Udham Singh Biography - Birth date, Achievements, Career, Family, Awards

Udham Singh was born on 26 December 1899 in Sunam village, Punjab, Sangrur district, Punjab. He was known as Sher Singh in childhood. His father's name was Sardar Tahal Singh Jammu and his mother's name was Narayan Kaur. His father was a farmer and worked as a janitor at the railway crossing of Upalli village and his mother was a duodenum at home. His parents had two children, his elder brother's name was Mukta Singh.

Shaheed Udham Singh died on 31 July 1940 (age 40) in Barnsbury, England, UK, and was formally sentenced to death for the murder of Michael O "Dyer, which led to his death on 31 July.

Udham Singh's mother died in 1901 and his father died in 1907. Due to this incident, he along with his elder brother had to take shelter in an poorhouse in Amritsar. Udham Singh's childhood name was Sher Singh and his brother's name was Mukta Singh who got new names in the poorhouse as Udham Singh and Sadhu singh respectively. According to historian Malati Malik, Udham singh was the symbol of all religions of the country and hence he changed his name to Ram Mohammad Singh Azad, which is the symbol of the three major religions of India. Udham Singh's life was going on in the orphanage that his elder brother also died in 1917. He became completely orphaned. In 1919, he left the orphanage and joined the freedom fight with the revolutionaries.

In 1934, Udham Singh went to London and started living there on 9 Elder Street Commercial Road. Udham Singh was very much influenced by Bhagat Singh's actions and his revolutionary group. On 13 March 1940, 21 years after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, the Royal Central Asian Society had a meeting at Caxton Hall in London where Michael O Dyer was also one of the speakers. Before going to assembly, Udham Singh hid his revolver in a thick book. He did not even run away after killing General Dyer. On 4 June 1940, Udham Singh was convicted of murder.

He is also known as Shaheed-e-Azam Sardar Udham Singh (expression "Shaheed-e-Azam", means "great martyr"). A district of Uttarakhand was named Udham Singh Nagar in October 1995 by the Mayawati government to pay homage to Shaheed Udham Singh. According to historian Malti Malik, Udhamsingh was a symbol of all religion in the country and hence he changed his name to Ram Mohammad Singh Azad which is the symbol of three major religions of India.