Sahib Singh Sokhey

Major General Sir Sahib Singh Sokhey FNA, FASc (15 December 1887 – 24 October 1971) was an Indian biochemist, a British Indian Army general and a military physician who was also a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Indian Parliament, from 3 April 1952 to 2 April 1956. At Edinburgh, he completed his MBBS degree in 1911, followed by an MA in economics in 1912. During the First World War, he served in France on the Western Front, and was promoted to captain on 26 July 1916 (antedated to 1 September 1915). After the war, he served in Mesopotamia until 1921, when he returned to India. He subsequently commanded the Indian Military Hospital at Kolkata for two years. and completed an MD from Edinburgh the same year, also conducting research on nutrition at Trinity College, Cambridge under the distinguished biochemist and future Nobel laureate Frederick Gowland Hopkins. As Director, Colonel Sokhey expanded the scope of the institute, establishing an Entomology Department, a Serum Department (1940) to manufacture vaccines, antitoxins and snake antivenin, a Chemotherapy Department (1940) to conduct research into sulfa and synthetic pharmaceuticals, a Pharmacology Department (1943) and a Nutrition Department (1944).

Towards the end of the war, Sokhey established pilot plants at the institute to manufacture sulfathiazole, paludrine, chloroquine and penicillin. From 1944 to 1946, he served on the Pharmaceutical and Drug Committee of the government Planning Department. He also served on a committee tasked with establishing the National Chemical Laboratory and the National Physical Laboratory. In 1946, he was among the key individuals involved in establishing a penicillin manufacturing plant, which later became Hindustan Antibiotics. On 14 August 1947, the day before Indian independence, Sokhey was promoted to the local rank of major-general in his role as director of the Haffkine Institute, subsequently retiring from the Indian Army.

World Health Organization and later life In 1949, General Sokhey retired from the directorship of the Haffkine Institute after a 17-year tenure. During a visit to Bombay, Brock Chisholm, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, met Sokhey; impressed by his achievements, he offered Sokhey the post of Assistant Director General (Technical Services) in the WHO, with the responsibility for epidemiology, health statistics and biological standardisation. Sokhey served in this position in Geneva until 1952, when he completed his term and returned to India. In 1952, he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament, retiring a few years later.

Personal life Sokhey was married to Leila Roy (1899-1947), a famous kathak dancer known as "Madame Menaka." Lady Sokhey spent much of her career travelling across India and Europe with her dance troupe. Her death in 1947 left Sokhey a lonely widower. The couple had no children, and Sokhey never remarried.

Sokhey was a reader, with an appreciation of classical Indian art. A friend of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, he was a leftist, and adovcated in favour of Communism and the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Stalin Prize by the Soviet government in 1947.