Jeejeebhoy Piroshaw Bomanjee Jeejeebhoy

Jeejeebhoy Piroshaw Bomanjee Jeejeebhoy (9 November 1891, Mumbai, India–9 April 1950, Harlow, Essex) was the first Indian military pilot, briefly serving in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I.

J. P. B. Jeejeebhoy
Jeejeebhoy's grave in the Parsi section of Brookwood Cemetery

Born into a minor aristocratic Parsi family, Jeejeebhoy was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1912. Generally, the Indian Army officers who fought as pilots during World War I were of European rather than Indian descent. Before WWI it was the policy of the War Office to deny commissions to applicants not of pure European descent on the grounds that "a British private will never follow a half-caste or native officer."[1] However, a shortage of pilots resulted in a change in policy and a handful of Indian military pilots served during that war as officers of the Royal Flying Corps and later the Royal Air Force, rather than as officers of the Indian Army. Jeejeebhoy held an FAI accredited Aviator Certificate while undergoing training with the RFC. He completed his flying training at Stinson School at San Antonio, Texas on 2 May 1916 and held American Aviator certificate #495.[2][3]

The first of five Indian military pilots, on 6 November 1916 Jeejeebhoy was promoted to temporary Honorary 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps on the General List.[4] However, Lieutenant Jeejeebhoy’s active career with the RFC was brief as his papers in The National Archives show that he fell ill in January 1917 while training at the RFC's Oxford School of Instruction and he was suspended from training to convalesce. In May 1917 a medical board decided that he was permanently unfit for further service, and an entry in The London Gazette of 29 May 1917 announced that "Temp Hon 2nd Lt Jeejeebhoy Piroshaw Bomanjee Jeejeebhoy relinquishes his commission on account of ill health". He was given an honorary commission of 2/Lt at the time of discharge. In 1920 he was given an honorary commission as Captain and may have served in the Air Ministry of the British government in the early 1920s.[1][3][5]

Jeejeebhoy died in 1950 aged 58 and is buried in the Parsi section of Brookwood Cemetery, Surrey.[6]

References
  1. Richards, Clive Air Force, 1910 - 1932 - Part Two: The RAF in India and the Creation of the Indian Air Force 1918-1932 - Royal Air Force: Air Power Review, Vol. 11 No. 1 Spring 2008 pg 27
  2. Jeejeebhoy Piroshaw Bomanjee Jeejeebhoy in the Great Britain, Royal Aero Club Aviators’ Certificates, 1910-1950
  3. Record of 2/Lt Jeejeebhoy - 'Indians Over Flanders'
  4. "No. 29825". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 November 1916. p. 11114.
  5. WO 339/85698; The London Gazette, 29 May 1917, page 5297. A subsequent entry in The London Gazette of 19 March 1920 states that "J P B Jeejeebhoy (late temp Hon Sec Lieut, RFC, Gen List) is granted the honorary rank of Captain" (Number 31830, page 3437)
  6. Jeejeebhoy P Jeejeebhoy in the England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007
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