The British and Indian armies comprised 41% British volunteers, 27% British conscripts, 18% Indians, 5% Canadians, 4% Australians, 1% New Zealanders, and the last 4% were men from South Africa, Newfoundland, West Indies, and other dominions. (I wondered why Newfoundland was separated out from Canada and learned that it didn't become part of Canada until 1934. I must have learned that in school way back when.) The point they were making was that Indians made up a big percentage. It is a shame that there is so little information.
The exhibit focused on eight people.
1. Panchbir Mal was a Gurkha soldier who received the Indian Order of Merit from the king. He served in France and Mesopotamia. He was recommended for the Victoria Cross but did not receive it (only 11 South Asian soldiers did).
2. Mohammad Aslam served in the 106th Hazara Pioneers, repairing roads and bridges, moving supplies, clearing mines, building railroads. He didn't return from the war until 1921, three years after the Armstice because Indian Army units were used in Mesopotamia after the British took over from the Ottoman Empire.
3, Ganga Singh, the Maharaja of Bikaner (now part of Rajasthan, India) saw the war as an opportunity to show his loyalty. His Camel Corps was the only camel-mounted regiment in action in the first 18 months of the war. He was also involved in the peace negotiations that followed the war, and he was the only South Indian to sign the Treaty of Versailles.
4. Ghulam Mohammad Khan was stationed in Singapore and witnessed the mutiny of South Asian soldiers against their British officers. He and his infantry were later shipped to East Africa.
5. Sisir Sarbadhikari was a Bengali who wanted to enlist but the Army refused to recruit Bengalis (because of the 1857 mutiny that was led by Bengali regiments). So he joined the Bengal Ambulance Corps. He was part of one of the most significant military events of the war, the advance on Baghdad and the subsequent Siege of Kut. He kept a diary and, when he became a prisoner of war, he ripped out the pages, tore them up and hid them in his boots.
6. Kishan Devi's father was away at war and she learned to read (only 1.8% of females were literate by 1921) so that she could write to him and read his letters.
7. Satoori Devi's husband received the Victoria Cross posthumously, but she wore it proudly for 66 years.
8. A South Indian sergeant from Tamil Nadu was recruited with the promise of food, clothing, money and status.
The Siege of Kut lasted four months. There was a display case showing their rations at the beginning, at one month in, two months, etc.
The exhibition included video as well. It was interesting and I'm glad I got to see it, as it was only up for nine days.
On the way home, I stopped at the ice skating rink at the Natural History Museum.
They had these cute little penguin skating aids for children.
Thinking about my 94-year-old father who is having surgery as I write this.
Read: J. B. Priestley's "Coming to London" (1957) from London Stories
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