Name Ronald Pereira | Died 1993 | |
 | ||
Ronald Lynsdale Pereira (1923–1993) was the 9th Chief of Naval Staff. He was the Chief of Naval Staff from 1979 to 1982. He belongs to the Pereira family of Kannur, Kerala. Admiral Pereira held the appointments of Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet (FOCEF), Flag Officer Commanding of the Southern Naval Command and the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Western Naval Command. In 1971 he was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM) and in 1977 was awarded the Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM). He is a keen sportsman having represented the Indian Navy in Hockey in 1946 and in Golf in the 1960s.
Contents
Early life
Born on 25 May 1923,at Kannur, at the northern tip of Kerala about fifteen years before World War-II, he grew up in rural India with simple and achievable ambitions, either to be a doctor like his father, or become a dentist. But somewhere during his teen years, the salt laden sea breeze in Kannur and the hype of World War-II instilled in him a wander lust, quest for adventure, a perception that soldiering was more interesting than doctoring.
Navy career
Admiral Ronald Lynsdale Pereira was commissioned into the Royal Indian Navy on his 20th birthday (May 25, 1943), given command of a homemade, quickly fitted out, leaky wooden fishing trawler masquerading as a gun boat, with a dozen sailors as raw as Ronnie, and immediately sent to fight the might of the Japanese Navy in the Bay Of Bengal. During World War II, he saw active service aboard gunboats in Burma and Malaysia between 1943–45 and thereafter, continued at sea with an amphibious task group based in Iraq, till 1946. After Independence in 1947, Admiral Pereira served for several years as a Gunnery Specialist, both afloat and ashore, before taking over as Officer-in-Charge of the Gunnery School, Cochin in 1956. A graduate of the Defence Services Staff College, he has served as Deputy Commandant of the National Defence Academy in Pune and as the Director of Combat Policy & Tactics at Naval HQ. He commanded the Indian Navy's Flag Ship, INS Delhi and commanded an anti-submarine warfare frigate, INS Khutar. He is considered as one the architects of the modern Indian Navy.
Personal life
Ronald married Phyllis Pereira IN 1952, however the couple did not have any children, they came to love every young man they met in NDA, especially the mavericks who were sent to him for displeasure. Ronnie addressed them as ‘Son’, a tradition that came to be in all services.
Death
In due course, he retired. He simply went home to a house called ‘At last’ in Bangalore, drove around on a ‘Lambretta’ scooter from which he often fell off, broke most of his bones, caught cancer and died on Oct 14, 1993 at the age of 70 Apart from the multitude of Admirals, Generals and Air Marshals, junior service officers in uniform crowding his funeral service, there was also a large gathering of ordinary sailors and civilian officials.
Awards
In 1971 he was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM) and in 1977 was awarded the Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM).