The sepoys on the seafront

Footsteps of the fallen

In this episode, we begin our journey through the footsteps of the fallen in Brighton, where one Autumn afternoon in 1915 the Constabulary were called to a disturbance on the seafront, following the appearance of a large collection of saber-wielding men.
On arrival, however, they found calm, with the genteel folk of Brighton swapping cigarettes for chapatis with the Indian soldiers who were happily cooking their dinner in the seafront gardens. Who were these men, and how did they find themselves in Brighton?
We look at the history of the Indian Army, their baptism of fire on the Western Front in Belgium, and hear the story of Khudadar Khan, the first Indian soldier to win a Victoria Cross during the Great War. We hear about how the theft of a German officer's sword, turned one Punjabi soldier into the scourge of the Germans, and discover all about the mysterious medicinal qualities of Indian treacle.
Support the podcast: www.buymeacoffee.com/footstepsblog or www.patreon.com/footstepsblog