Page 204 - Leadership in the Indian Army

Since Ram Lal’s service in the Irrigation Department entailed frequent
transfers, often to small stations, it was decided to send the two younger
boys to a boarding school. Bishop Cotton School in Simla was the most

highly regarded school at that time, and since Ram Lal wanted his sons to
have the best education, that is where he decided to send them. When the
two brothers were admitted to Bishop Cotton School in March 1927,
Rajinder was just 10 years old and Robin only seven. In the years to follow
two of their cousins, Jagan and Mohinder, and Rameshwar, another one of
Raj’s younger brothers, also joined the same school. As it happened, four of
the five Batras who were at Bishop Cotton eventually joined the defence

services, with two going to the army and two to the navy. Of these four,
three were to attain three-star rank. Rajinder and Mohinder became
Lieutenant Generals, Robin rose to be Vice Admiral, while Rameshwar
retired as a Commander. Raj’s two youngest brothers, Gopal Krishen
(Guppi) and Ram Krishen (Kaka), were educated at St Joseph’s College,
Nainital. They too, joined the services, with Gopal retiring as Major

General, and Ram Krishen as Group Captain.
Rajinder’s eldest brother, Rajeshwar, lovingly called Raj, had a short but
eventful life. As a schoolboy, he had seen Sir Alam Cobham land his
seaplane on the Yamuna during his historic flight from England to
Australia, and had set his heart on becoming a pilot. After passing out from
Modern School in 1928, he joined the Government College, Lyallpur. He
also became a member of the flying club at Lahore, from where he got his

‘A’ licence. After graduating from college, he applied and was selected for
a commission in the Royal Air Force. He was sent to Cranwell, but a row
with one of his instructors led to his withdrawal. However, he stayed on in
England to obtain a commercial pilot’s licence and on returning to India in
1931, became the youngest pilot in the country. He joined a private airline,
where his job was to ferry mail between Lahore and Karachi. During one of

his sorties, his plane crashed near Jacobabad and he was killed in 1937 at
the age of 25.
Soon after he had started flying, Rajeshwar had bought a life insurance
policy from his maternal uncle, Vidhyadar Chawla, saying, half in jest, that
it would provide for his mother after his death. He must have been
prescient, for his parents built their home, named Raj Smriti in his memory,
with the insurance money. Rajinder was at Dehradun when Rajeshwar died.

When he reached home, he hugged his mother and promised her: ‘I am no