During the First World War, thousands of wounded Indian soldiers came to Brighton to be treated in temporary hospitals set up there, one of which was housed in the Royal Pavilion. Over 50 Indian casualties later died in these Brighton hospitals and they have recently been commemorated in a new memorial on the South Downs – the new Patcham Down Indian Forces Cremation Memorial which is a project undertaken by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Dr Samiksha Sehrawat is a Lecturer in the History of Medicine and South Asia at the University of Newcastle. Her research explores the social history of hospitals through the experiences of Indian troops (‘sepoys’) and rural Indian women in the twentieth century.