Memories from the trenches - World War One

“Whilst asleep during the night, we were frequently awakened by rats running over us. When this happened too often for my liking, I would lie on my back and wait for a rat to linger on my legs; then violently heave my legs upwards, throwing the rat into the air. Occasionally, I would hear a grunt when the rat landed on a fellow victim.”

(R L Venables)

“If you have never had trench foot described to you, I will explain. Your feet swell to two to three times their normal size and go completely dead. You can stick a bayonet into them and not feel a thing. If you are lucky enough not to lose your feet and the swelling starts to go down, it is then that the most indescribable agony begins. I have heard men cry and scream with pain and many have had to have their feet and legs amputated. I was one of the lucky ones, but one more day in that trench and it may have been too late.”

(Harry Roberts)

“The water in the trenches through which we waded was alive with a multitude of swimming frogs. Red slugs crawled up the side of the trenches and strange beetles with dangerous looking horns wriggled along dry ledges and invaded the dugouts, in search of the lice that infested them.”

(unknown)

“To get a ‘cushy’ one is all the old hands think about. A bloke in the Camerons wanted a ‘cushy’ bad! Fed up and far from home he was. He puts his finger over the top and gets his trigger finger taken off and two more besides. “I’m off to bonny Scotland!” he says laughing. But on the way down to the dressing station, he forgets to stoop low where an old sniper is working. He gets it through the head.”

(Robert Graves)

“We slept in our clothes and cut our hair short so that it would tuck inside our caps. Dressing simply meant putting on our boots. There were times when we had to scrape the lice off with the blunt edge of a knife and our underclothes stuck to us. “

(Elizabeth de T’Serclaes– a nurse on the front line)

"We must looked out for our bread. The rats have become much more numerous lately because the trenches are no longer in good condition. The rats here are particularly repulsive, they are so fat - the kind we call corpse-rats. They have shocking, evil, naked faces, and it is nauseating to see their long, nude tails."

Erich Maria Remarque

Types of ration during WW1

Reserve Ration

Three special-purpose rations came into general use in World War I-the reserve ration, the trench ration, and the emergency ration.16 The first of these was an individual packaged ration which the soldier carried on his person for utilization when regular food was unavailable. The reserve ration, which sought to provide a complete food allowance for one man for one day, included a one-pound can of meat (usually corned beef), two 8-ounce tins of hard bread, 2.4 ounces of sugar, 1.12 ounces of roasted and ground coffee, and 0.16 ounce of salt. It weighed about 2 ¾ pounds and contained about 3300 calories. The food was considered ample and satisfying but the packaging, in cylindrical cans of one-pound capacity, was far from practical or economical.17

Trench Ration

As its name implies, the trench ration was designed to provide subsistence under conditions of trench warfare. The unit consisted of sufficient canned meats and canned hard bread to provide 25 men with food for one day. The canned meats were roast beef, corned beef, salmon, and sardines. Other components included salt, sugar, soluble coffee, solidified alcohol, and cigarettes. The unit was packed in large, galvanized containers designed to protect contents from poison gas.15 Although the trench ration was to be prepared as a hot meal, it could be utilized without preparation or cooking. The ration had the advantage of convenience, afforded excellent protection against poison gas, and provided a wider diet than the reserve ration. Its disadvantages were an excessive use of iron and tinplate, which made it heavy and difficult to handle; the unsuitability of the units for a single meal; the invitation to spoilage and contamination offered by opened containers; and its nutritional inadequacy.

Emergency Ration

The emergency ration, popularly known as the "Armour" or "iron" ration, was a packaged unit of concentrated food carried by the soldier to sustain life during emergencies when no other source of subsistence was available. It consisted of three 3-ounce cakes of a mixture of beef powder and cooked wheat and three one-ounce chocolate bars. These hardy items were contained in an oval-shaped, lacquered can which fitted the soldier's pocket. At the time of the Armistice, about two million rations had been shipped to France.19 Manufacture was discontinued after the war, and in 1922 the item was officially eliminated from the list of Army rations. Some of the emergency rations procured in World War I were subsequently used by aircraft pilots on Mexican border patrols, a usage which suggests that the item has some claim to parentage of modern Air Force flight rations.

Food for Troops - World War One

 

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 battalion's kitchen staff had just two large vats, in which everything was prepared. As a result, everything the men ate tasted of something else. For example, soldiers often complained that their tea tasted of vegetables. Providing fresh food was also very difficult. It has been estimated that it took up to eight days before bread reached the front-line and so it was invariably stale. So also were the biscuits and the soldiers attempted to solve this problem by breaking them up, adding potatoes, onions, sultanas or whatever was available, and boiling the mixture up in a sandbag.

The catering staff put the food in dixies (cooking pots), petrol cans or old jam jars and carried it up the communication trenches in straw-lined boxes. By the time the food reached the front-line it was always cold. Eventually the army moved the field kitchens closer to the front-line but they were never able to get close enough to provide regular hot food for the men. Sometimes a small group of soldiers managed to buy a small primus stove between them. When they could obtain the fuel, which was always in short supply, they could heat their food and brew some tea.

Food was often supplied in cans. Maconochie contained sliced turnips and carrots in a thin soup. As one soldier said: "Warmed in the tin, Maconochie was edible; cold it was a mankiller." The British Army tried to hide this food shortage from the enemy. However, when they announced that British soldiers were being supplied with two hot meals a day, they received over 200,000 letters from angry soldiers pointing out the truth of the situation. Men claimed that although the officers were well-fed the men in the trenches were treated appallingly.

Food supply was a major problem when soldiers advanced into enemy territory. All men carried emergency food called iron rations. This was a can of bully beef, a few biscuits and a sealed tin of tea and sugar. These iron rations could only be opened with the permission of an officer. This food did not last very long and if the kitchen staff were unable to provide food to the soldiers they might be forced to retreat from land they had won from the enemy.

 

 

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.

Memories from the trenches

The memories of soldiers who fought in the trenches in World War One are a fascinating source about life in the war.

“Whilst asleep during the night, we were frequently awakened by rats running over us. When this happened too often for my liking, I would lie on my back and wait for a rat to linger on my legs; then violently heave my legs upwards, throwing the rat into the air. Occasionally, I would hear a grunt when the rat landed on a fellow victim.”

(R L Venables)

“If you have never had trench foot described to you, I will explain. Your feet swell to two to three times their normal size and go completely dead. You can stick a bayonet into them and not feel a thing. If you are lucky enough not to lose your feet and the swelling starts to go down, it is then that the most indescribable agony begins. I have heard men cry and scream with pain and many have had to have their feet and legs amputated. I was one of the lucky ones, but one more day in that trench and it may have been too late.”

(Harry Roberts)

“The water in the trenches through which we waded was alive with a multitude of swimming frogs. Red slugs crawled up the side of the trenches and strange beetles with dangerous looking horns wriggled along dry ledges and invaded the dugouts, in search of the lice that infested them.”

(unknown)

“To get a ‘cushy’ one is all the old hands think about. A bloke in the Camerons wanted a ‘cushy’ bad! Fed up and far from home he was. He puts his finger over the top and gets his trigger finger taken off and two more besides. “I’m off to bonny Scotland!” he says laughing. But on the way down to the dressing station, he forgets to stoop low where an old sniper is working. He gets it through the head.”

(Robert Graves)

“We slept in our clothes and cut our hair short so that it would tuck inside our caps. Dressing simply meant putting on our boots. There were times when we had to scrape the lice off with the blunt edge of a knife and our underclothes stuck to us. “

(Elizabeth de T’Serclaes– a nurse on the front line)

"We must looked out for our bread. The rats have become much more numerous lately because the trenches are no longer in good condition. The rats here are particularly repulsive, they are so fat - the kind we call corpse-rats. They have shocking, evil, naked faces, and it is nauseating to see their long, nude tails."

(Erich Maria Remarque)

Mall Sigh’s truncated voice-recording during WW1

In recent years, an extraordinary archive has emerged: a collection of more than 2,500 audio-recordings of Allied prisoners of war done by the Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission between 29 December 1915 and 19 December 1918, including a large number of non-white colonial prisoners. The soldiers were asked to stand in front of the phonograph, and made to read out a text, or sing a song or tell a story.

Some felt compelled to tell their life-story, as in this Mall Sigh’s truncated voice-recording on 11 December, 1916:

There was once a man. He used to eat butter in his native Hindustan.
This man then came into the European war
Germany captured this man. He wishes to return to India.
If God has mercy, he will make peace soon.
This man wishes to go away from here.
If he goes back to Hindustan, he will again get the same food.

It is not known whether Mall Singh ever returned to his homeland – Hindustan or not. Many did but badly traumatised and mutilated.

Indian Army and Volunteers During World War One

In 1914, the Indian Army was the largest volunteer army in the world with a total strength of 240,000 men and by November 1918 this number increased significantly to 548,311 men.  This field force was divided into two armies: The Northern Army which stretched from the North-West Frontier to Bengal with five divisions and three brigades under command and the Southern Army which stretched from Baluchistan to southern India and it in turn had four divisions under command and two formations outside the subcontinent. The two armies contained 39 cavalry regiments, 138 infantry battalions (including 20 Gurkha), a joint cavalry-infantry unit the Corps of Guides, three sapper regiments and 12 mountain artillery batteries.

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 1.3 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. Due to the massive cost of the war, India’s economy was pushed to near bankruptcy.

Lonley Soldier's Post Bag During World War One

"One lonely soldier in the trenches”, advertised for correspondents in a newspaper, and three days later 3000 letters, 6 bags of small parcels, and 90 large parcels were delivered to him. If all soldiers did the same the postal system would break down." said Postmaster- General, Mr Hobhouse at Bristol during the World War One.

WW1 - Indian Soldier - Victoria Cross Medal Recipient - Shahamad Khan

Victoria Cross Medal Recipient during WW1 Shahamad Khan was born in Takhti near Rawalpindi, India (now Pakistan). He was born  on 1^st July 1879. He was Niak in the 89th Punjabis, British Indian Army serving on the Tigris Front in Mesopotamia.

"Shahamad Khan was in charge of a machine-gun section 150 yards from the enemy's position, covering a gap in the New Line at Beit Ayeesa, Mesopotamia on 12th/13 April 1916. After all his men, apart from two belt-fillers, had become casualties, Shamahad Khan, working the gun single-handed, repelled three counter-attacks. Under extremely heavy fire, he continued to hold the gap, whilst it was being made secure, for three hours. When his gun was disabled by enemy fire, he and the two belt-fillers continued to hold the ground with their rifles until they were ordered to retire. Along with the three men who were sent to his assistance, he brought back to his own lines, his gun, ammunition and a severely wounded man. Eventually he returned to remove all remaining arms and equipment, except for two shovels. But for his action, the line would undoubtedly have been penetrated by the enemy.”

The London Gazette, 26 September 1916.

 

His Victoria Cross medal was purchased privately by Lord Ashcroft collection in 1999. It is displayed on rotation at The Lord Ashcroft Gallery and Extraordinary Heroes exhibition, Imperial War Museum

He died on 28^th July 1947 in Takhti, near Rawalpindi.

WW1 - William Hutchison

 

Private William Hutchison was born in Mulwala, Victoria. His father was William Hutchison of Daniel St, Granville, NSW. William was a farmer before joining the army at the age of 19. He served in 3rd Battalion and his service number was 2127. He served in Gallipoli and was killed in action on 10 July 1915. He is buried in Shrapnel Valley Cemetery, Gallipoli, Turkey Plot 1, Row A, Grave 20.

WW1 - William Gregory Fargie

Private William Gregory Fargie was born in Gosford. He served in France in 54th Battalion and was killed in action May 15, 1917. Private Fargie, prior to enlisting on 20^th May 1916, was employed at the Clyde Works as Brass dresser. He was the youngest son of lira. Bnrrett, of Moroe, and resided with his brother, Mr. Norman Fargie, of Trongate street, Granville, who is also in camp. William Gregory Fargie died in action in France at the age of 31. He is buried in Villers Bretenneux Memorial. MR. 26, Part 11, C-F.

WW1 - Leslie John Readett

 

Leslie John Readett was born in 1897 in Durham, NSW. He was the youngest son of William D & Lucy Readett of Mays Hill, Parramatta. Leslie Readett was Sergeant in the 18 Battalion. He served in Gallipoli, Egypt & France and was wounded in action on 3 May 1917. He returned to Australia on 10 November 1917. He got married at St. Patrick’s Church, Governor Street, Sydney on Monday, 29^th December 1919. His bride Margaret Miller was a daughter of Mr and Mrs F Miller of Concord Road, Strathfield. Leslie died on 6th April 1948.

WW1 - Indian Soldiers - Gabar Singh Negi

Gabar Singh Negi was born on 21st April in 1895  in Manjood village, in Northern India. He was 21 years old and a Rifleman in the 2nd and 39th Garhwal Rifles when he was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on 10th March 1915 at Neuve Chapelle, France. His bravery led to his death.

"During an attack on the German position, Rifleman Gabar Singh Negi was one of a bayonet party with bombs who entered their main trench, and was the first man to go round each traverse, driving back the enemy until they were eventually forced to surrender. He was killed during this engagement."

The Gabar Singh Negi fair is organised annually in Chamba (Tehri) in his memory.

WW1 - Letter to a friend in Punjab

A Sikh wrote to a friend in Punjab about the Battle of New Chappell, France.

“Now hear what happened to us. On the 9th March, the General told the Lahore and Meerut Divisions that they were to make a grand attack and glorify the name of the Punjab throughout Europe. The attack came off on the 10th at seve o’ clock in the morning. We fix bayonets and look towards the enemy. The enemy trenches are two yards off. They have been well built. In front is barded wire and we are not expected to attack here. With a shout to our Guru we hurl ourselves forward. The enemy’s bullets scorch our heroes while machine guns and cannons spread their shot upon us. We leap the wire entanglements and overwhelm the enemy, killing some and capturing the rest. On the 10th we captured 1050 Germans and took four lines of trenches defending the city of La Bassee. Here from the beginning the enemy have been very strong. On the 10th and 12th we took two miles of enemy position. Next day at five o’ clock the Germans attacked in eight lines. There was fine fighting on the battlefield. Eight lines of the enemy were destroyed. We also suffered grea loss in killed and wounded. On that day no one took thought of his friend and the slightly wounded man made his way back himself. If severely wounded, a man lay out in the battlefield. When the sun set in the evening, the rain began to fall. The wounded were picked up and sent back. The enemy attacked fiercely but were beaten back with great loss. We did not give up our trenches but pressed the enemy very hard. They could not recapture their lost lines. From the 10th to the 25th the German lost 70,613 men."

Reference:

Omissi, David, Indian voices of the Great War. Soldier’s letters, 1914-18, pp 51, London, 1999.
PS - The transcripts of the original letters are kept in the India Office Library at the British Library, London.

WW1 - Sydney Theodore Erby

Sydney Theodore Erby was born in 1895 at Parramatta. He was a son of George Thomas and Annie E Erby of Wigram St., Parramatta. He is a younger brother of Harold George Erby. He was driver with 4th Div. Train and 20th A.S.C. His service number was 8723. He served in France. He returned to Australia on 05 March 1919.

WW1 - Russian Revolution - March 1917

The First World War had cost Russia millions of lives. Those not actually fighting had to face serious food shortages. The winter of 1916-17 was very cold and fuel was in very short supply. Cold and lack of food create an environment that lead to trouble for those blamed for these problems.

By March 1917, discontent came to a head in Petrograd -this was St. Petersburg but the name sounded too German so in 1914 the name was changed to the more Russian sounding Petrograd. Petrograd became St. Petersburg.

March 4^th - workers in the city’s largest factory (the Putilov engineering factory) demanded a 50% wage increase so that they could buy food. The management refused so the workers went on strike.

March 8^th - 30,000 workers were locked out of work. They were not paid and could not afford any food now. The strikers persuaded other workers to come out on strike. Demonstrations occurred throughout the city. Nicholas II was in Petrograd at this time but he left to inspect troops at the war front thinking that the demonstrations were the work of hooligans and that they would end shortly. He was very wrong.

March 9^th - the riots got worse and were getting out of hand. Nicholas was informed about the situation and the Russian Parliament (the Duma) pleaded with him to order the release of emergency food supplies. He refused and ordered that the riots should be put down by March 10th 1917.

March 10^th - the police tried to carry out the orders of Nicholas. Unfortunately, people got killed and the rioters became even angrier. The rioters opened up prisons and released those in them. For the first time there were calls for the tsar to quit. The head of the Duma informed Nicholas that law and order had broken down as soldiers brought in to put down the rioters had, in fact, joined them. Nicholas then did something very foolish. He ordered that the Duma was no longer to meet.

March 11^th - the Duma disobeyed Nicholas - this is usually considered the first act of the Russian Revolution. The members of the Duma met in chaos. One person in the Duma, Alexander Kerensky, shouted out that 25,000 soldiers had mutinied and were marching to where the Duma was meeting to support them. With this support, the Duma decided to form a temporary government (the Provisional Government) to take the place of the tsar. In a bizarre move, Alexandra, the tsar’s wife, phoned him to tell him that he had nothing to worry about.

March 12^th - The leader of the Duma was a man called Rodzianko. He persuaded Nicholas that things had got very bad for the royal family. Nicholas then decided to return to Petrograd to restore law and order. The Provisional Government by this time had got some degree of control and they stopped the royal train outside of Petrograd. The government wanted to talk terms with Nicholas. The first plan was for Alexis - the son - to take over but Nicholas refused this as he felt that the boy was too weak. The throne was offered to Grand Duke Michael but he did not want it. It became clear to Nicholas that the Provisional Government did not want a tsar and he was forced to give up the throne.

Royalty came to an end in Russia in March 1917.

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

The Gurkha Memorial

On 3rd December 1997, British memorial to the Gurkhas was uneviled in London by HM The Queen, on Horse Guards Avenue.

 

Photo: Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The inscription is a quotation from Sir Ralph Turner, a former officer in the 3rd Gurkha Rifles.

THE GURKHA SOLDIER
Bravest of the brave,
most generous of the generous,
never had country
more faithful friends
than you.

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.