The Indian Hospitals in Brighton

Kevin Bacon

Royal Pavilion and Museums

Brighton & Hove

The Indian Hospitals

• Dec 1914 – Jan 1916: over 12,000 Indian soldiers hospitalised in Brighton

• Why Brighton?

• What role did the Royal Pavilion play?

Why Brighton?

Why Brighton?

Why Brighton?‘At that time in England the only hospital accommodation was provided by two very unsuitable hotels at Brockenhurst in the New Forest. I went to see those hotels on the 20th November and formed the opinion that it was a very unsuitable neighbourhood.. There is no population, and there are no public buildings which could be converted into Hospitals…

I suggested to Lord Kitchener that… I should be allowed to take up two large hotels in Brighton. He gave me permission and on the 21st I went down to Brighton. I saw the local authorities there, and instead of taking up hotels, which are unsuitable and costly, I secured from the Corporation of Brighton the buildings of the Pavilion and the Dome.’

Sir Walter Lawrence, Commissioner for Indian Hospitals, in letter to Viceroy Lord Hardinge, 18 March 1915

The First Offer?

Kitchener Hospital

York Place School

Royal Pavilion

Medical Care

Medical Care

• Retired IMS officers used for senior medical staff

• Indian medical students studying in England recruited

• White female nurses used, although officially expected to direct orderlies

• Over 360 operations carried out in two operating theatres

Medical Care

‘Everything is such as one would not see even in a dream. One should regard it as fairyland. The heart cannot be satiated with seeing the sights, for there is no other place like this in the world. It is as if one were in the next world… I have never been so happy in my life as I am here.’

Subedar-Major Sardar Bahadur Gugan (6th Jats), early 1915

Political Role

‘I never lose an opportunity of impressing on all who are working in these hospitals that great political issues are involved in making the stay of these Indians as agreeable as possible.’

Sir Walter Lawrence, Commissioner of India Hospitals, report to Lord Kitchener, early 1915

War Grows increasingly global

• 5 November: Britain declares war on Turkey

• Suez Canal and access to India directly threatened

• New threat of Muslim power fighting against British

• Britain needs to secure Indian loyalty

• 19/20th November: Lawrence appointed to set up hospitals

Media Spectacle

Royal Associations

Royal Associations

‘Our hospital is in the place where the king used to have his throne … Men in hospital are tended like flowers, and the King and Queen sometimes come to visit them.’

Isar Singh, 59th Rifles, to a friend in the 50th Punjabis, India, 1st

May 1915

Royal Associations

‘ I tried to bring out that the Pavilion was a Royal Palace and that the initiation of all that was done came from the King. To bring the Corporation… more prominently into it I thought would confuse things in the eyes of India.’

Col. J McLeod, Commanding Officer

of Royal Pavilion hospital, in letter to

Sir Walter Lawrence, 30 March 1915

Cultural / Religious Needs

Cultural / Religious Needs

Courtesy Penny Howard-Hill

Cultural / Religious Needs

Cultural / Religious Needs

Cultural / Religious Needs

Courtesy Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Closure

Legacy

Thank You

Kevin Bacon,

Royal Pavilion and Museums, Brighton & Hove

kevin.bacon@brighton-hove.gov.uk

@fauxtoegrafik