Shrikrishna Chandra Welinkar

Shrikrishna Chandra Welinkar (23 October 1894 – 30 June 1918) was an Indian pilot who served in the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force during the First World War. Among the first Indian military aviators, he was also the first to be killed in action. A member of the Gwalior royal family's household, he attended St. Xavier's High School in Bombay, after which he joined Jesus College, Cambridge in the Lent term of 1915 to read history and law. After securing a recommendation from Brigadier-General Sefton Brancker, Welinkar enlisted in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry on 13 February 1917, and was posted to No. 6 Officer Cadet Battalion of the RFC from the same date. and was confirmed in his rank on 22 June with the appointment of flying officer. He was injured in a crash the following month, but soon recovered and completed his flight training in early 1918, Initially attached to No. 84 Squadron RAF, on 10 April he transferred to No. 23 Squadron based at Bertangles, which flew the Sopwith Dolphin. He left effects in England with a value of £136 0s. 6d. (equivalent to £ in ) which remained unclaimed as late as 1927. In May, Colonel Barton wrote the War Graves Commission with a request from Welinkar's mother that a suitable gravestone be placed on his grave with the inscription: "To the honoured memory of one of the Empire's bravest sons who made the great sacrifice."