Gokul Chand Mukerji
Gokul Chand Mukerji (; 1894 – 18 December 1980) was an Indian mechanic, driver, driving instructor, and a soldier in the British army. ‌His rank was of a sepoy. He was sent to Iraq during the first world war as a British-Indian soldier. He was the first person to bring a car into the city of Sulaymaniyah – Iraq. Also, he was the first driving instructor in the same city. He held British-Indian nationality. He received the Kingdom of Iraq’s certificate of naturalization in 1932. Later in 1936, he received the Iraqi nationality copybook. Early life Mukerji was born in Manikganj District, Dhaka, Bengal, British Raj (present Bangladesh) in 1894. The exact day and month of his birth remains unknown to this day. Dhaka was a part of the Indian subcontinent then. His mother, Sugni Sada, was born in 1850 and his father, Sankar Jand Mukerji, was born in 1842. His father was a policeman. Due to his job, he moved to Gaya city. Gokul Chand was the ninth child and the youngest of his family, having seven brothers and a sister. He finished primary school in Gaya. During his early childhood, his parents and some of his brothers died by the plague. Career After the tragedy of losing his parents and some of his brothers, Mukerji moved to Patna, to live with some relatives. The relatives were poor so he was forced to work from an early age. His first job was as a night watch at a directorate. His next position was as a petition clerk at the central post office, Gaya. His next job was as a ticket collector for trams. Later, on 5 February 1918, at the age of 24, he joined the British army as a sepoy. He was sent to Rawalpindi to take driving and mechanic courses. He was sent to Iraq in 1918. In March 1919, he was sent to Sulaymaniyah from Baghdad upon Major Ely Bannister Soane's request. In Salihi Rasha's book of Sulaimaniyah city, he describes it this way: "As we mentioned, in 1919 Major Soanne became the political officer of Sulaimaniyah city. He had two Indian drivers. because these two drivers left their damaged cars near Tasluja and Kandakawa destrict near Sulaimaniyah and failed to fix them, he punished both of them and sent them back to Baghdad while requesting for a very good driver who is also a very good mechanic and can speak a good English.Meanwhile, there was a young Indian mechanic coming to Baghdad. He was going back and forth between his duty station which was the Indian force base (Rasheed air force base) to Bab Al-Moatham per his orders. Because this young man had a very good heart and gave rides to any women or children he found on his way, his hard hearted supervisor disliked this manner. As the Major Soanne's request arrived to the station, this supervisor called for the Indian young man and told him "I gave your name my good-hearted soldier to