Cheruvari Kottieth Lakshmanan was born on 5 April 1898 in Kannur, Kerala, into the Cheruvari Kottieth family. An outstanding all-round sportsman, he excelled in athletics, cricket and tennis. In 1924 he won gold in the 120-yard hurdles at the first All-India Olympic Games in Delhi and went on to represent India at the Paris Olympics — the first Malayali and one of the earliest South Indians to compete at the Games. Between 1925 and 1931 he also played first-class cricket for Madras.

He studied at Madras Christian College and Madras Medical College before further training in England, including at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. Commissioned into the Indian Medical Service in 1925, he rose steadily through the ranks of the Army Medical Corps, eventually becoming a Major General. After Independence he served as Director General of Health Services, guiding national public-health policy during a crucial period of nation-building. He was also Port Health Officer in Calcutta, held senior posts at the All-India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, and acted as Honorary Surgeon to the President of India.

In 1956 he was elected to the Executive Board of the World Health Organization. From 1958 until 1969 he served as Secretary-General of the Indian Red Cross Society and in related international Red Cross roles, continuing his commitment to humanitarian medicine long after leaving government service.

Colleagues remembered a man of quiet discipline who carried the same competitive spirit from the track into public health. One junior officer, watching him review plans for a national tuberculosis campaign, later recalled Lakshmanan saying:

“Fitness of the body is only the beginning. The real race is for the health of an entire people.”

In 1967 the Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan for his services to medicine. He died on 3 October 1970.

In the story of Indian doctors, Cheruvari Kottieth Lakshmanan stands as a rare figure who combined Olympic excellence, military service and national leadership in health — a Kerala pioneer who helped shape both sport and public medicine in modern India.