List of Martinians

The following is a list of notable Old Martinians, former pupils and masters of the three schools established by Claude Martin.

• La Martiniere Calcutta in Kolkata, India.
• La Martiniere Lucknow, Lucknow, India.
• La Martiniere Lyons in Lyon, France.

Notable Martinians - Calcutta

Business

• C K Birla, industrialist.
• Sir Catchick Paul Chater, philanthropist, Father of modern Hong Kong, Second Founder of La Martiniere Calcutta.
• Atul Singh, president and chief executive of Coca-Cola India^[1]
• Manasije Mishra, MD and CEO at IL&FS Investsmart Ltd [An HSBC Group Company, India] ,
• Kanchun Kaushal, partner, Pricewaterhouse Coopers Pvt Ltd.
• Dr. Vijay Mallya, billionaire businessman, Chairman of United Breweries and Kingfisher Airlines and a Rajya Sabha MP.
• Hemant Kanoria, Industrialist, Chairman and Managing Director, Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited.

Sports

• Nafisa Ali, swimming champion, actress, former Miss India and politician.

Education

• John Mason, schoolmaster and educationist.
• Santosh Kumar Misra. Professor of Architecture and Principal CET. Bhubaneswar, Educationist and Academic Administrator.

Entertainment

• Merle Oberon, actress.
• Pritish Nandy, poet, journalist, politician, television personality and film produce

Government

• Dr Saiyid Nurul Hasan, historian, Union Minister of Education and former Governor of West Bengal, India.

Journalism

• Swapan Dasgupta, journalist, columnist and former managing editor of India Today
• Sunanda K. Datta-Ray, former editor of The Statesman.
• Chandan Mitra, Member of Parliament and eminent journalist.
• Jug Suraiya, Associate Editor of the Times of India, author and columnist.
• Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, journalist.^[2]
• Sanjoy Narayan, journalist, Editor-in-Chief of the Hindustan Times
• Suhel Seth , columnist and CEO of Counselage, advertising and TV

Politics

• Brigadier Kamakhya Prasad Singh Deo, politician and former Minister.
• Mausam Noor, MP, North Malda, West Bengal, elected 2009

Colonel C P Singh Deo

Sports

• Ann Lumsden, first woman to win the Arjuna Award for hockey.^[3]
• Rishi Narayan, golfer and gold medallist at the 1982 Asian Games^[4][5]
• Chhanda Gain, first Bengali woman to climb Mount Everest^[4]
• Vece Paes, Olympian and father of Leander Paes.
• Leander Paes, tennis player, India's only medallist at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Captain of the Indian Davis Cup team.
• Enrico Piperno, member of the Indian Tennis team at the 1982 Asian Games and Davis Cup team member.^[4]
• Oscar Ward, Light-heavyweight boxer who represented India at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.^[6]

Others

• Barry O'Brien, quizmaster.^[7]

Notable Martinians - Lucknow

Introduction

The Masters and Boys of the School were collectively awarded battle colours by Queen Victoria in 1860 for the defence of the Martiniere post against a huge force at the old Bailey Gate during the 1857 siege of Lucknow. Sir Colin Campbell’s report to the East India court of Governors reads "During this six month period many individual acts of valor were performed and young lives sacrificed in the fierce and tenacious defence of the Bailey Gate. The Constantia boys fought off the repeated attacks of a determined and persistent enemy and took their place in the line of battle alongside the regular regiments of the East India army...... The East India Army is honoured that Her Imperial Majesty has most graciously commanded the award of The Royal standard for courage, given to our bravest regiments, to the boys and masters of La Martiniere School..."

The list of Old Martinians from the Lucknow School is distinguished by Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 with Al Gore.^[8]

The School scores heavily with its contribution to defence, police and administrative services.

Sadly with the partition of the country many of the school’s former Muslim pupils, who came from the former predominantly Muslim area of Lucknow, had to leave for Pakistan in the mass exodus of the Muslim population. Amongst the millions who left many have been forgotten, but here in the La Martiniere list a tiny number of Muslim boys, who were alumni of the school will be remembered for their contribution to the administration of undivided India and to their valour in great wars that the British Indian Army fought.

The history of the school is a long one, A large number of Anglo Indians boys are missing in this list of fame. Many Anglo Indians identities have been submerged within the identities of the British, Australian and Canadian populations. This small community has had outstanding achievements at every level of society for hundreds of years, but that record of achievement has been hidden, passed over or co-opted as British, by British historians hiding the fact that they were actually (Anglo) Indians who were born and educated in India in schools like La Martiniere.^[9]

Business

• Amrit Kiran Singh, Area Director and Vice President Brown Forman Beverages Worldwide LLC, New Delhi.^[10]
• Nusrat Durrani, Senior Vice-President and General Manager MTV World MTV, New York City.^[11]
• Shahnaz Husain, beautician and entrepreneur.^[12]

Defence

• Lieutenant General Gul Hassan Khan, Chief of Army Staff, Pakistan Army.
• Flight Lieutenant Alfred Tyrone Cooke Vr.C, Medal for gallantry, 1965.^[13]
• General Fremantle, soldier.^[6]
• Denzil Keelor and Trevor Keelor made history in the Indo-Pakistani wars by shooting down Pakistan’s Sabre jets.^[14]
• Major General Vijay Krishna, Colonel Commandant of the Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in the Indian Army^[15]
• General Larkins, soldier.^[6]
• Lieutenant General Akhtar Abdur Rahman, Director of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan, Masterminded the Jihad against the Soviet Army Pakistan Army.
• Brigadier Leonard Raza, PVSM, soldier, Burma Campaign see note.^[16]
• Corporal Mervyn O'Brien of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry was awarded the Military Medal for gallant and distinguished service in the Malayan conflict.^[6]
• Denzil Simeons served with the Australian Army in Vietnam.^[17]
• Arvind Singh was awarded the M.V.C. during the Indian Peace Keeping Force operations in Sri Lanka.^[18]
• Major Farid Tuppy Iqbal, Indian ADC to General Sir Claude Auchinleck 1941, immigrated to Britain 1955, Gen Manager Chiltern Railways Division of British Railways, Asst Secretary British Legion.In the First and Second World Wars the names of thirty-six and eight Martinians respectively are enshrined on the Rolls of Honour at the College.^[6]

Education

• Bryan Cooke, emeritus professor, University of Northern Colorado.^[19]
• Roy Robinson, headmaster of the prestigious and elite Bishop Cotton School in Shimla.
• Frederick James Rowe, poet, former English teacher at the Lucknow school and composer of the official school song Vive La Martiniere.

Veena Talwar Oldenburg, Professor of History, City University of New York. Historian of Lucknow, author of The Making of Colonial Lucknow, 1856-77 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984; republished in The Lucknow Omnibus, 2001). Editor, Shaam-e-Awadh: Writings on Lucknow (Penguin, 2007). Currently (2015–16) Fulbright Scholar for Professional and Research Excellence and working on a history of Gurgaon.

Entertainment

• Roshan Abbas, TV and radio host.^[20]
• Muzaffar Ali, painter, clothing designer and film director /producer.^[6]
• Priyanka Chopra, actress and former Miss World in 2000.^[21]
• Maureen Wadia, fashion entrepreneur and editor of Gladrags. Her husband is the noted industrialist Nusli Wadia.^[22]
• Amit Sadh, Indian television and film actor.
• Afzal Khan,Indian television and film actor.
• Ashish Kapoor,Indian television actor.
• Ali Fazal,Indian television and film actor.
• George Baker,Indian television and film actor.

Government

• Isha Basant Joshi, I.C.S. the first female officer in the Indian Civil Service and the first Indian girl to be admitted to the Girls' College.^[23]
• K. Raghunath, former Foreign Secretary of India^[24] and Indian Ambassador to Russia.^[25]
• Sameer Sharma Indian Administrative Service, Secretary to Government, Andhra Pradesh

Journalism

• Vinod Mehta, magazine editor^[26]
• Saeed Naqvi, a leading journalist in Delhi brother of Shanney Naqvi.^[27]

Musicians

• Munni Begum Famous Pakistani Gazal Singer, Now lives in the USA

Judiciary

• Justice Vishnu Sahai, Judge in Lucknow.^[28]

Literature

• Rukun Advani, publisher and author.^[29]
• Krishna Prakash Bahadur, writer, poet and philosopher.^[30]
• Mukul Deva, soldier, author and novelist.
• Attia Hosain, journalist and writer.^[31]
• Mehru Jaffer, author of the book Muhammad published by Penguin-India, 2004.^[32]
• Allan Sealy, author of The Trotter-Nama,^[33] short-listed for the Booker Prize.

Medicine

• Dr Shelly Batra, author of Intimate Self: A Guide to Women's Sexual Health.^[34]

Politics

• Nawab Sir Sayyid Hassan Ali Mirza Khan, KCIE, the first Nawab of Murshidabad.
• Satish Agarwal MLA Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Vice President Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ramjanambhumi action Ayodhya.
• Arun Nehru, political analyst, ex-minister and columnist.^[35]

Science and technology

• Praveen Chaudhari, physicist, pioneer in super conductor research, former Vice President of Science at IBM , and recipient of National Medal of Technology.
• Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.^[8] The IPCC, led by Dr. Pachauri, shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

Sports

• Merv Adams, Australia's National hockey coach in 1974. At the Montreal Olympics the Australian men won a silver medal.^[6][36]
• Fred Browne, Australia's first (1956) Olympic hockey coach.^[6][36]

Others

• Anjali Gopalan founder and executive director of The Naz Foundation (India) Trust, an NGO dedicated to the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic in India. Anjali began working on issues related to HIV/AIDS and marginalized communities in the United States. In 2012, Time placed Gopalan in its list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
• George Abraham, founder and CEO of Score Foundation, which runs Project Eyeway. He is also the founding chairman of the World Blind Cricket Council (WBCC) and the Association for Cricket for the Blind in India (ACBI).
• Edward Hilton, author of an eye-witness guide to the siege of Lucknow.
• Charles Palmer, civil engineer and survivor of the siege of Lucknow.^[37]
• Joseph Smith (1894), civil engineer on leading canal projects. He was awarded a knighthood in 1932.^[6]

Lucknow pupils who received the Indian Mutiny Medal

The following pupils at La Martiniere Boys' College were awarded the Indian Mutiny Medal in 1858 for their part in the Defence of Lucknow from 29 June - 22 November 1857.^[38]

Medals

Rajiv Deengar (ex La Martiniere Lucknow 1966-1972 Cornwallis House) was awarded a Silver Medal by The Royal Society for the Promotion of Arts in London, England, in 1984. Syed Khalid Rizvi ( La Martiniere Lucknow, 1953-1964 Hodson) was awarded the Indian Police Medal in 1989 and the President's Police Medal in 1995. After superannuation from the Indian Police Service, he is now a Professor of Criminal Justice in the USA.

The following staff at La Martiniere Boys' College were awarded the Indian Mutiny Medal in 1858 for their part in the Defence of Lucknow from 29 June - 22 November 1857.^[38]

• George Archer, schoolmaster
• H. Crank, headmaster
• Charles Dodd, schoolmaster
• William Hilton, Instructor (Bengal Artillery)
• J. de Ravara, steward
• George Schilling, principal
• Mr Wall, schoolmaster

Notable Martinians - Lyon

• Lumiere Brothers, two of the first filmmakers, attended La Martinière.
• Tony Garnier (architect), Garnier is considered the forerunner of 20th century French architects. He learnt painting and drafting at the École Technique de la Martinière in Lyon (1883–86). It is his designed building which house the weaving school at La Martiniere Diderot.

See also

• La Martiniere Calcutta
• La Martiniere College
• La Martiniere Lyons
• La Martiniere Lucknow
• Claude Martin
• The will of Claude Martin

References

External links