1914[Web]
Sikh soldiers in the First World War
Sikhs go to war in large numbers in the British Indian Army. A community of about two per cent of India's people supplies about a fifth of the army, serving on the Western Front, at Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia.
The UK government's 2018 statement on a Sikh memorial says Sikhs made up 2 per cent of India's people when war began, but over a fifth of its army. The Heritage Fund's account of the Empire, Faith and War project gives the same proportions. Sikh units included the 14th Ferozepore Sikhs and the 15th Ludhiana Sikhs, both raised in 1846. They served on the Western Front, at Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia.
The same UK statement says that 14 of the 22 Military Crosses awarded to Indian soldiers went to Sikhs. It also gives more than 83,000 Sikh dead and more than 100,000 wounded across both world wars, without a breakdown by war. Those totals have not been confirmed against casualty records.
No Sikh appears to have received the Victoria Cross in this war. Victoria Cross Online calls Ishar Singh, decorated for an action in 1921, the first Sikh to receive it. Lance Daffadar Gobind Singh and Badlu Singh appear on SikhiWiki's list, and Chatta Singh also received the Cross in this war, but their published biographies do not describe them as Sikhs. The name Singh alone does not show a person's faith.[Web][Web][Web][Web][Web][Web][Web][Web][Web]