Raizada Major Madan Lal Vaid was an officer in the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles regiment of the British Indian Army

British Indian Army

The British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...

 until the Independence of India in 1947, and subsequently first in the Jammu-Kashmiri Army and then in the Indian Army (after the Jammu-Kashmiri Army was integrated into it). For his bravery in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, he was awarded the Military Cross

Military Cross

The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....

.

Life

He came from an old and distinguished Mohyal

Mohyal

Mohyal is the name of an endogamous ethnic group that originates from the Gandhara region and consists of seven Brahmin lineages of that area that left the usual priestly occupation of Brahmins long ago to serve as soldiers and in government services.The...

 family of Jammu

Jammu

Jammu , also known as Duggar, is one of the three administrative divisions within Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state in India.Jammu city is the largest city in Jammu and the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir...

, in Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...

 state. For bravery in ages past, his family had been awarded the title Raizada. His brother, Feroz Vaid (also used the name Feroz Raizada) was the former Attorney General of Jammu and Kashmir. He spoke several languages - Punjabi

Punjabi language

Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...

, Dogri, Kashmiri

Kashmiri language

Kashmiri is a language from the Dardic sub-group and it is spoken primarily in the Kashmir Valley, in Jammu and Kashmir. There are approximately 5,554,496 speakers in Jammu and Kashmir, according to the Census of 2001. Most of the 105,000 speakers or so in Pakistan are émigrés from the Kashmir...

, Urdu

Urdu

Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

 and English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

.

Second World War

He deployed in the Middle Eastern combat theater during WWII. He won the Military Cross for combat bravery Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

 in July 1941, in the fight for the Jebel Mazar mountain close to Mount Hermon

Mount Hermon

Mount Hermon is a mountain cluster in the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. Its summit straddles the border between Syria and Lebanon and, at 2,814 m above sea level, is the highest point in Syria. On the top there is “Hermon Hotel”, in the buffer zone between Syria and Israeli-occupied...

, during the fierce Syria-Lebanon campaign

Syria-Lebanon campaign

The Syria–Lebanon campaign, also known as Operation Exporter, was the Allied invasion of Vichy French-controlled Syria and Lebanon, in June–July 1941, during World War II. Time Magazine referred to the fighting as a "mixed show" while it was taking place and the campaign remains little known, even...

. Jebel Mazar (Latitude

Latitude

In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...

 34.61667N, Longitude

Longitude

Longitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds, and denoted by the Greek letter lambda ....

 38.28333E) is a 5000 feet (1,524 m) mountain dominating the Damascus-Beirut route that the enemy was using very effectively to prevent British Commonwealth

Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...

 (British, Australian and Indian) troops from advancing to Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

. His actions as recorded in the medal commendation (from the British National Archives, verbatim without corrections):

In the operations carried out by the 16th Infantry Brigade in the DAMASCUS

Damascus

Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

 Sector on 10th July, 1941, the 1st (Indep) "J" & "K" Mountain Battery, I.S.F., was under the Command of 2nd King's Own Royal Regiment in their attack on the JEBEL MAZAR feature.

At an early hour on the morning of 10th July - the Commander, 2nd King's Own Royal Regiment was out of touch with his two forward Companies whom he knew to be held up in their advance on Points 1404 and 1455. He decided that a Forward Observation Officer should be sent forward to bring supporting fire to the Company on Point 1404. Lieut. MADN LAL VAID was detailed for this purpose, and although the Commander, 2nd King's Own Royal Regiment was unable to instruct him exactly where to go and find the Company himself. He took his Forward Observation Officer's party across an open valley, swept by Machine Gun fire where no movement had taken place since first light, made contact with the Company Commander

Officer Commanding

The Officer Commanding is the commander of a sub-unit or minor unit , principally used in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. In other countries, the term Commanding Officer is applied to commanders of minor as well as major units.Normally an Officer Commanding is a company, squadron or battery...

, and established line communication from the Forward Observation Post to the Battery

Artillery battery

In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...

 Position, thus giving the Battalion Commander communication with his forward Company.

Immediately on his arrival at the Company position he engaged Mortars

Mortar (weapon)

A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....

 and Machine Guns

Machine gun

A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....

which were causing casualties, and in spite of the proximity of our own troops to his targets, he carried out extremely effective shoots and destroyed one Machine Gun and one Mortar. Our troops on this feature were surrounded on three sides and were under continuous M.G. and Mortar fire, and it was very largely the quick and effective shooting by Lieut. MADAN LAL which enabled the company to retain its hold on this position in spite of heavy enemy pressure, both by reason of its damage to the enemy and its encouraging effect on the morale of our own troops.