Major General Gurcharn Singh Sandhu (b. December 1922) graduated with a first class honours from Government College, Lahore; his subjects of study were History and Political Science. He went on to obtain a Master’s degree in English before joining the Army in 1944. He was commissioned into the 18th King Edward’s Own Cavalry in 1945 and saw military service during World War II on the Northwest Frontier. In 1948, he attended the first Staff College course at Wellington. As a staff officer at HQ 1 Armoured Division, he took part in the Hyderabad Police Action in 1948.

In 1959 he was selected to attend a year-long Armor Officers’ Advance Course at the US Armor School at Fort Knox. Soon after the 1962 India-China War he was posted as Military Assistant to the newly-appointed Chief of the Army Staff, General J. N. Chaudhuri, and continued in that appointment during the 1965 Indo-Pak War. He raised an armoured brigade at Siliguri before India's 1971 war with Pakistan and took part in operations against the Pak army in the northwest sector of erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). He was awarded a Param Vasisht Seva Medal for his service during the 1971 war. After a course at the National Defence College, he commanded another armoured brigade followed by the command of an infantry division. His last appointment in the Indian Army was as head of the Armoured Corps at Army Headquarters from where he retired early in 1978.