大象传媒

In 1914 the arrival of Indian troops caused a sensation in the New Forest. From Ashurst camp to the Lady Hardinge Hospital at Brockenhurst, it seemed to local people that the British Empire had come to Hampshire. Traces of their presence can be found throughout the Forest, from the war memorial at Barton-on-Sea to a specially-erected gravestone at St Nicholas鈥� Church, Brockenhurst.

The Lady Hardinge Hospital was a charitable institution with 640 beds on 3 separate sites. It was soon overwhelmed by wounded Indian soldiers and had to expand into a tented camp. British officials were careful to ensure that different religions were respected, identifying the particular dietary requirements of patients through coloured discs hanging on their beds.

Some ninety thousand Indian soldiers and fifty thousand labourers served in France and Belgium. At one point a third of the British Army on the Western Front came from India. In the words of one British officer, they 鈥渇illed a gap in the line when we had no other troops to put in鈥�.

Location: Brockenhurst, SO42 7UB
Credit: Photograph courtesy of Tile Barn Outdoor Centre