First World War

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First World War information relevant to British India, including the involvement of the Indian Army and of Anglo Indians in the British Army. During the First World War compulsory service was deemed necessary and the Indian Defence Force Act was passed in 1917. European British men between the ages of 18 and 41 were subject to compulsory service within India. Thus men serving overseas were not sent as conscripts, but had voluntarily joined either the Indian Army, or the British Army.

General information

The Indian Divisions of 1914-1918 on 1914-1918.net

Anglo-Indians

“Britain's declaration of war on Germany in 1914, brought immediate mobilization in India and by 1915, the British war drain produced hundreds of officer vacancies in the regular army which became accessible to Anglo-Indians for the first time since the East India Company's ban of 1791. Conscription was enforced systematically among the Anglo-Indians at odds with the experience of other Indian communities treated more leniently. (Abel:1988) By 1916, perhaps 8,000 Anglo-Indians had joined British units as in the case of the many "India-born" recruits accepted by the Dorset Regiment. Jhansi's Anglo-Indian Battery attached to the 77th Royal Field Artillery, had the largest concentration of Anglo-Indian conscripts and volunteers and earned a distinguished record in the Mesopotamian conflict. In total, 50-75% of the adult Anglo-Indian population saw active service although non-emergency enlistment in the British Army remained closed to them. (Dover:1937) Most were immediately sent abroad while others were employed by the sudden munitions and supply boom, for instance, at Kanpur where the army's leather processing centre had been located since after the Mutiny. (Thomas:1982)” [1]


Temporary Commissions & Indian Army Reserve of Officers 1917-1921

IOR Ref - (L/Mil/9/435-623)

The First World War necessitated a reserve force of British Army officers for the Indian Army to supplement regular recruitment of cadets from Sandhurst, Wellington and Quetta. Temporary commissions were, therefore, granted to British Officers, NCOs and enlisted men of the required educational standard.

Fortunately, the individual names in this section are listed in searchable indexes on the National Archives a2a website. The full record will show birth details and army service.

In the same index volume, on the open shelves in the British Library, is a further typed list of about 2,500 names compiled from a card index relating to medal claims. This index gives rank, unit , date of release and post-release address.( It does not actually show medal entitlement)

Finally the volume contains an index of 815 British Army other ranks commissioned into the Indian Army during the First World War. Fuller reference is shown as WO339 (pieces 139092 -139906) – See National Archives Catalogue.

Fibis members can contact Fibis research should they wish to access further detail from these records. research@fibis.org


Western Front

As the First World War progressed more troops were needed for the Western Front. To meet this demand trained soldiers from India were sent to reinforce the British Troops – particularly in France.. [2]

Many men who fell during these campaigns are honoured by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Amongst these are 4,742 soldiers from India whose names are recorded on the Neuve Chapelle Memorialin France. In 1964 these names were expanded to also commemorate 210 servicemen of India whose graves at Zehrensdorf Indian Cemetery in East Germany could not be maintained.

From December 1914 to February 1916 the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, Sussex UK was used as a hospital for troops from the Indian corps who had been wounded during WW1 in France and Flanders. This BBC news item contains photographic detail from the permanent exhibition opened in April 2010. It also contains further links to articles highlighting other ways in which the Indian troops of WW1 have been remembered in the Sussex area.

Mesopotamia

See also Norperforce

More information

  • Mesopotamian Campaign Wikipedia
  • Siege of Kut Wikipedia
  • Mesopotamia 1914-1918.net
  • "Iraq 1917 - A 90th Anniversary" by Dr D M Henderson 2007. The Scots at War Trust. A review of the war in Mesopotamia
  • Titles of Indian Cavalry, Infantry and Pioneer Units who served in Mesopotamia 1914-1918 may be found on pages 402-404 (computer pages 463-465) of History Of The Great War: The Campaign In Mesopotamia 1914-1918 Volume IV by F J Moberly (refer Historical books online, below)

Railways

"Without the work of the Indian auxiliaries on the Mesopotamian railways – which supplied almost every requisite for fighting and for everyday living on campaign –the Allied forces would never have enjoyed the victory they achieved."[3]

Major Frederick Cole and his unit from India built the railway from Basra to Baghdad in Iraq, then Mesopotamia. (Major Cole was Inspector of Railways in India from about 1915 to 1930).[4]

Rail track was sent from India. “For Mesopotamia, we pull up existing lines” [5]

Trains were sent from India, including fourteen military trains in 1916.In 1918 the entire (locos, rolling stock, track, and all fixtures and fittings) Powayn Steam Tramway, in Bengal was sent for use on the Bushire Light Railway in Persia [6]

The Iraq Railways and the Indian Railway Department were a Unit and Regiment of the Indian Army in Mesopotamia during World War 1 according to a soldier’s record on the CWGC[7] However the Iraq Railways is not listed in the National Archives’s “Abbreviations” (refer Online Records below) and it seems likely that this is another name for Mesopotamia Railways (which is listed)

Indian Army units listed in “Abbreviations” which are Railways related, and most likely connected with the Railways in Mesopotamia

  • Bombay & Central Indian Railway Battalion Indian Defence Force B & C.I. RY BN. I.D.F
  • Mesopotamian Railways MESO. R.; MESO. RYS.; MESPOT. RLYS.
  • North West Railway Maxim Gun Company N.W. RLY. M.G. COY.
  • Railway Construction Company RLY. C.C.
  • Railway Defence Force RLY. D.F.
  • Railway Regiment RLY. REGT.
  • Railway Battalion Sappers & Miners RY. BN. S & M.

Records

More information:

Online Records

  • Commonwealth War Graves Commission Organisation that pays tribute to those members of Commonwealth forces who died in the two World Wars and who work towards preserving their memory. Contains free searchable database. Includes details of the Kirkee Memorial which commemorates more than 1,800 servicemen who died in India during the First World War, who are buried in civil and cantonment cemeteries in India and Pakistan where their graves can no longer be properly maintained.
  • First World War records ancestry.co.uk contains many searchable records relating to First World War, including service records, medals indexes, pension records and rolls of honour. Searching is free but payment is required to view records.

Recommended reading

  • Yeats-Brown, Francis Lives of a Bengal Lancer . An autobiographical account of a Bengal Lancer covering the period from 1905 until the end of the First World War. Describes his deployment in India, France and Mesopotamia. See review in FIBIS Biographies reading list
  • Spencer, William First World War army service records : a guide for family historians The National Archives, 2008 See Review in FIBIS Military reading list


British Library holdings

  • India Office Records catalogue entry Roll of rewards and promotions of officers and men of the Indian Army and departments, and of Royal Artillery and Royal Engineer officers and men attached to Indian units, serving in the undermentioned forces:- France (A) East Africa, including Cameroons (B) Mesopotamia (D) Egypt, including Sudan (E) Gallipoli, including Salonica (G) Indian Frontier Indian area, including Aden, Perim, Somaliland, Gulf of Oman, and China Up to and including "London Gazette" dated 11th May 1917 and "Indian Gazette" dated 3rd February 1917 [?London: India Office, 8th edn, 1917] IOR/L/PS/20/H143 1917
  • An account of the operations of the 18th (Indian) Division in Mesopotamia, December 1917 to December 1918, with the names of all the units which served with the division and a nominal roll of all the officers by Walter Edward Wilson-Johnston 1919.
  • See Indian Army

Notes

  1. "Some Comments on stereotypes of the Anglo-Indians: Part II" by Megan Stuart Mills from the International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies 1996, quoting
    • Abel, Evelyn. (1988). The Anglo-Indian Community. Chanakya Publications: Delhi.
    • Dover, Cedric. (1937). Half-Caste. London: Martin, Secker and Warburg.
    • Thomas, David A. (1982). Lucknow and Kanpur, 1880-1920: Stagnation and Development under the Raj. South Asia. 5, 68-80.
  2. India and the Western Frontbbc.co.uk/history
  3. Memorial Gates Trust, First World War-Mesopotamia
  4. Vay to go by Alison Gibson from Mid-day.com
  5. The First World War, 1914-1918, Volume II, page 114 by Charles Repington 1920,(Archive.org) quoting a letter from Sir Charles Monroe, C-in-C in India, dated Simla, August 15, 1917
  6. Indian / South-Asian Industrial Locos: Military Trains by Simon Darvill. IRFCA
  7. Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s record for J. Flatman

External links

Historical books online