K. P. S. Menon

Kumar Padmanabha Sivasankara Menon
1st Foreign Secretary of India
In office
1948–1952
MonarchsGeorge VI
(until 26 January 1950)
Preceded bySir Hugh Weightman
Succeeded byR. K. Nehru
Preceded bySir Olaf Caroe
Preceded byLt-Gen Thomas Jacomb Hutton
Personal details
Born
Kumara Padmanabha Sivasankara Menon

(1898-10-18)18 October 1898
Kottayam, Travancore, British India (now Kerala, India )
Died22 November 1982(1982-11-22) (aged 84)
Ottapalam, Kerala, India
SpouseSaraswathi
RelationsKesava Pillai of Kandamath
OccupationDiplomat

Kumara Padmanabha Sivasankara Menon Sr. CIE ICS (18 October 1898 – 22 November 1982), usually known as K. P. S. Menon, was a diplomat and diarist, a career member of the Indian Civil Service. He was appointed independent India's first Foreign Secretary, serving from 1948 to 1952.

He was Dewan (Prime Minister) of Bharatpur State, Ambassador of India to the Soviet Union from 1952 to 1961, and Ambassador to the Republic of China before 1948. In 1948, preceding events of the Korean War, the United Nations appointed him the Chairman of the UN Commission on Korea (UNCOK).[1]

Menon's overland trip from Delhi to Chongqing (Chungking) across the Himalayas, the Karakorams and the Pamirs during the Second World War was recorded in his book Delhi-Chungking: A Travel Diary (1947).[2] He was a signatory on behalf of India at the formation of the United Nations. He was a member of the Royal Central Asian Society.[3]

  1. ^ "United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea". 22 January 1948.
  2. ^ Menon, K. P. S. (1947). Delhi Chungking.
  3. ^ Menon, K. P. S. (1966). Many Worlds. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780196902951.