Countdown to new memorial for WW1 Indian heroes

Pictures have been unveiled of a new permanent memorial in honour of the Indian soldiers who fought during World War One.

The "WW1 Sikh Memorial" will take the form of a statue at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, and it will commemorate around 130,000 Sikh soldiers who fought in the Great War.

A national campaign for the permanent memorial began back in August. Work is now well underway for the statue, and it is due to be unveiled in a special ceremony at the Arboretum in March next year.

Despite only making up 1% of the Indian population at the time, the Sikh contribution to the war efforts is recognised as remarkable. They constituted 20% of the British and Indian Army and were represented in more than a third of regiments at the time.

The project is being managed by the “Sikhs At War” team as part of its legacy efforts to create British-Sikh heritage initiatives. They say it is to ensure the Sikh sacrifice is never forgotten. The Midlands itself is home to many multi-generation British-Sikh families, many of whom will have an ancestral connection to the WW1 soldiers being honoured in Staffordshire.

The memorial's sculptor is Mark Bibby, who's from Stamford in Lincolnshire. His grandfather served alongside Indian soldiers during World War 2. He says he's excited to have been commissioned to make this memorial in recognition of the soldiers.