Kumar Padmanabha Sivasankara Menon | |
|---|---|
| 1st Foreign Secretary of India | |
| In office 1948–1952 | |
| Monarchs | George VI (until 26 January 1950) |
| Preceded by | Sir Hugh Weightman |
| Succeeded by | R. K. Nehru |
| Preceded by | Sir Olaf Caroe |
| Preceded by | Lt-Gen Thomas Jacomb Hutton |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Kumara Padmanabha Sivasankara Menon 18 October 1898 Kottayam, Travancore, British India (now Kerala, India ) |
| Died | 22 November 1982 (aged 84) Ottapalam, Kerala, India |
| Spouse | Saraswathi |
| Relations | Kesava Pillai of Kandamath |
| Occupation | Diplomat |
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]