane Markham, Podcats Productions

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