K. P. S. Menon (senior)

Kumara Padmanabha Sivasankara Menon, CIE, ICS (aka K. P. S. Menon) (October 18, 1898 – November 22, 1982) was a career diplomat in the Indian Civil Service, (later Indian Foreign/Administrative Service).

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Early life

He was born in Kottayam, India in 1898. His father was a lawyer from Ottapalam.

He attended CMS School, Kottayam, and then Madras Christian College and Oxford University [1] where he was president of the Oxford Majlis.

Civil Service

He secured the first rank in the Civil Services examination, joining the ICS in 1922.[2] As Dewan of Bharatpur State, he was appointed a CIE in the 1943 New Year Honours.[3] He served as District Magistrate in Trichy, Foreign officer in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sri Lanka, Ambassador of India to the Soviet Union (in 1952-61) and China and as independent India's first Foreign Secretary.[4]

He married Anujee, the daughter of Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair. [5] His son KPS Menon Junior served as envoy to China and his maternal[6] grandson Shivshankar Menon is presently National Security Advisor of India, representing the third generation of Indian Civil Servants from the same family.[4]

He was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize (for 1979).[1]

Books

Menon, Sr. authored over a dozen books on travel and diplomacy in Asia. His autobiography is titled Many Worlds, and its update was published as Many Worlds Revisited

References

  1. ^ a b "K.P.S. Menon". Mahatma Gandhi University. http://mgu.ac.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=577. 
  2. ^ London Gazette: no. 32763. p. 7802. 3 November 1922. Retrieved 2011-11-29.
  3. ^ London Gazette: no. 35841. p. 7. 29 December 1942. Retrieved 2011-11-29.
  4. ^ a b "Menon is next NSA". The Hindu. 21 January 2010. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article84408.ece. Retrieved 2011-11-29. 
  5. ^ "Succession of diplomats from Palat family". The Hindu. 01 September 2006. http://www.hindu.com/2006/09/01/stories/2006090114250400.htm. Retrieved 2011-11-30. 
  6. ^ "S S Menon, who served in Israel, China and Pak, is new Foreign Secy". Indian Express. 01 Sep 2006. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/s-s-menon-who-served-in-israel-china-and-pak-is-new-foreign-secy/11789/0. Retrieved 2011-11-30.