As another Remembrance Day draws near, some Lower Mainland families will be thinking about one of their ancestors who fought in Egypt and Turkey during the First World War.
Jawala Singh Guram fought in the British Indian Army as part of the 26th Jacob’s Mountain Battery in the Battle of Gallipoli.
When many hear the word Gallipoli, thoughts generally turn to the British, French and Anzacs who landed on the Turkish shoreline in 1915. What many don’t know is that alongside those armies fought 15,000 troops of the British Indian Army—Gurkhas, Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus—in the doomed, eight-month Gallipoli campaign. The troops suffered a massive casualty rate with 1,600 killed, or 1 in 10.
Yet the story of Jawala Singh Guram and his brothers-in-arms was mostly forgotten—their history practically invisible at Gallipoli today. It’s only over the last decade or so that the stories of these soldiers are finally being told.
Discovering the story of Jawala was also a story of discovering the history of Sikh soldiers in WWI for his descendants, who live in Surrey and Burnaby today.
Jawala’s great-great grandson, Harjot S. Guram, uncovered the history of his ancestor in parallel to the discovery, or rediscovery, of the history of these troops. The first account of British Indian Army troops fighting in the Gallipoli campaign was only published in 2015—100 years after the campaign! That was about the same time Guram found out his great-great grandfather fought in the historic battle.
“Families in India have a chest where they keep all their family keepsakes,” said Guram. “And my parents immigrated to Canada in 1970 and never went back for 25 years. So when they went back for the first time, they went to see this chest that was at my cousin’s house. And in the bottom of the chest was a picture of Jawala Singh with my grandfather and his brother sitting on his knee.”
Guram said the family had largely forgotten about Jawala. They were rumours and stories of this famous ancestor, but there was nothing concrete and no one knew very much about his service record—and no one even knew there was a photo of him.
So Guram took the picture and tried to find out some information about Jawala online. Nothing jumped out when he first looked. But a few years later, when his interest was reignited after a trip to India, he sent the image out to the Indian Military Historical Society, London Archives, the London Army Museum, among several other places. He was just looking for any bit of info he could find, but one man hit back, Cliff Parrett. He is an author and historian on Indian soldiers. The information he had floored Guram.
“He published a book on soldiers who won the Indian Order of Merit, which is the equivalent of the Victoria Cross,” Guram said. “Because Jawala had won the Indian Order of Merit, this gentleman had already done a bunch of research on Indian soldiers and knew about my great-great grandfather.”
The floodgates for Guram had opened. With each new piece of info he received on Jawala Singh, the picture started forming about who this soldier was.
“It was really intriguing when (Parrett) found info on him in war diaries and battlefield records,” said Guram.
One record about him, called a “Mention,” revealed what type of soldier he was.
According to the Mention from 1915, “Subadar Jawala Singh—showed conspicuous gallantry on 25th April, his example steadying all around him. He was slightly wounded but never mentioned it until it was discovered when he was subsequently again wounded and sent to hospital, much against his wish.”
Guram was overwhelmed with all the information he received.
Apart from his military record, Jawala was also one of only 187 Indian soldiers selected to go to London for the coronation of King George V in 1911.
Guram said it’s been a rewarding experience, from his family’s perspective, going on this journey of ancestral rediscovery.
“We’ve recaptured all this family history,” he said. “That’s been the most rewarding part of all of this. And having conversations with people too. Talking about him. Bringing him to life.”
Guram recently went to Gallipoli to visit the battlefield memorial and walk the beach Jawala landed on. When he was there he talked to one of the Turkish tour guides and the guide had no idea about the contribution Indian soldiers made to the British war effort in the Gallipoli campaign.
“Now he’s going to incorporate Jawala Singh’s story into his tour presentation,” Guram noted. “It’s been an amazing journey and this is just another giant step.”
Guram said sometimes he thinks about what it would be like if that photo was never found. What if his parents hadn’t gone back to India? What if the chest had been damaged or its contents lost? The circuitous journey almost parallels Jawala’s own life.
“During the war the family had lost contact with him,” Guram explained. “There was a point where he stopped communicating.”
He said the family had not heard from Jawala for about two years.
“They presumed he died at Gallipoli and had a funeral for him,” Guram added. “Well, six months after his funeral, he showed up. He returned home.”
Guram said Jawala was always talked about as being larger than life.
“We’d always heard stories about his heroics. Are they true? We didn’t know,” Guram explained. “He fought in Egypt. He fought in Afghanistan. He fought in Gallipoli. But nothing was ever documented. So when we found the records, everything basically came true. All the stories. If we didn’t have that picture, I believe this whole part of our family story would be lost.”
In a way, for Guram, Jawala has arrived again. Not six months later this time, but several decades after he’d been lost to time.
“That picture brought his memory back to life,” he said. “There’s so many families that have the same history in our community and they don’t know it. There’s so many stories out there. Somehow we lose them. We were lucky to get this one back.”
