2 Indian Labour Corps casualties

[andrew pugh]

Good evening 

I was recently looking through the cemetery list of casualties known and unknown who are buried in Grevillers British Cemetery, and noticed that there are 2 Indian soldiers buried side by side.One is buried as an unknown Indian Soldier in grave 11.C.19. And the other is named as Umrai Singh service number 31/2401 Indian Labour Corps, died 04/08/1914 and is buried in grave 11.C.18. I looked on a site on the internet for Indian casualties which confirms the date he died.

The Commonwealth War Graves records that he died between 04/08/1914 and 31/08/1921. I also looked on Geoffs Search Engine and there are 47 pages of Indian casualties from various Indian units who died with the similar date of died between 04/04/1914 and 31/08/1921. They are all commemorated on various memorials. Labourer Umrai Singh and the other Unknown Indian soldier are the only ones to have a genuine grave. Can anybody explain this, it's all very confusing. Singh has an actual grave but the date he died doesn't make sense between 1914 and 1921 they must know when they buried him, and the unknown Indian soldier. There are also several French Civilians buried in the cemetery most are named.

your thoughts folks would be most welcome.

Kind Regards

Andy 

[travers61]

This information may not exactly say why this seemed to be a policy, but I have looked at the burials at Grevilliers you mention.

 

Checking the headstone record of Umrai Singh on CWGC site he & the unamed Indian soldier are buried in amid a row of British soldiers of various regiments, who died 21-23rd March 1918. These documents also record him as of the Hindu Religion.

 

The CWGC information on Grevilliers British Cemetery states that the 3rd, 29th and 3rd Australian Casualty Clearing Stations were posted nearby from April 1917. They began the cemetery and continued to use it until March 1918, when Grevillers was lost to the German during their great advance. So Singh probably died at one of these CCS, or in the area & brought to the cemetery 21-23 March 1918.

 

There are no concentration documents on the CWGC for the British soldier, Lt E B Petty, Cheshire Regiment, who lies in the grave after two Indians, or the one before them, Sgt WH Smith 50457 RGA., which indicates burials were in March 1918 at/near the time of death. Its interesting that the unnamed man is the only in the immediate part of the row.  The burials of the Indians were originaly marked with a stake rather than a cross, so maybe less space to record a name at the time.

 

I believe that its usual for Hindus & Sikhs to be cremated after death & the desperate situation in March 1918 may have prevented the usual rites being carried out for two men who died so close to the fighting. Cremation could also be the reason that other Indian Labour Corps men are remembered by CWGC but have no grave.  

 

Maybe the records available post war of the Indian Labour Corps & other Indian units were not sufficent to give a date of death/missing for their men or had not survived.  Equally I would hate to think that if they were available this was a case of less attention to detail taken over this group of men.

 

Travers

 

[andrew pugh]

Hi Travers

Thank you for taking time to reply to my thread, I know it was a bit complicated. So basically because of the rapid German advance at that time this named Indian soldier Umrai Singh was buried and not cremated as his religion traditionally requires.Under those circumstances could the remains be dis-entered and be cremated?

Once again thank you.

Regards

Andy 

[travers61]

That was my original thoughts, rapid German Advance meant he did not get the usual Hindu rites. Although looking at Soldiers Effects, Sgt Smith is shown as died as a pow & Lt Petty as KIA.  So maybe the actual burials were after the Germans had captured the area & I would not have expected either the Germans or a busy allied burial team in Jan 21-23 to have respected Hindu rites.  

 

I had also considered that as well as being caught up in the German Advance, the two Indian Soldiers could have been in the area if they were attached to any of the CCS's nearby.

 

What the post war policy of dealing with burials of Indians found amongst allied ones I don't know. Maybe once buried, religious tradition was to not disturb them again. I can see this being as upsetting as them not being cremated in the first place.  The IWGC knew Sing was a Hindu, as its on his headstone records.

 

Have found that it was not a uniform policy to give cremated Indian Soldiers a death date of 1914-1921, as the 52 Sikh & Hindu soldiers who died in Military Hospitals in Brighton up to Jan 1916 (who were all cremated at the site of the Chattri, Patcham, and their ashes scattered in the channel)  have CWGC records with an exact date of death on them. Dedicated cremation sites were also at Netley & Brockenhurst.  Not sure what happened to Indians who died in France, maybe cremation sites away from the front line, as Brightons hospitals were was mainly convalescence, hence only 74 deaths from 15000 patients.

 

It seems the British respect of the religion of Indian soldiers where possible, stems from lessons learnt in the Indian Mutiny & certainly at Brighton Pavillion Hospital, there were seperate water supplies for each religion & nine kitchens, where cooks were the same religion as the patients.

 

Sorry this does not answer the large dod range on other Indian burials, lack of records available to IWGC ? not enough resources to investigate esp if records were in India ? I guess the common link is that they are all on memorials, so missing rather than known KIA.

 

 

Travers

 

 

 

 

 

 

[travers61]

Reading back my post I should have said that Brighton Hospitals treated over 12,000 Indian soldiers, and of course not all men on memorials are missing, just have no known grave.