The Indian Memorial at Neuve-Chapelle, taken on the day of its unveiling, 7 October, 1927

Photograph, Neuve-Chapelle, France, 1927.

The Neuve-Chapelle memorial was built to commemorate the 4,700 Indian soldiers and labourers who died on the Western Front during the First World War and have no known grave. The sight was chosen as it was here that the Indian Corps fought its first major action as a single unit.

The memorial was designed by Sir Herbert Baker, who had previously built government buildings in New Delhi and was also responsible for many other Imperial War Graves Commission cemeteries and memorials. It was unveiled by the Secretary of State for India, Frederick Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead. The ceremony was attended by the Maharaja of Karputhala, Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Rudyard Kipling and many Indian Army veterans.

From album of official photographs, 1910 (c)-1918 compiled by Colonel Anson Hugh McCleverty.