in childhood, singh's job was to look after the cattle herd. after initial schooling at the village church school, in 1910 he gained admission to st. paul's college, ranchi, which was run by the christian missionaries of the spg mission of the church of england. a gifted field hockey player, singh was a brilliant student and exhibited exceptional leadership qualities from a very young age. this was noticed by the missionaries, who took him to england for higher studies at the university of oxford. he graduated from st. john's college, oxford with honours in economics.