WW1 Sikh Soldiers in Milford on Sea

In 1914, at the start of WW1, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) fighting in France was small and it was taking time to train the thousands of volunteers from Britain and other parts of the Empire.

The Indian Expeditionary Force arrived in Marseilles in September 1914 as reinforcements and made their journey to Flanders to fight on the Western Front. The two Indian divisions were formed of the Indian Cavalry Corps and Indian Corps, simply known as 'Lahore' and 'Meerut' Divisions, to distinguish them from the 3rd and 7th British divisions.)

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Injured Indian soldiers were bought to the area from the Western Front on France, and after the men had recovered from their wounds or illness they were sent on to Milford on Sea or Barton on Sea for convalescence, and then kitted out to go back to the front. Those unfit for further service were sent back to India. 

Mrs. White's Barton Court Hotel situated on the cliff top at Barton on Sea became a convalescent home, and hundreds of Indian troops also convalesced in huts of the Indian Convalescent Depot built along Barton Drive and Barton on Sea sea-front. 

The former Victoria Hotel on Milford on Sea cliff top (now Solent Court), was one building used for the convalescence of Indian soldiers. 

During the 18 months the Indian men were along the south coast 7,500 men passed through the depots, and only three died. (787 men stayed in Milford on Sea)

Today an obelisk of unpolished Devonshire granite stands in the grounds of the former Barton Court Hotel to commemorate their stay under the care of army doctors and the establishment of the Indian Convalescent Depot in 1914. The obelisk can be seen on the island at the junction of Marine Drive and Barton Court Avenue.

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An Indian soldier convalescing in Milford on Sea, Gyan Singh (Sikh), wrote to his brother in Punjab in Gurmukhi on 15th April 1915 from the Indian Army Depot Milford on Sea;

“The German is very strong. His planes sail the clouds and drop shells from the sky: his mines dig up the earth and his hidden craft strike below the sea. Bombs and blinding acid are thrown from his trenches which are only 100 to 50 yards from ours. He has countless machine guns which kill the whole firing line when in attack. When he attacks we kill his men. The dead lie in heaps. England is full of wounded. No man can return to the Punjab whole. Only the broken – limbed can go back. The regiments that came first are finished – here and there a man remains. Reinforcements have twice and three times brought them up to strength but straightaways they were used up. The German is very strong.”

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