Geoff Simmons of Summerstown182 gives us the details on 'Far From the Western Front', coming to Tooting this week.

After touring the country for the last year, 'Far From the Western Front', a major exhibition on the South Asian experience of the First World War, comes to Tooting this week. Between 1914 and 1921, a staggering 1.5 million South Asians served alongside the British Army, as soldiers and non-combatants, some of them extremely young. One in every six soldiers of the British Empire was from the Indian subcontinent. Their story has until very recently been overlooked, but in the First World War centenary period there have been a number of very worthy initiatives highlighting their contribution. Their work has surely never been more timely. 

Researching First World War stories relating to the 182 names on the Summerstown memorial over the past four years has taught me so much. I always knew that there had been participation by soldiers from 'British India' (at that time comprising India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma and Sri Lanka). The Nepali soldiers have always been well-known because of the famous Gurkhas, but there was never so much talk about those other mountain warriors, the Pathans or the Garhwalis.

Everyone has seen the occasional grainy image of cavalrymen in turbans or wounded soldiers being treated at Brighton Royal Pavilion which was famously a hospital at this time. I had been to the battlefields in France and Belgium and visited the Indian Memorial at Neuve Chapelle. I have seen the names of those from faraway places carved in stone on the Menin Gate. Our stories have featured local men who lived in the streets of Tooting, Earlsfield and Summerstown. They may not have seen very many people in this area whose origins were from those countries, but they were destined to fight and very often die alongside them.

In spite of all this, the precise extent of this contribution has never really been widely publicised. Thanks to initiatives such as Far From the Western Front, British Future's 'Unknown and Untold' project, Connected Histories and authors like Shrabani Basu, we now have a figure and it is quite breathtaking. My enhanced understanding has allowed me to communicate what I've learnt to people through our guided walks and in our work with local schools. We have organised visits to the Chattri Ceremony near Brighton, once a cremation site  for those Hindus and Sikhs who died in nearby hospitals. We also went to the Indian Memorial at Hollebeke near Ypres which marks the place where South Asian soldiers first went into battle and Khudadad Khan became the first Muslim soldier to receive the Victoria Cross. It was here earlier this year that we placed a floral tribute from the Tooting Sikh Community. One of our 182, Reginald Knight from Squarey Street in Earlsfield is buried in Ferozepore in the Punjab - we are trying to organise a connection there involving a visit to his faraway grave.

The outstanding 'Far From the Western Front' exhibition will be on display until 29th September at St George's Hospital. It is located in the space outside the University Library on the First Floor of the Hunter Wing. At this launch event on Wednesday there will be short talks from the exhibition curator, the hospital archivist and myself. Refreshments will also be available. To support the exhibition, on 13th and 23rd September there will be two special guided walks exploring the hospital's role in the First World War period.

To find out more, visit http://southasiansoldiers.org.uk/ or my site, summerstown182.wordpress.com. You can also email me at rgbsimmons182@gmail.com.