Britain set to honour VK Krishna Menon
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London: India’s first high commissioner in London and former defence minister V.K. Krishna Menon will be honoured with a blue plaque in a commemoration ceremony on Wednesday afternoon.
The sites of historical and cultural importance in the UK are commemorated with blue plaques to draw attention of people. English Heritage will honour Krishna Menon with a blue plaque at 30 Langdon Park Road in Highgate, north London, at the house he lived in from 1929 to 1931 when he first moved to London.
The plaque will be unveiled by former Labour Cabinet minister Tony Benn, whose father William Wedgwood Benn, was secretary of state for India from 1929 to 1931 when Menon was campaigning for Indian independence in Britain.
There are 11 blue plaques which highlight links of Indian men like Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel to Britain, but not one Indian woman has been honoured in this country in this manner.London, which is home to a huge Gandhi statue, has two English Heritage Blue Plaques linked to Mahatma Gandhi.
The first plaque is at 20 Baron's Court Road in Hammersmith and Fulham where he lived while studying law. The second one at Kingsley Hall, Powis Road, Tower Hamlets, where he stayed during a visit to London in 1931.
India’s first prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru is honoured with a plaque at 60 Elgin Crescent in London’s Notting Hill and freedom fighter Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak with a plaque at 10 Howley Place in Paddington.
India’s first home minister Sardar Patel has a plaque at 23 Aldridge Road Villas, Ladbroke Grove, in West London. Pakistan’s founding father Mohammed Ali Jinnah has a plaque at 35 Russell Street of Holland Park.
Menon, who had moved to England from Madras in 1924, was elected as a Labour councillor for the Borough of St. Pancras in 1934 and he held this seat for 14 years. Menon, who died in 1974, was not liked by the British political establishment. MI5 intelligence service had his appointment as the first high commissioner of India.
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