User:Kripan

Mark Pillai

Brig. Markandan (Mark) Murugesan Pillai, MC was a Lieutenant in the Royal Bombay Sappers & Miners in Malaya when Singapore fell and the Allies surrendered in 1942. He was the first Allied officer to escape from Singapore and make his way back to India. He was born on 11th August 1911 in Thataparai in the Tirunelveli district of what is now Tamil Nadu in India. He was commissioned into the Bombay Sappers in 1941 and was immediately drawn into the war in Malaya. His escape was the first recorded from Singapore and through Malaya, Siam and Burma. He was accompanied by a medical officer who did not complete the journey and remained behind in Siam and a civilian acquaintance. "Three Thousand Miles to Freedom" is his account of the escape. He was awarded the Military Cross for his exploits by Field Marshall Archibald Wavell. He went on to become an Instructor at the Jungle Warfare School and Commandant of the Bombay Engineering Group and retired as a Brigadier in 1965. He died peacefully in Kodaikanal in June 1988.