Forgotten Indian Soldiers of World War One

"Very few people are aware of the role Indian troops played in both world wars," Peter Francis of the Commonwealth Graves Commission said. "In some Indian units the casualty rate was 80%. In three days' fighting in Neuve Chapelle in 1915, for instance, some 4,200 Indian soldiers perished." Most of the soldiers and sailors buried at Wünsdorf died of disease while stationed at the prisoner of war camp in the nearby town of Zossen.
 

For more than 80 years the German graveyard where Jafarullah Mohammad, Mata Din Singh and 204 other Indian volunteers are buried was forgotten.

Until 29^th October 2005, there was nothing to identify the quiet, leafy spot where Jafarullah Mohammad and Mata Din Singh were buried. The two servicemen were among thousands of Indian volunteers who fought for Britain in the World War 1. On 29^th October 2005, the war cemetery in Wünsdorf (about 40kms from Berlin) was officially reopened. Reopening ceremony was attended by diplomats from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and officials from Russia and France, to honour Tartar soldiers who are buried there.

 

Life in the Trenches

Soldiers fought, soldiers died, some lived through World War One; others lived but were disabled for the rest of their lives. Life in the trenches was said to be ‘hell on earth”. In the muddy battle fields there was plenty of life but no real living for the young men who fought in them.

Death, mutilated limbs, disease, rats, maggots, lice and insects were all around the fighting soldiers, who lived minute by minute dodging the bullets and shell fire. With shells exploding all around them and bullets flying just above their heads, life in the trenches of World War One was very hard.

Soldier’s food during WW 1

Food for soldiers in the trenches during World War One was considered a luxury. Getting decent hot food from the field kitchens to the front line trenches was almost impossible when a battle was in full flow and there was no set meal time for the fighting soldiers. When soldiers were at stand-down, hot meals were able to be delivered from the field kitchens to the front line trenches.

A total of 3,240,948 tons of food was sent from Britain to the soldiers fighting in France and Belgium during the First World War. The British Army employed 300,000 field workers to cook and supply the food. At the beginning of the war British soldiers were given 10 ounces of meat and 8 ounces of vegetables a day. As the size of the army grew and the German blockade became more effective, the army could not maintain these rations and by 1916 this had been cut to 6 ounces of meat a day. Later troops not in the front-line only received meat on nine out of every thirty days. The daily bread ration was also cut in April 1917. The British Army attempted to give the soldiers the 3,574 calories a day that dieticians said they needed. However, others argued that soldiers during wartime need much more than this.

Soldiers in the Western Front were very critical of the quantity and the quality of food they received. The bulk of their diet in the trenches was bully beef (caned corned beef), bread and biscuits. By the winter of 1916 flour was in such short supply that bread was being made with dried ground turnips. The main food was now a pea-soup with a few lumps of horsemeat. Kitchen staff became more and more dependent on local vegetables and also had to use weeds such as nettles in soups and stews.

The soldiers in the trenches ate quite well, and the food was considered to be luxurious, compared to what their families back at home were eating.

 

A typical days ration for a British Soldier

20 ounces of bread or 16 ounces of flour or 4 ounces of oatmeal instead of bread

3 ounces of cheese

5/8 ounces of tea,

4 ounces of jam or 4 ounces of dried fruit

½ ounce of salt, 1/36 ounce of pepper

1/20 ounce of mustard,

8 ounces of fresh vegetables or 1/10 gill lime if vegetables were not issued

½ gill of rum or 1 pint of porter

20 ounces of tobacco (two cigars and two cigarettes or 1 oz. pipe tobacco, or 9/10 oz. plug tobacco, or 1/5 oz. snuff)

1/3 ounces of chocolate - optional

4 ounces of butter/margarine

2 ounces of dried vegetables

Daily Ration for a German Soldier

26 ½ ounces of bread or 17 ½ of field biscuits or 14 ounces of egg biscuit

53 ounces of potatoes

4 ½ ounces vegetables

2 ounces dried vegetables.

There was meat available for both The British and German Soldiers in the trenches, but only when a lull in the battle allowed it to be delivered from the field kitchens.

Daily Ration for an Indian soldier

¹⁄₄ pound meat
(Non-meat eaters received 2 ounces of gur (coarse, unrefined sugar made from sugar cane juice) or sugar or 3 ounces of milk in place of 4 ounces of meat)

¹⁄₈ pound potatoes

¹⁄₃ ounce tea

¹⁄₂ ounce salt

1 ¹⁄₂ pounds atta (flour)

4 ounces dhal (dried lentils, peas or beans which have been stripped of their outer hulls and split)

2 ounces ghee (clarified butter)

¹⁄₆ ounce chillies

¹⁄₆ ounce turmeric

¹⁄₃ ounce ginger

¹⁄₆ ounce garlic

1 ounce gur

 

Sheep being taken ashore at Gallipoli in 1915, to be issued live to the Indian troops for slaughter according to their religious practices. [AWM C01662]

Indian troops' iron rations (emergency supplies issued in case soldiers were cut off from regular rations) consisted of:

1 pound biscuit

8 ounces gur

1 ounce tea

6 ounces condensed milk or 2¹⁄₂ ounces dried milk in lieu, when available.

The Memorial Gates - memorial honour for Volunteers of Undivided India, Africa and Caribbean

On 6th November, 2002 HM The Queen officially inaugurated the Memorial Gates on Constitution Hill in London, UK.

The memorial honours the five million men and women from Undivided India, Africa and the Caribbean who volunteered to serve with the Armed Forces during the First and Second World Wars. It also celebrates the contribution that these men and women and their descendants, members of the Commonwealth family, continue to make to the rich diversity of British society.

Photo: Commonwealth War Graves Commission

On the roof of the pavilion are inscribed the names of recipients of high military honours, many of whose stories are recorded in the Military Honours pages.

The Neuve Chapelle Memorial

  Photo: Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The Neuve-Chapelle Indian Memorial is a World War I memorial in France, located on the outskirts of the commune of Neuve-Chapelle, in the department of Pas de Calais. The memorial commemorates more than 4700 Indian soldiers with no known grave, who fell in battle while fighting for the British Indian Army in the First World War. The location of the memorial was chosen because of the participation by Indian troops at the Battle of  Neuve-Chapelle.

The memorial was designed to honour India, its culture and traditions. The memorial is a circular enclosure centred on a tall pillar that is topped by a lotus capital, and carved representations of the Star of India and the Imperial Crown. Two tigers are carved on either side of the column guarding the temple of the dead. On the lower part of the column the words ‘God is One, He is the Victory’ are inscribed in English, with similar texts in Arabic, Hindi, and Gurmukhi.

It bears the following inscription:

English: To the honour of the Army of India which fought in France and Belgium, 1914-1918, and in perpetual remembrance of those of their dead whose names are here recorded and who have no known grave.

French: En honneur de l'Armee de l'Inde qui a combattu en France et en Belgique 1914-1918, et pour perpetuer le souvenir de ses morts aux tombes inconnues dont les noms sont ici graves.

Photo: Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The memorial at Neuve Chapelle was designed by Sir Herbert Baker and sculpture by Charles Wheeler. The memorial was unveiled by Earl of Birkenhead on 7th October 1927. Lord Birkenhead, then Secretary of State for India, had served as a staff officer with the Indian Corps during the war. The ceremony was also attended by the Maharaja of Karputhala, Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Rudyard Kipling, and a large contingent of Indian veterans.

Gabar Singh Negi, a Victoria Cross recipient is also commemorated on the Neuve-Chapelle Memorial. There are 4703 names inscribed on the memorial. Many of the men lost their lives during the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in March, 1915.

A commemorative book was published at the time, with a foreword written by King George V

Photo: Commonwealth War Graves Commission

 

WW1 - Deaths of Indians in Brighton Hospitals

 

Over one and a half million Indian army soldiers served alongside British troops during the World War One. Twelve thousand Indian soldiers who were wounded on the Western Front were hospitalised at sites around Brighton. These included York Place School, the Dome, the Corn Exchange and the Royal Pavilion.

The fifty-three Hindu and Sikh soldiers who died in Brighton were taken to a peaceful resting place on the Sussex Downs near Patcham for cremation, after which their ashes were scattered in the sea, in accordance with their religious rites.

The Muslim brothers in arms, totalling nineteen, were buried in a purpose built burial ground near to the Shah Jehan Mosque in Woking. Built in 1889, the mosque is the oldest of its kind in north-west Europe.

Deaths of Indians in Brighton Hospitals:

Kitchener Hospital:
36 deaths -  25 Hindus/Sikhs cremated at Patcham; 11 Mohammedans buried at Woking.

Royal Pavilion:

18 deaths - 10 cremated at Patcham; eight buried at Woking.

York Place Hospital:

20 deaths - 18 cremated at Patcham; 2 buried at Woking.

Total cremated on the Downs at Patcham	53
Total buried at Jehan Mosque in Woking	21
Total deaths	74

Indian soldiers and food during WW1

 

Sheep being taken ashore at Gallipoli in 1915, to be issued live to the Indian troops for slaughter according to their religious practices. [AWM C01662]

WW1 – What did Indian soldiers eat during WW1
·         1⁄4 pound meat
(Non-meat eaters received 2 ounces of gur (coarse, unrefined sugar made from sugar cane juice) or sugar or 3 ounces of milk in place of 4 ounces of meat)
·         1⁄8 pound potatoes
·         1⁄3 ounce tea
·         1⁄2 ounce salt
·         1 1⁄2 pounds atta (flour)
·         4 ounces dhal (dried lentils, peas or beans which have been stripped of their outer hulls and split)
·         2 ounces ghee (clarified butter)
·         1⁄6 ounce chillies
·         1⁄6 ounce turmeric
·         1⁄3 ounce ginger
·         1⁄6 ounce garlic
·         1 ounce gur

Indian troops' iron rations (emergency supplies issued in case soldiers were cut off from regular rations) consisted of:
·         1 pound biscuit
·         8 ounces gur
·         1 ounce tea
·         6 ounces condensed milk or 21⁄2 ounces dried milk in lieu, when available.

Indian Soldier's Letter - WW1

 

 

‘Do not think that this is war. This is not war. It is the ending of the world. This is just such a war as was related in the Mahabharata [the Indian epic] about our forefathers’, wrote a wounded Indian soldier from a hospital in England on 29 January 1915. This anonymous sepoy [from the Persian word sipahi meaning soldier] was one among over one million Indians, including over 621,224 combatants and 474,789 non-combatants, sent overseas between August 1914 and December 1919 for the Great War.

Most of the sepoys were recruited from the peasant-warrior classes of North and North-Western India, in accordance with the theory of the ‘martial races’, with Punjab (spread across present-day India and Pakistan) contributing more than half the number of combatants. They came from diverse religious backgrounds, including Punjabi Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus. The Indian army was a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religious force. Many of these men were semi- or non-literate and did not leave behind the abundance of diaries, poems and memoirs that form the cornerstone of the European war memory.

WW1 - Commemoration of Indian Soldiers - Honouring Muslim Soldiers

Photo: Commonwealth War Graves Commission

 

Commemoration of Indian Soldiers

Over one and a half million Indian army soldiers served alongside British troops during the World War One. Twelve thousand Indian soldiers who were wounded on the Western Front.

The fifty-three Hindu and Sikh soldiers who died in Brighton were taken to a peaceful resting place on the Sussex Downs near Patcham for cremation, after which their ashes were scattered in the sea, in accordance with their religious rites.

The Muslim brothers in arms, totalling nineteen, were buried in a purpose built burial ground near to the Shah Jehan Mosque in Woking. Built in 1889, the mosque is the oldest of its kind in north-west Europe.

 

Honouring Muslim soldiers

Muslim soldiers who died in English hospitals also received burial rites according to their religion. Some were taken to Woking - to a new cemetery near to the Shah Jahan Mosque and some were taken to Brookwood Military Cemetery. There, in a fusion of Muslim practices with British military traditions, they were interred and a bugler played 'The Last Post'

Mahomed Sarwar grew up in the Punjab and, like many young men from a rural population, sought adventure and a life outside his ancestral village by joining the 19th Lancers (Fane's Horse). His regiment went to France in October 1914 as part of the Sialkot Brigade of the 1st Indian Cavalry Division.

 

Mahomed only survived for eight short months. In Flanders, trench warfare made cavalry charges not only impractical but impossible, so the men left their horses behind the lines and served as infantry in the trenches.

By April 1915, Mahomed was in the Kitchener Hospital in Brighton. Mahomd died two months later from typhoid. He was only nineteen.

On his headstone in Brookwood Cemetery, it says:

"For God we are and to God we go” … (Qur'an)

 

 

WW1 - Commemoration of Indian Soldiers - Hindu and Sikh Soldiers

Photo: Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Commemoration of Indian Soldiers

Over one and a half million Indian army soldiers served alongside British troops during the World War One. Twelve thousand Indian soldiers who were wounded on the Western Front.

The fifty-three Hindu and Sikh soldiers who died in Brighton were taken to a peaceful resting place on the Sussex Downs near Patcham for cremation, after which their ashes were scattered in the sea, in accordance with their religious rites.

The Muslim brothers in arms, totalling nineteen, were buried in a purpose built burial ground near to the Shah Jehan Mosque in Woking. Built in 1889, the mosque is the oldest of its kind in north-west Europe.

Honouring Hindu and Sikh soldiers

Photo: Commonwealth War Graves Commission

 

Fifty three Hindus and Sikhs, including Manta Singh, were cremated on a specially built funeral ghat on the gentle English hills of the South Downs, overlooking Brighton. Their ashes were scattered in the sea. A “Chattri” was built to mark the site.

Chattri means umbrella in Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. Chattris have been used as memorials to the dead for centuries in India. The Brighton Chattri is dedicated to Indian soldiers who died in the First World War.

The Chattri bears the following inscription in Hindi and English:

To the memory of all the Indian soldiers who gave their lives for their King-Emperor in the Great War, this monument, erected on the site of the funeral pyre where the Hindus and Sikhs who died in hospital at Brighton, passed through the fire, is in grateful admiration and brotherly affection dedicated.

In September, 2010, a new screen wall, constructed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, was unveiled. It bears the name of fifty three Indian soldiers, including Gurkhas, who died in Brighton hospitals.

WW1 - Indian Soldiers - The Bombay Memorial

 

 

The Bombay Memorial (1914-1918) commemorates more than 2000 sailors who died in the First World War and have no other grave than the sea.

Sailors from Undivided India, Aden and East Africa are commemorated here, and with them, those Indian dead of the Royal Indian Marine who fell in the First World War and whose graves are in Eastern waters.

India and World War One

India was in a state of growing political unrest when war broke out in 1914. The Indian National Congress had gone from being a group that simply discussed issues to a body that was pushing for more self-government. Before the war started, the Germans had spent a great deal of time and energy trying to stir up an anti-British movement in India.

In World War I the Indian Army fought against the German Empire in German East Africa and on the Front Indian divisions were also sent to Egypt, Gallipoli and nearly 700,000 served in Mesopotamia against the Ottoman Empire. While some divisions were sent overseas others had to remain in India guarding the North West Frontier and on internal security and training duties.

The normal annual recruitment for the Indian army was 15,000 men, during the course of the war over 800,000 men volunteered for the army and more than 400,000 volunteered for non-combatant roles. In total almost 1.5 million men had volunteered for service by 1918. One million Indian troops served overseas during the war, of these 62,000 died and another 67,000 were wounded. In total, 74,187 Indian soldiers died in World War I

The Indian Corps won 13,000 medals for gallantry including 12 Victoria Crosses. Khudadad Khan won the Corps first Victoria Cross.

The cost of the war was massive and it pushed India’s economy to near bankruptcy. It costed India $601,279,000 from 1914 – 1918.

Indian Victoria Crosse recipient soldiers - WW1

Indian Victoria Crosse recipient soldiers

 

Name	Unit	Place of Action	Date of Action
Khudadad Khan	129th Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis	Hollebeke, Belgium	1914
Darwan Negi	39th Garhwal Rifles	Neuve Chapelle, France	1914
Gabar Negi	BB03939th Garhwal Rifles	Neuve Chapelle, France	1915
Mir Dast	55th Coke's Rifles	Wieltje, Belgium	1915
Chatta Singh	Garhwal Rifles	Battle of the Wadi, Mesopotamia	1916
Lala	41st Dogras	El Orah, Mesopotamia	1916
Shahamad Khan	89th Punjab Regiment	Beit Ayeesa, Mesopotamia	1916
Gobind Singh	Garhwal Rifles	Peizieres, France	1916
Badlu Singh	14th Murray's Jat Lancers	River Jordan, Palestine	1918

WW1 - Indian Soldier - Badlu Singh

Badlu Singh

 

Badlu Singh was a Hindu Jat born in Dhakla Village, District Haryana, India. He was born on 13^th January 1876 and died in action on 23^rd September 1918

He was a Rissaldar (commander of a risala - mounted troop) in the 14th Murray's Jat Lancers, attached to the 29th Lancers (Deccan Horse)

The 29th Lancers were sent to France, part of the 8th (Lucknow) Cavalry Brigade of the 1st Indian Cavalry Division. They served, at times, in the trenches as infantry before being withdrawn to fight in Palestine.

Badlu Singh died in action and he was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. His VC is displayed on rotation at The Lord Ashcroft Gallery: Extraordinary Heroes exhibition, Imperial War Museum.
 

"Risaldar Badlu Singh was attached to 29th Lancers when "on the morning of the 23rd September 1918, his squadron charged a strong enemy position on the west bank of the river Jordan, between the river and Kh. es Samariyeh village.

On nearing the position, Risaldar Badlu Singh realised that the squadron was suffering casualties from a small hill on the left front occupied by machine guns and 200 infantry.

Without the slightest hesitation he collected six other ranks and with the greatest dash and total disregard for danger, charged and captured the position, thereby saving very heavy casualties to the squadron.

He was mortally wounded on the very top of the hill when capturing one of the machine guns single handed, but all the machine guns and infantry had surrendered to him before he died.

His valour and initiative were of the highest order."  London Gazette of 27th November, 1918

He was cremated where he fell but his name is inscribed on the Heliopolis (Port Tewfik) Memorial in Egypt.