Lieutenant General J. F. R. Jacob PVSM |
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Birth name | Jacob Farj Rafael Jacob |
Born | 1924 Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India |
Died |
(aged 92) New Delhi, India |
Allegiance |
British India India |
Service/branch | Indian Army |
Years of service | 1942–1979 |
Rank | Lieutenant General |
Commands held |
12 Infantry Division |
Battles/wars | |
Awards |
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Other work |
12 Infantry Division
Lieutenant General Jacob Farj Rafael "J. F. R." Jacob, PVSM (1924 – 13 January 2016) was an Indian Army General. He was best known for the role he played in India's victory in the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 and the Liberation of Bangladesh. Jacob, then a Major General, served as the Chief of Staff of the Indian Army's Eastern Command during the war. During his 36-year career in the army, he also fought in World War II and the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965. He later served as the Governor of the Indian states of Goa and Punjab.
Jacob was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), Bengal Presidency, British India, in 1924. His family were deeply religious Baghdadi Jews, originally from Iraq, who settled in Calcutta in the middle of the 18th century. Jacob's father, Elias Emanuel, was an affluent businessman. After his father became sick, Jacob was sent at the age of nine to Victoria School, a boarding school in Kurseong near Darjeeling. From then on, he went home only on school holidays.
Jacob, motivated by reports of the Holocaust of European Jews during World War II, enlisted in the British Indian Army in 1942. His father objected to his enlisting. He said in 2010, "I am proud to be a Jew, but am Indian through and through."