Reflections: Treating Indian war heroes in the New Forest
PREVIOUS Reflections articles have revealed why there were Indian army hospitals and convalescent depots in the New Forest in the First World War.
The articles covered the broad history of the Indian army serving on the Western Front from 1914 to late 1915 and how the casualties were brought to England and treated in the Meerut Indian General Hospital and the Lady Hardinge Hospital in Brockenhurst.
As soon as they were well enough, the patients were transferred to a convalescent depot based in two hotels at Barton. Those who were considered fit enough to return to their unit in France and Flanders were posted to the refitting depot at Milford.
This time we will look at the stories of some of the Indian soldiers where there is historical evidence to show they were at the medical facilities in the New Forest.
Brockenhurst
The first hospital in the New Forest to be created for the wounded was the Meerut Indian General Hospital.
The war diary for this medical facility records that they arrived in Brockenhurst on 1st November 1914 and took over the Balmer Lawn and the Forest Park hotels. By 5th November they were treating 866 patients.
On 9th November the diary states that Sepoy (Private) 2577 Diwan Chand died at the Balmer Lawn Hotel and was cremated the same day. He was 24 years old.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) records that Diwan was the son of Rangar Chand and lived in the Hamipur region of Himachal Pradesh. His death certificate, however, states he was from Firozpur in the Punjab.
It also notes that he died as a result of a gunshot wound in his leg received 10 days previously. The secondary cause of death was tetanus which he had contracted two days before. Diwan was serving in the 57th Regiment, Wilde’s Rifles.
Three Indian soldiers remain in Brockenhurst. They are buried in the CWGC section of St Nicholas churchyard. Two were Christian Indians. One, named Sumeer on his death certificate and gravestone, is recorded under the name of Sodmee by the CWGC.
All that is known of him is that he came from Bareilly in India. He worked as a sweeper or servant in the Lady Hardinge Hospital, and his death at the age of 25 on 28th November 1915 was epilepsy-related.
Buried alongside him is Sapper 3175 Arogyasami of the 2nd Queen Victoria’s Own Sappers and Miners. Arogyasami came from Bangalore in southern India. His death certificate reveals he had been suffering from a spinal injury and partial paralysis for three months and six days before finally passing away at the age of 29.
Writing in the New Forest Magazine, the Rev. Arthur Chambers reports that he was a Roman Catholic and that “the rights of his church were reverently solemnised at his graveside”.
The third Indian buried in the churchyard is known simply as Sukha. He was also a sweeper from the city of Bareilly and had volunteered to serve in the Indian hospitals in France. When the need for sweepers in England arose, he came to the Lady Hardinge Hospital in Brockenhurst.
Sadly, he became ill with pneumonia and collapsed on duty. Despite the best efforts of the hospital staff, he died.
Sukha was an untouchable and was declined a cremation by the Hindu representatives. Similarly, he was not eligible for a burial by the Muslim authorities at Woking Mosque.
The Rev. Chambers agreed to inter Sukha in the churchyard. The local villagers raised five pounds, two shillings to pay for his gravestone. One line from his epitaph is particularly poignant: “By creed he was not a ‘Christian’ but his earthly life was sacrificed in the interests of others.”
Princess Sophia Duleep Singh was the daughter of the last Maharaja of the Punjab. When he was exiled by the British and brought to England, he was given a country estate in Surrey as his residence.
His daughter, Sophia became the goddaughter of Queen Victoria. Sophia was a strong believer in women’s rights and became a militant suffragette.
The Surrey Advertiser of 13th February 1915 reported that Sophia and a number of ladies had undertaken hospital training and been awarded Red Cross certificates. Sophia’s biographer, Anita Anand, wrote that she came to the Lady Hardinge Hospital in 1915 to “tend the broken sons of the Punjab”.
The Lady Hardinge Hospital was run by the Indian Soldiers Fund overseen by the order of St John of Jerusalem. There were 17 nurses, two deputy matrons and a head matron providing nursing care to the wounded. All had served in India and spoke Hindustani.
The matron, Sister Edith McCall Anderson, had served in a military hospital in the Boer War.
As they were not governed by the War Office, the hospital refused to remove the female nurses when ordered to do so in early 1915. The authorities feared that relationships might be formed between the Indian soldiers and the nurses, and this might be bad for British prestige. Other hospitals complied.
On 8th February 1916 Kirpa Ram, a clerk at the Barton convalescent depot, wrote a letter in which he reported that Sophia had visited the patients at Barton.
Sepoy Katar Singh of the 15th Sikhs was convalescing at the Milford depot when Princess Sophia visited on 23rd February 1916. He wrote to a friend that he had been given a signed photo by her.
Barton
Several Indian soldiers were identified as having been at the Barton Convalescent Depot which was based in two hotels and nearby wooden army huts.
Three soldiers died while there. The first was 2879 Lance Naik Narain Singh who had served in the 34th Sikh Pioneers. He died at the age of 24 on 12th February 1915, and his death certificate shows he had suffered from pneumonia for five days before having a heart attack.
The war diary for the Meerut General Hospital shows that his body was cremated that day.
Rifleman 2162 Dhan Singh Danu died on 10th June 1915 at the age of 25. He was the son of Supi Danu, of Kunwari, Almora, United Provinces.
He had served in the 1st Battalion, 39th Garhwal Rifles and had suffered from pneumonia for 35 days before contracting tuberculosis.
The last Indian soldier to die at the Barton Convalescent Depot was Rifleman 2088 Jangesor Gurung, of the 1st Battalion, 1st Gurkha Rifles. He was 25 years old and was the son of Khoto Gurung, of Jilli Brang, No. 3 West, Kaski, Nepal.
His death occurred on 14th June 1915 and had also suffered from tuberculosis before succumbing to heart failure. Both Dhan and Jangesor were cremated at Brockenhurst.
The first Indian VC
Sepoy Khudadad Khan was the first Indian soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry.
He was serving as part of a machine gun team in the 129th Baluchis Regiment when, on 31st November 1914 at Hollebeke, southeast of Ypres in Belgium, his position was attacked.
The battalion had just two Maxim machine guns available to them. One was destroyed by shell fire, leaving Khudadad Khan and his comrades operating the remaining weapon.
During the course of the action Khan’s comrades were all killed. Khan was severely wounded but he continued to fire the machine gun until the situation became hopeless. He disabled the machine gun and managed to make his way to British lines.
He was recovering from his wounds at the Barton Convalescent Depot when, on 7th December 1914, he was informed that he had been awarded the Victoria Cross.
The Rector of New Milton, the Rev. Kelsall, recorded in the parish magazine that in December 1914 Khudadad Khan and several other wounded Indian soldiers attended a recruiting event at the village school.
They were welcomed into the meeting and given a rousing reception.
Khudadad Khan came from a humble background. He was born on 20th October 1888 in the village of Dabb in Chakwal District of the Punjab Province, now Pakistan.
Despite his severe wounds he remained in the army, retiring as a Subedar (Captain) in 1929. He lived in the Punjab until his death in 1971.
The Rev. Kelsall also noted in the July 1915 edition of the parish magazine that four Indian soldiers planted commemorative trees on Barton Court Road.
He named them as Jamadar (Lieutenant) Sita Ram, a Mahratta; Naik (Corporal) Gobar Singh, a Garhwali; Naik Makand Singh, a Sikh; and Sepoy Fatah Noor, a Muslim. Research suggests that they survived the war.
Twenty-six Indian officers from Barton were named in the national press when on 11th February 1916 they were formally presented to King George V.
Subedar Sher Singh of the 34th Sikh Pioneers read an address to the King in which they thanked him for the way the Indian officers and men had been treated in England, and at Barton in particular.
Subedar Singh told the King that in England they had been helped to keep their religious obligations, they had been entertained by the local residents and by the provision of cars to take them sightseeing, and that the local residents had provided many gifts for them.
They felt genuinely welcome and appreciated during their stay.
Milford
In the archives of the Milford Historical Record Society is a WI scrap book which contains an account of the Indian soldiers’ stay in the village.
Attached to the page are five signatures of Indian soldiers. Of the five, two can be positively identified.
The first is Sepoy 3802 Bostau Khan of the 58th Rifles. Deposited in the British Library are the admissions and discharge books for the Milford Refitting Depot.
The register for the 58th Rifles shows that Bostau was admitted to the depot on 12th December 1914 and posted back to France on 12th January 1915. There is no CWGC record for him, which suggests he survived the war.
The other signature is for Nihal Singh of the 15th Sikhs. The admissions register shows that Sepoy 4372 Nihal Singh 15th Sikhs (attached from the 14th Sikhs) arrived at Milford on 14th June 1915 and returned to France on 26th June.
The CWGC show that Nihal died on 26th October 1918 in Mesopotamia, now Iraq. He was the son of Jhobe Singh, of Bhagthala, Faridkot, Punjab.
While at the Milford refitting depot on 8th April 1915, Naik (Corporal) Raghubir Singh, of the 59th Rifles, wrote a letter home, saying: “I have been wounded twice, and now this is the third time I am being sent to the trenches.
“The English say it is all right. How can it be all right[?] As long as one is unhurt, so long they will not let one off. If Parmeshwar allows I will escape, but the butcher does not let the goat escape.”
The admissions register shows he arrived in Milford on 2nd April 1915 and left for France on 10th April. His service number was 4062.
Sadly, his letter home was prophetic. The CWGC records that Naik 4062 Raghubir Singh died on 14th July 1915.
He was the son of Suba, living at Dhada village, in the Punjab. Hopefully, Raghubir found some peace whilst he was recovering in the New Forest.
If you are visiting St Nicholas’s Church in Brockenhurst or the village green at Milford or the Indian memorial at Barton, please remember the gallant Indian soldiers who were here in the First World War. We owe them a debt of gratitude.
- Nick Saunders is a local historian and chairman of the Milton Heritage Society. He can be contacted via nick@miltonheritagesociety.co.uk or 01425 618549.
