The Chattri War Memorial

The Chattri, a small dome shaped monument on the Downs near Patcham, is a memorial to the 12,000 wounded Indian soldiers who were treated in Brighton during the Great War. Those Sikh and Hindu soldiers who did not survive their injuries were cremated at this spot and their ashes taken to be scattered out at sea. The Muslim dead were taken to The Shah Jehan Mosque in Woking for burial, built in 1889, the mosque is the oldest of its kind in north-west Europe. Due to vandalism those interred were later moved to the Military Cemetery in Brookwood.

An inscription on the monument in English, Hindi and Urdu, which was unveiled in 1921 by the Prince of Wales, reads: "To the memory of all Indian soldiers who gave their lives for their King-Emperor in the Great War. This monument, erected on the site of the funeral pyre where Hindus and Sikhs who died in hospital at Brighton passed through the fire, is in grateful admiration and brotherly affection dedicated”.