WOKING MUSLIM BURIAL GROUND, 1914-1921 Researched and written by Graham WEBSTER

Over one million troops from India, including what is now Pakistan, fought for Great Britain during World War I. When war broke out in 1914 Britain did not have a large army ready to go to France. Reinforcements were needed and the Indian Expeditionary Force on its way to Egypt was diverted to France. Indian soldiers were involved in some of the earliest battles of the Great War including Ypres and Flanders. The first 28,500 Indian Army troops arrived on the Western Front on 26 September 1914. From 1914 to the end of 1915 70,000 Indian Army soldiers fought on the Western Front with heavy casualties. By the end of the war, of the over one million troops who fought in France, Belgium, Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, Persia and Africa, 7,700 died and 16,400 wounded. Other sources record that 1.3 million Indians who constituted the volunteer force during the First World War, approximately 400,000 were Muslims. Historians put numbers of Indians close to 50,000 injured and 8,500 dead on the Western Front (France and Belgium). An estimated third to a half of these war-dead were Muslims, who fought and died alongside their fellow Hindu and Sikh countrymen.

From the frontline, some 12,000 injured Indian troops were sent for medical treatment to special hospitals on the south coast of , Brockenhurst, New Milton and Bournemouth, in particular Brighton, where an army hospital was established in the famous Royal Pavilion, built in the ‘oriental’ style for George IV in the early 1800s. The Brighton Pavilion housed over 600 Indian wounded from the Western Front. Indian Medical Service doctors cared for them with the assistance of Indian Students, recruited by Gandhi into the Indian Field Ambulance Training Corps. Several other buildings in Brighton were converted, including a secondary school, and the infirmary and workhouse, which accommodated some 1500 patients and was named the Kitchener hospital.

For any such Muslim soldiers who died while in England, their funeral and burial arrangements were discussed by the British government with the Imam of the Mosque so that they may be carried out according to Islamic custom as well as for the convenience of Muslims. Hindu and Sikh soldiers were cremated in special crematoria at Patcham, Netley and Brockenhurst but there was not a special burial ground for Muslim soldiers until 1915. In this year, the War Office felt the need to respond to German propaganda that suggested Muslim soldiers were not being buried in a respectful way concordant with their religion. The propaganda, aimed at Indian Army troops serving on the Western Front, promoted the German alliance with Turkey as a holy war and tried to win over the support of Muslim soldiers. At the start of the war before the Brighton hospitals had been

setup the initial plan by the War Office had been to establish a Muslim burial ground for soldiers that died at English hospitals within a section of the Christian Cemetery on the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley. In the interim, 25 Muslim soldiers had already been buried in a section of , in .

The first burial took place on Monday 9 November 1914 at the Brookwood Cemetery, as reported in The Islamic Review reproducing the report from the Woking Herald:

The first burial in this country of an Indian soldier who has died as a result of wounds received while serving with the Indian Expeditionary Force at the front took place in the Mohammedan Cemetery at Brookwood on Monday afternoon. He was Ahmad Khan, of the 3rd Sappers & Miners, and he died on board a transport while on the way from France to Netley Hospital, on November 4. On Saturday the body was conveyed to the Woking Mosque in a motor hearse, the coffin being enshrouded in a Union Jack. The community of Muslims at the Mosque made arrangements with the Necropolis Company for the interment, which was not largely attended, chiefly on account of the fact not being generally known, but most of the Mohammedans at Woking were present, amongst them being an Arab from Medina, the burial place of the Prophet Mahomet. The brief and simple ceremony, which was conducted by Maulvie Sadr-ud-Din, consisted chiefly of silent prayer, interspersed with recitals of the glory of God. The coffin was first placed on the ground by the side of the grave, the Muslims facing towards Mecca during the prayer. After interment, and when the grave had been enclosed, silent prayer was again engaged in. On the coffin were placed several floral tributes from Woking friends — viz., Mrs. R. H. Howell, Mrs. Walters, Mrs. Chambers, and Mrs. Welch.

There had already been an attempt to cater for appropriate burial. As reported at the time:

The Maulvie Sadr-ud-Din, of the Woking Mosque, was invited by Colonel Lucas, C.B, to the Victoria Royal Hospital, Netley, to approve of a site for opening an Islamic cemetery in the grounds of the hospital, where Indian wounded soldiers are being nursed. The Maulvie did not like the idea of opening a cemetery there, and suggested that it should be set up at Woking, which is the centre of the Muslim community, and where obsequies can be performed satisfactorily in his presence. The Colonel agreed, and asked Colonel Sharaman to accompany the Maulvie to the War Office and India Office, where the question could be discussed and finally settled. Gen. Sir A. Keogh and Gen. Sir Edmund Barrow received the Maulvie Sadr-ud-Din, and discussed the question with him, and decided finally to follow the suggestion offered. Accordingly officers from the War Office called three times at the Mosque, Woking, to prosecute the project. A site along the bank of a canal, some five hundred yards from the Mosque, has been pointed out, where it is hoped that the contemplated Islamic cemetery will be opened.

The Maulvie Sadr-ud-Din recorded the same but also made these comments:

…I then asked the Government whether they would not (1) rail in the cemetery. (2) make paths in the ground, (3) provide a grave digger, (4) provide a caretaker, (5) provide some place where the bodies could be left for the night, (6) provide a decent waiting-room, (7) erect a gateway in Eastern style – however inexpensive 0- as a Memorial to the fallen Indian soldiers. At first the Government blankly refused to do anything…I could not bury the dead

soldiers in the marsh piece of unfenced ground which people and dogs could stray: therefore I buried twenty-five of them in the Mahommedan burial ground at Brookwood at my own expense. [emphasis in original]…

But he did have criticisms:

…I have had bodies sent to me bearing the wrong names; bodies sent without any flowers; bodies sent to me at any hour of the day or night without any previous notice, and no respect shown for them whatever…

Eventually it was decided to instead establish a Muslim burial ground in Woking, near the Shah Jahan Mosque, at that time the only mosque in England; it is the oldest purpose-built mosque in the country built in 1889, but also that it was commissioned by a Jewish man, Dr Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner. In 1915 a plot of land for the burial ground was acquired at by the Secretary of State in Council from Lord Onslow (Richard Onslow the 5th Earl of Onslow) as recorded in the following:

From THE SECRETARY, War Office, London, S.W., November 12, 1914. To THE MAULVIE SADR-UD-DIN, B.A., B.T., The Mosque, Woking.

Sir,— I am commanded by the Army Council to thank you for your letter of the 9th inst., relative to the proposed cemetery for Muslim soldiers at Woking, and to inform you that the question of selecting a site on the land north of the railway and canal, which you inspected with Captain H. C. Cole on the 8th inst., is receiving urgent consideration of the Department. The owner has been approached in the matter, and his reply is awaited.

I am to add that you will be kept informed of the action taken, and will be further consulted when the actual site is decided upon.

I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servant,

(Signed) B.B. CUBITT Discussion of this issue at a meeting of the Urban Council in Woking was also reported in The Islamic Review, December 1914, from the Woking Herald as follows:

The proposed opening of a Mohammedan Cemetery at Woking, more particularly for the burial of Indian soldiers who die in this country as a result of having been in action at the front, was mentioned at a meeting of the Urban Council on Tuesday. The Chairman (Mr. A. H. Godfrey) announced (as exclusively reported in the Herald last week) that the War Office were taking steps to provide a burial ground for Indian troops, and it was considered it should be within a reasonable distance of the Mosque. It was possible that a part of Horsell Common on the northern side of the canal, and on the eastern boundary of the urban area, might be acquired for the purpose. There was nothing official at present before the Council, but a War Office representative had seen some of the Council officials, although the War Office had full powers to do exactly what they liked without consulting the Council. The reason for providing the cemetery was because very grievous lies and false reports were being spread by the Germans amongst the Indian troops as to the

manner in which we were dealing with the Mohammedan wounded and dead; it was of the utmost importance that the conscientious scruples of Indian troops should be carefully observed and every consideration given to them. He was sure they would agree that it was almost an honour to have men who fell as a result of the war buried in the district. (Hear, hear.) Mr. J. B. Walker said that the Necropolis Company were asked to sell a piece of ground in Maybury opposite the Mosque for the purpose of a burial ground, but as it was in the midst of a residential district the company would not consider the proposal under any consideration. He might further tell them that there was already a special burial ground where Mohammedans had been buried in the past in the orthodox manner. He told the War Office that was a most suitable place; every facility was offered, and it was not a question of cost, and he still thought that instead of having a separate burial ground on a common it would have been wiser and more convenient to use the ground at Brookwood. The Chairman said he understood that the head of the community at the Mosque had absolute power in the matter, and it rested with him; it seemed he preferred this particular spot rather than going to Brookwood. He had been informed that Indian princes were to assemble at Woking one day during the week and view the site. The matter then dropped.

The burial ground was designed by T Herbert WINNEY, India Office Surveyor, and built by the local Woking firm of Ashby and Horner Ltd.; the landscapers were Messrs Neal of Wandsworth. A proposed waiting room and mortuary seem not to have been carried out. Photographs from 1917 show extensive plantings (such as cuppressus in four varieties) around the inner and outer perimeter walls, as well marking 4 squares of lawn at the centre of which were 4 plane trees.

Muslim burial ground, Horsell, 1917 Photographic Print of Muslim Burial Ground, Horsell Common, Woking 1917 BL23738 006 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Photographic-Muslim-Burial-Horsell-BL23738/dp/B00S01P056

The design has an entrance pavilion or "chattri" to the western side. The walls are about 8' or 2.5 metres high, with a brick plinth and cut-out arcade of ogee arches. The walls are subdivided into a number of bays using brick piers with Portland stone capitals and bases. The entrance pavilion is built of red brick on a square plan with an Islamic ogee profile archway. It features a deep overhanging eave called a "chujja" set on scrolled brackets, and a "beehive" style dome. The gravestones of the soldiers were of simple sandstone, with round arched heads facing towards Mecca. The burial ground was completed by 1917 by when it had received 19 burials of soldiers who died between 16 July 1915 and 3 Feb 1916 (a further 25 Muslim soldiers were buried at Brookwood). The gravestones were simple Portland stone, with round arched heads facing west, according to Islamic tradition.

The burial ground before the graves were removed in 1968. Commonwealth War Graves Commission Muslim Tommies, Lesson 5 – Common Ground, Resource T, http://www.history.org.uk/resources/resource_view.php?resource_type=secondary&id=4063&subid=4366&ci d=8&print=1

Documentary sources from the time of its completion suggest that the Viceroy and the India Office were keen to reproduce images of the burial ground and publicise its opening, all with a view to counteracting the negative propaganda, which was shown to be so false by the provision of this special consecrated place. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission took over the burial ground's upkeep in 1921. The cemetery was used again during World War II when a further five Muslim soldiers were interred at Woking. In 1968, due to vandalism, all the burials were moved to

nearby Brookwood Cemetery when the land reverted to the Horsell Common Preservation Society. The graves can now be found in Plot 2a of the Military Section of Brookwood Cemetery, Woking.

The men’s names are still recorded at Horsell and they hint at the caste-defined society that still exists in India and Pakistan. Among the likes of Alla Ditta Khan of the 15th Lancers and Mirza Iqbal Ali Beg of the Royal Military College are lower-caste men referred to just by one name: Abdullah, Babu or Hanza. The First World War soldiers buried here were:

Name Regiment Died

Abdullah Follower 16 Dec 1915

Alla Ditta Khan 15th Lancers 3 Feb 1915

29 Jan 1916 Ash Gar Ali Army Hospital Corps (amended death certificate)

Babu Follower, Central Depot 3 Sep 1919

Bagh Ali Khan 82nd Punjabis 29 Sep 1915

Bostan 9th Mule Corps 19 Oct 1915

Fazal Khan 93rd Burma Infantry 14 Nov 1915

Hanza Army Hospital Corps 7 Dec 1915

Kala Khan No.2 Mountain Battery 2 Feb 1916

Khan Muhammad 108th Infantry 9 Oct 1915

129th Duke of Connaught’s Mahrup Shah 16 Sep 1915 Own Baluchis

Mehr Khan 19th Lancers 24 Oct 1915

Mirza Iqbal Ali Beg Royal Military College 23 June 1920

Sarmast 57th Wilde’s Rifles Frontier Force 22 Jul 1915

Shaikh Abdul Wahab 29th Lancers 16 Jul 1915

Shaikh Mohiuddin Army Hospital Corps 5 Jan 1916

Sher Gul 82nd Punjabis 25 Sep 1915

129th Duke of Connaught’s Zarif Khan 22 Jul 1915 Own Baluchis

Originally submitted 27 Mar 2015

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