Glimpses
General Sir Roy Bucher (right), the last British Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, welcomes General K.M. Cariappa when the latter took over charge of the C-in-C's office on 15 January 1949 at New Delhi.
General
Sir Roy Bucher,
CB, OBE, MC
C-in-C, 31 Dec 1947 - 15 Jan 1949
Infantry
Born on 31 August 1895, Sir Francis Robert Roy Bucher was commissioned into the British Army on 15 August 1914 and took part in World War I with the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) in France from 1914 to 1915. He then joined the 55th Coke's Rifles (Frontier Force) in India in 1915 and subsequently the 31st Duke of Connaught's Own Lancers in 1916. He served with the Mahsud - a Pashtun tribe in Waziristan, Pakistan - in 1917. He attended Staff College, Camberley from 1926 to 1927 and then served as the Deputy Assistant Adjutant General in India's Deccan District from 1930 to 1932.
In 1937, he joined the 13th Duke of Connaught's Own Lancers as its Commanding Officer. He was the Commandant of Sam Browne's Cavalry (12th Frontier Force) from 1939 to 1940; the Assistant Commandant of the Indian Cavalry Training Center, India in 1940; the Assistant Adjutant General at General Headquarters from January 1941 to June 1941; the Assistant Quartermaster General at Iraq from June 1941 to March 1942; Chief Administration Officer at Southern Command, India from 1942 to 1945; the General Officer Commanding Bengal and Assam Area, India in 1946; the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Command, India from 1946 to 1947; the Chief of General Staff, Army Headquarters, India 1947 and finally culminating in the Commander-in-Chief and Chief of General Staff, Indian Army from 31 December 1947 to 15 January 1949. He passed away in 1980.