What do we know about the international contribution to the First World War? Not a lot, apparently. The British Council released a report in February 2014 detailing that less than half of the 1081 people questioned were aware that the Middle East (34%) played a part in the war, and less than a quarter are aware that Africa (21%) and Asia (22%) were involved in The Great War. Many of the territories in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Australasia and beyond were part of the British Empire, and later the Commonwealth. And they did not just fight on The Western Front as many believe, but around the world in places like Egypt, Turkey and modern day Iran.
2014 marks the centenary of the First World War, and this provides us with the ideal opportunity to look at and commemorate the impact that this remarkable and pained time in our history has had on us today. Britain is a wonderfully multicultural society, and arguably some of these multicultural roots can be seen in the Commonwealth to the First World War. But what exactly was the Commonwealth contribution to the First World War, and why is it important that we remember it as part of our commemorations?
The British Commonwealth contribution to the British war effort, and the wider Triple Entente war effort, was massively indispensible to the success of the Allies at the end of the First World War. This contribution was substantial in terms of manpower, auxiliaries, monetary aid and economic resources. It stretched the German forces to a much wider geographical war, and it ultimately helped to defeat the Triple Alliance.
The sheer number of troop figures from the Commonwealth is striking in itself, of over 9 million or so troops that fought on the side of the Allies around 1.2 million were from Undivided India, 100,000 from New Zealand, 500,000 from Australia – that is about 1 in 10 of the male populations of both countries at the time and around 15,000 men from the West Indies to name but a few. The fatality and casualty figures were massive, and the impact that these deaths had was greatly influential on societies at the time. These men were fighting and dying in far off lands for a country they probably had never been to and knew very little about. More importantly, they were not conscripted like British soldiers were for a large part of the war; rather they were volunteers who felt it their duty to fight for a foreign King and country.
Commonwealth soldiers were sent on arduous and long journeys to unknown places to face an unfamiliar enemy alongside foreign men without any home comforts and not knowing if they would survive the war. However, out of respect and appreciation for their service, the British did try and to accommodate Commonwealth troops as best they could. For example, Brighton Pavilion was set up as a makeshift hospital for treating wounded soldiers from Undivided India. Here separate kitchens were created to prepare food for Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs respectively. When white British officers led soldiers from Undivided India they insisted on eating the same meals as their men out of solidarity, parathas and potatoes rather than eggs and bacon!
Letters written home by Indian soldiers fights for the Allies spoke poetically, albeit censored, about the differences they encountered. Bakhshis Singh of Sialkot Cavalry Brigade writing from France in February 1916 spoke of how stunned he was by the fact the French drank apple juice all day long rather than water. However, the horrors of the war were also depicted. Isher Singh of the 59th Rifles wrote to a friend in May 1915 from the Indian General Hospital housed in Brighton Pavilion:
“When the German attack they are killed in the same way. For us men it is a bad state of affairs here. Only those return from the battlefield that is slightly wounded. No one else is carried off. Even English officers are not lifted away. The battleground resounds with cries.”
The battleground did not care for the creed, colour or religion of a man. It did not matter where you were from or what language you spoke; in death we are all equal. Around the world the Commonwealth War Graves show the headstones of Johnsons and Smiths alongside Singhs and Khans, they fought together, fell together and died together. This is truly the impact that the Commonwealth Contribution has today on us as a society.
Why is it important that we remember the Commonwealth Contribution as part of our commemoration of the First World War? Firstly, the repercussions on history are huge. The Commonwealth contribution arguably contributed to many of the independence movements that subsequently followed the First World War, and came to characterise the most important conflicts of the Twentieth Century. Secondly, the Great War was one of the first instances where a man from Cornwall could find himself alongside a man from the Punjab in the trenches together fighting for the values we hold so dear today, such as freedom and democracy. These shared experiences are part of the shared values we hold dear, and the Commonwealth contribution to the First Would War was indispensible in shaping into the nation we are today.
Inara Khan is working on The Curzon Institute's WW1 Commonwealth Contribution project and has an undergraduate and masters degree from the War Studies department at King's College London, where she also worked as a research associate with the War Crimes Research Group. Her masters thesis on the legacy of international justice and reconciliation was published by Routledge in 2013. She has previously worked as a legal associate for an international NGO in New York and as a consultant for a Qatari production company. Inara has also worked as a freelance editor, writer and producer, most recently with the BBC.