An exhibition at Gunnersbury Park tells the stories of the importance of soldiers from India to the eventual Allied victory in the First World War.
During the war, more than a million Indian soldiers were deployed as part of the Allied war effort and 74,000 were killed in action. They served all over the world, including sharing in the horrors of the trenches on the western front in Belgium and France.
Those troops who served earned 9,200 decorations, including 11 Victoria Crosses, the highest honour bestowed by the British military.
The exhibition will be on display at the cafe in Gunnersbury Park, in Gunnersbury Avenue, until 27 August (9am-6pm, seven days a week). It is a stop on a tour around the UK, after starting at the University of Kent. The cafe will play host because the museum is being renovated as part of the restoration project for the park.
Council leader Julian Bell said: “It is so important to remember that it was a world war and there were brave soldiers from across the globe without whose efforts and sacrifice the war may not have been won. We have many generations of people living in the borough with roots in the Indian sub-continent and,so, this exhibition may even tell the stories of some of their relatives.”
More information is available online.
This originally appeared August 2015
