Home Local News Youth Conference Commemorates Jullundur Brigade

Youth Conference Commemorates Jullundur Brigade

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Photo: Schoolchildren at the commemoration at Neuve Chapelle

 

The Jullundur Brigade – a force made up of British and Indian soldiers, including Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims and Christians, who fought together throughout World War One – is the subject of a youth conference in Preston next week.

The conference, held at the Guild Hall on 26 February, will bring together 600 children from 14 primary schools across Lancashire.

It builds on a visit to Neuve Chapelle in northern France in October last year, which saw over 100 serving soldiers, 90 Lancashire schoolchildren, 30 army cadets and local civic and religious leaders commemorate the first action of the Jullundur Brigade in World War One.

Following that visit, the children involved have been working on a project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, to create a teacher’s resource book about the role of the Jullundur Brigade and the wider Indian Army during World War One.

The book will be available digitally for primary schools across the UK to download and use to help children understand the shared sacrifices of their Sikh, Muslim, Hindu and Christian forebears, who served and fought alongside each other during World War One.

County Councillor Marcus Johnstone, Cabinet Member for Environment, Planning and Cultural Services, said: “This project is a really important reminder of the common heritage shared by so many of our communities, regardless of where our origins may lie.

“The teachers’ resource book that the children are producing will provide a lasting legacy for the project and bring the lessons of the Jullundur Brigade’s story of shared sacrifice to a much wider audience.”

Colonel Chris Owen, regimental secretary of The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the North West’s Infantry Regiment, said:

“There were Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, and Christians in the Jullundur Brigade which closely reflects the area where we recruit now. This project has real resonance for our community and is a valuable educational resource for the children.

“The multicultural element of the war is often overlooked, but we have to remember that it was an empire then and we have a Commonwealth now. There were many Indian troops on the Western Front, and we are still immensely proud of our ongoing links with the battalions of the Indian and Pakistani armies who are the heirs to our comrades from the First World War.”

The conference, organised by Lancashire County Council and the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, will give schoolchildren an opportunity to share their experiences and show what they have learned as part of the project. They will also showcase progress on the teachers’ resource book.

The Jullundur Brigade was part of the Indian Corps, whose troops were among the first to see action on the Western Front.

The brigade was formed in 1912 of three battalions: the 1st Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, forebears of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment; the 47th Sikhs; and the 59th Scinde Rifles (Frontier Force). The Jullundur Brigade went to war on 23 October 1914 and fought at the first battle of Ypres, Neuve Chapelle, Givenchy, capture of Neuve Chapelle, the second Ypres, Festubert and the Loos offensive.

After some 15 months, when the Indian Corps was moved elsewhere in December 1915, the Jullundur Brigade, with the same three battalions, was deployed in Mesopotamia and fought there throughout 1916 and 1917. In 1918 they were transferred to Palestine to take part in the final offensive.

These three battalions served together as part of the Jullundur Brigade for over seven years and the great friendship and bonds which existed between the three units continue to the present day, with links maintained through the heirs to the three battalions, now respectively part of the British, Indian and Pakistan armies, in the form of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the 5th Battalion, the Sikh Regiment and the 1st Battalion (Scinde), the Frontier Force Regiment.

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Photo: Padre Simon Bloxam Rose (2LANCS Padre) Faz Patel MBE (Blackburn Muslim Community) and Gulab Singh MBE (Preston Sikh Community) at the Jullundur commemoration
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Photo: Troops stand to attention at the commemoration at Neuve Chapelle

 

 

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