Air Chief Marshal Idris Hassan Latif was born on 09 June 1923 at Hyderabad. He was educated at the prestigious Nizam College, Hyderabad. He was commissioned into the RIAF in 1942 and took part in the Burma Campaign on the Arakan Front during World War-II. He served as the Air Attaché at the Indian Embassy in Washington DC and held the dual responsibility of Air Attaché to the Indian High Commissioner's office in Canada.  In his stint with the IAF, he held key appointments of ACAS (Plans), AOA, AOC-in-C Central Air Command and Maintenance Command, VCAS and was appointed Chief of the Air Staff in 1978. After retirement from the IAF, he served as Governor of Maharashtra and as Indian ambassador to France. He passed away on 27 June 2008.