SINGAPORE - Brigadier-General Kirpa Ram Vij, who played a key role in setting up Singapore’s military in its early years of independence, died on Saturday.

He was 87, and is survived by his wife and three children. Family members said he died peacefully, surrounded by his loved ones.

BG Kirpa was Singapore’s Director General Staff, a position which was roughly the predecessor of today’s Chief of Defence Force.

He was the second to hold this position in 1968, and then from 1970 to 1974.

Both current and former defence chiefs have paid tribute to the man who devoted much of his life to setting up the Singapore Armed Forces, including the Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute (Safti), despite being born in the Hazara district of present-day Pakistan.

Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant-General (LG) Melvyn Ong on Sunday called BG Kirpa an exemplary leader, and said he and his officers are fortunate beneficiaries of his legacy.

Former chief of defence force, Lieutenant-General (Ret) Winston Choo, who was BG Kirpa’s successor in 1974, called “Kip” a brother officer and a dear friend.

“A fine gentleman, quietly efficient, and in many ways a true military professional,” he said.

“As the second Director General Staff, he was deeply involved in, and played a defining role in the early development of the Singapore Armed Forces, Safti and the Singapore Command and Staff College. Singapore has lost a loyal son.”

Born in British India in 1935, BG Kirpa moved to Singapore after 1947, following the Indian partition which drove his family out of their village when he was just 12 years old.

He graduated from Raffles Institution and was a civil servant with a keen interest in the military, having joined the Cadet Corps in his school years and signing up as a member of the Singapore Volunteer Corps to attend courses conducted by the British Army before conscription was the norm.

During the tumultuous years of Konfrontasi from 1963 to 1965, he spent most of his weekends doing guard duty to protect Singapore’s vital installations, and was also mobilised during the racial riots of 1964.

It was these experiences that later led to then-minister of defence Goh Keng Swee transferring him to the military after just a short seven-minute conversation in 1965, at a time when Singapore desperately needed to shore up its defensive capabilities.

Immediately after Singapore’s independence, BG Kirpa was one of those sent to Israel to witness military training there, and who hosted the Israelis here to train Singapore’s military pioneers, humorously calling them “Mexicans” as a way of keeping Israeli involvement on the quiet at a time when this was sensitive.

He would use this knowledge that he had gleaned to set up Safti, which he was the first director of. This defined the SAF’s capabilities to groom officers for command appointments, the Ministry of Defence said on Sunday.

In 1975, he was appointed Singapore’s ambassador to Egypt for four years, securing access for Singapore-flagged ships to the important Suez Canal.

Later, he became the general manager of shipping line Neptune Orient Lines in 1981.

BG Kirpa’s youngest daughter, Ms Anjna Vij, 52, said her father was generous, kind and well-loved, always making time for his family and never neglecting to be there for his friends. She recounted that the first thing her father did when her mother and siblings visited him after his surgery was to ask if they had eaten.

The lecturer added: “One piece of advice that my father has given me is that some battles must be fought alone.

“This has been helpful at different times of my life.

“When I was a young adult studying in the United States and he came to visit me, he also told me, after seeing how I was, that ‘once you focus on your priorities, everything else falls into place’.”

The family is receiving visitors on Sunday and Monday at his home.

BG Kirpa will be cremated on Monday, and a service held at Gurdwara Katong.