Sainik school old boy climbs up the ranks to Lt General

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Major-General Cherish Mathson, who has been promoted as Lt. General, is an alumnus of Sainik School,  Kazhakoottam (1976 batch).  He is a winner of  Seva Medal and Vishist Seva Medal.

Mathson, 56, is currently the  Inspector-General of Special Frontier Force in New Delhi. He would take up his new post by early this year and would be one among the 14 corps commanders.

“The organisational structure in Army is pyramidical. Chief of Army comes at the helm who is followed by seven Army commanders and then 14 corps commanders. I would only be taking charge early next year as Lt. Gen,”  he said.

He belongs to the  Sankaramangalam family in Thiruvalla,  which was basically an agrarian family. Son of the late Oommen Maliekal and the late Susy Oommen, he  visits his ancestral village occasionally. A debater and basketball player during his SSK days, Mathson was the  captain of Nehru House and his juniors remember him  for one of his speeches.

“The then SSK principal asked Mathson to deliver a speech on ‘how to tie a tie’ without showing any action with his hands clasped behind. The junior students listened to him with rapt attention and this one incident is deeply embedded in our minds”, said Col. Rajesh Nair, 16th Kerala NCC battalion commander at Kottayam,  who was his junior at SSK.

Mr  Mathson had taken part in the Operation Blue Star in Amritsar in 1984  and also was staff officer in the Indian brigade to Somalia. He  also served two tenures in Siachen glacier in 1985 – 86 and later in 1996-97. His wife, Mareena Mathson,  was a former commerce teacher and they have  a son, Gideon, who is pursuing his doctoral studies in disaster management at Shiv Nadar University in Uttar Pradesh.