CWGC adds 9,909 forgotten Indian First World War soldiers to UK records

London,UPDATED: Jul 6, 2026 17:32 IST

A total of 9,909 Indian soldiers who were previously missing from the official records of those killed during the First World War have now been added to the UK records, following a major research project based on rare historical documents. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission said the men, from pre-Partition India, had never been formally commemorated because of a historical omission.

The soldiers have now been acknowledged through the Punjab Registers project, a five-year partnership between the CWGC, the UK Punjab Heritage Association and the University of Greenwich. The commission said the findings are part of its effort to ensure that all those who died in service are properly remembered.

"Over a century after the end of the First World War, our mission endures, ensuring all those who died in the service of the Commonwealth receive the commemoration they deserve," said Claire Horton, Director General of the CWGC. She called the Punjab Registers project "a landmark moment" and said, "The recovery of every one of these 9,909 names helps restore missing chapters in family and world histories. It stands as a constant, timeless reminder that commemoration is not only about the past – it is about personal identity, family legacy and recognising the human cost of war." Horton added that the CWGC remains committed to "meaningful physical commemoration" and is working with Commonwealth governments to seek views on a memorial to honour individual soldiers with the "dignity and respect they so rightly deserve".

The research involved digitising and analysing a fragile set of documents at the Lahore Museum containing the names and service details of around 320,000 Punjabi recruits. Researchers examined the records name by name as part of a verification exercise. A CWGC-funded PhD student at the University of Greenwich, George Williams, and 19 volunteers from around the world studied 15,935 deaths and compared them with 74,000 existing CWGC Indian Army records. Computer-assisted analysis and reviews by CWGC and Indian Army specialists found that 9,909 casualties were missing from the records.

According to research led by the commission's official historian, Dr George Hay, most of the missing casualties were men who died in non-operational zones within India during the war. "Due to rulings made by the British Indian government at the time, these men were not afforded war graves status, and so their names were never shared with the commission. This project has overturned that decision," the CWGC said.

The project has also brought answers for families. Leicester-based dentist Dr Inder Singh Palahey, who had spent years searching for information about his great-grandfather Kesar Singh, said: "From just hearsay to now discovering the facts about my great-grandfather's ultimate military sacrifice, in particular the regiment he served in, has been incredibly poignant." He added, "Upon his death, he left a widow and two young children in poverty. So, the fact that he will now be remembered in perpetuity within global history ensures the whole family sacrifice is recognised: which simply means everything to us."

Manjinder Nagra, the first British Sikh woman to represent Team England in rugby, also discovered that her great-grandfather Jagat Singh was among the forgotten soldiers. "When I attended the annual Chattri Memorial Service in Brighton, held in honour of the soldiers from Undivided India who gave their lives during the First World War, I never expected to receive such momentous news," she said. "Learning from the UK Punjab Heritage Association that my maternal great-grandfather will now be officially recognised on the CWGC casualty database was incredibly moving and overwhelming. To know that his service and sacrifice are finally being properly acknowledged means so much to our family over 100 years on. In the present difficult times, this recognition feels especially significant. After all these years, he is finally being given the honour, dignity and remembrance he always deserved."

During the First World War, from July 1914 to November 1918, more than 1.4 million men from the British Indian Army served on all major battlefronts. One in six soldiers fighting for the British came from pre-Partition India, and half a million of them were from Punjab, including Sikh, Muslim, Hindu and Christian servicemen. The CWGC said their contribution and sacrifice were often overlooked in mainstream histories, and early work on the Punjab Registers showed that some soldiers recorded as having died in the war were missing from CWGC records and commemorations.

Historian and author Amandeep Madra, chair of the UK Punjab Heritage Association, said: "Not because they didn't serve, but because a decision made a century ago excluded their sacrifice from the record. Putting that right means giving families around the world their history back, and properly and equally commemorating the men who died." Gavin Rand, Professor of History at the University of Greenwich, added: "This project has not only helped to redress an historical injustice, it has also enabled families and communities in Britain and across the world to connect with and better understand their shared history and heritage. The Punjab Registers project shows why research matters."

The project is part of the CWGC's wider Non-Commemoration Programme, set up in 2021 to address historical inequalities in commemoration. The commission said the programme has so far identified more than 20,000 additional names for commemoration, with the latest 9,909 names marking a significant effort to correct omissions from the First World War record.

With PTI Inputs

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