The brave warriors to whom we owe so much
Pushing a badly-wounded captain in a wheelbarrow under heavy fire through no man’s land, the brave lieutenant risked his life to save his superior. The British assault in the 1915 Battle of Neuve-Chapelle in France ended disastrously, like so many in the First World War, when the reinforced Germans counterattacked.
One soldier called it “a foretaste of hell” with allied casualties totalling 13,000 over three days of brutal combat.
Mercifully George Henderson, the injured captain, recovered and survived the war. His saviour did not.
Shot in the leg during the daring rescue, amputation couldn’t save a hero who died of blood poisoning and gangrene a few weeks later despite evacuation to a Brighton hospital.
Subedar Manta Singh, of 2nd Sikh Royal Infantry, was a turbaned Sikh from the Punjab in India, one of 83,000 killed fighting in the service of Great Britain during two world wars. More than 100,000 Sikhs were wounded. Famed as fearsome warriors, some went into battle with chakram circular throwing weapons and talwar curved swords as well as rifles. An incredible 10 Victoria Crosses have been won by soldiers serving in Sikh regiments. During the First World War, 14 of the 22 Military Crosses awarded to Indian soldiers fighting with the British went to “the Lions” despite Sikhs being outnumbered by Hindu and Muslim troops in an expeditionary force sent from British-run India to Europe. From Gallipoli to the Somme, where turbaned cavalrymen lifted despairing spirits, Sikhs were brothers-inarms with young men from places such as Sunderland, Scunthorpe, Stoke and Swansea That proud legacy continues today – most conspicuously on Saturday when Charanpreet Singh Lall, 22, a Sikh from Leicester, became the first Coldstream Guardsman to wear a turban in the Trooping the Colour. Manta Singh’s proud grandson, Jaimal Johal, said conditions had been particularly harsh for
I believe a memorial for Sikhs would promote integration TAN DHESI COMMONS’ FIRST TURBANED MP
soldiers used to much warmer weather in India. “Winter was hard and Indian soldiers didn’t have proper clothing so they suffered. Some of them were just in shorts,” says Mr Johal, 79, a retired sub-postmaster in Maidenhead, Berks. He moved to Britain on Boxing Day 1961.
Henderson and Singh were not just comrades but friends whose bond forged in battle carried on in their families down the generations.
Singh’s son, Assa, who was Mr Johal’s father, served with the British Army alongside Henderson’s own son Robert. In turn Mr Johal remains in touch with Robert’s son, Ian.
Assa fought in North Africa during the Second World War and in Italy, including at the famous battle of Monte Cassino.
The largely overlooked sacrifice and heroism of Sikh servicemen has long rankled with the 450,000-strong community in Britain but official recognition is finally near to right this wrong.
Victory is in sight for Slough’s new Labour MP, Tan Dhesi, the first turbaned Sikh in the House of Commons. He has amassed an impressive cross-party alliance demanding a national memorial in a prominent London location.
Elected only last year, Mr Dhesi gained Government backing after securing support from every party in Parliament. Those behind the project include veteran Tory Ken Clarke, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the Lib Dems’ Vince Cable, and John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons.
His Commons motion calling for a Sikh monument is the most popular this session, collecting 266 signatures.
He says: “Memorials exist in London for soldiers from the Commonwealth, British India, Poland, African-Caribbean nations and for the Gurkhas but none of a turbaned Sikh soldier.”
He went on: “They fought together, died together and must be memorialised together. A statue of turbaned soldiers would be a huge statement, a historic and unique addition to the skyline of our capital – indeed the first-ever statue of turbaned Sikhs in any global capital outside of India.
“I believe it would help to promote integration and community cohesion and would show us in a very good light to all, including those millions of tourists who visit London each year.”
Mr Dhesi raised £350,000 of the estimated £1 million cost and is pushing hard for the sculpture to be erected on a main ceremonial route – Whitehall, The Mall or Constitution Hill, between Buckingham Palace and Green Park.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid gave a green light when Communities Secretary by establishing a working group to explore potential sites. He said the Government is prepared to chip in towards the cost.
“We are indebted to all those servicemen who volunteered to serve and fought to defend the freedoms we enjoy today,” says Mr Javid in an official statement.
He adds: “That’s why a Sikh war memorial in our capital will honour their sacrifice.”
ITV news presenter and Good Morning Britain political editor Ranvir Singh says a monument is overdue.
“We were not taught in school how much other nations did for the British war effort,” he says.
“But now the public are aware of how brave and warriorlike the Sikh soldiers were. I want my son to grow up seeing men with turbans remembered and respected for what they did to help him live in a free society.”
A hundred years on from the end of the First World War, it’s frequently overlooked how much of the British effort was multicultural.
There were more than three million soldiers and labourers from what then was the British Empire, including 1.27 million from a colonial India encompassing Pakistan and Bangladesh. Sunder Katwala, director of the think-tank British Future, says: “Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus and white British officers fought together [in] the Indian Army in both world wars, the largest volunteer armies in history. “Many people are quite surprised to hear the armies that fought a century ago look more like the Britain of 2018 than that of 1918.” Manta Singh was among a number of Indian soldiers cremated on the South Downs at Patcham. A Chattri shrine commemorates them. Yesterday Jaimal Johal and Ian Henderson, grandsons of rescuer and rescued at the Battle of Neuve-Chapelle, paid their joint respects at the sacred place. Mr Henderson, a former Commonwealth war graves commissioner, says: “It wasn’t really the Sikhs’ war but they were loyal.” Mr Johal added: “They deserve a good memorial.”