General Interest

The soldiers’ story stretches across both Sussex and Surrey – from life to death.

A Sikh soldier in the Great War

Thousands volunteered to fight for the Empire in the First World War and casualties were cared for at Brighton’s Royal Pavilion.

Muslim soldiers who died of their wounds were laid to rest in a Surrey burial ground designed especially for the purpose by the War Office.

Many remains were later interred in the county’s Brookwood Military Cemetery.

The soldiers are remembered every year.

Brighton Royal Pavilion

More about the soldiers’ story from the Black History Group in Brighton

Muslim remains were taken to the Shah Jehan Mosque in Woking before burial.

The Shah Jahan Mosque in the 1900s

Take a video tour of the Shah Jehan Mosque.

The ashes of Hindu and Sikh soldiers were scattered after cremation and in 1921 Brighton built a special memorial - the Chattri - on the Sussex Downs.

Earlier this year artist Said Adrus created a multimedia work that aimed to pull together the story and to highlight the significant Islamic architecture across this area.

He used photographs, watercolours and videos of the Muslim Burial Ground, Woking’s Shah Jehan Mosque and the Brighton Pavilion together with archive footage of the injured soldiers to tell their story.

Troops from across the British Empire were used on the Western Front and a total of 50,000 Indian soldiers were deployed in Europe.

More Indians volunteered to fight for Britain in World War I than all the Scots, Welsh and Irish combined.