Hassan Suhrawardy

Lieutenant-Colonel Hassan Suhrawardy (1884 to 1946) was a Bengali surgeon, a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and an officer in the British Indian Army. Born in Dhaka into the prominent Suhrawardy family, he became the first Muslim vice-chancellor of Calcutta University, serving from 1930 to 1934, and held the chair of Public Health and Hygiene there from 1931. As chief medical and health officer of the East Indian Railway he founded the railway's ambulance and nursing division. He sat on the Bengal Legislative Council, advised the Simon Commission, helped establish the East London Mosque and was adviser to the Secretary of State for India from 1939 to 1944. He was knighted in 1932 after saving the life of Sir Stanley Jackson during an assassination attempt at the University of Calcutta, and renounced his British honours a month before he died.