Names Restored After a Century: UK Adds 33,000 Indian Soldiers to WWI Memorial

The United Kingdom has digitally commemorated 33,000 Indian Army soldiers who died during the First World War but whose names were never inscribed on the Basra Memorial in Iraq, addressing a long-standing historical omission in the remembrance of Commonwealth war dead.

The initiative was carried out by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), which introduced digital name panels linked to the memorial so that the fallen soldiers can now be recognised individually. The memorial honours troops who died in the Mesopotamia Campaign, one of the British Empire’s largest military operations outside Europe in the early twentieth century.

Launched earlier this month, the digital memorial brings together the names of these Indian soldiers for the first time alongside more than 46,000 Commonwealth personnel already commemorated at the site. The panels display each soldier’s name, rank and regiment , restoring recognition that had been absent for more than a century.

Historian Shrabani Basu , a member of the CWGC Global Advisory Panel, said the move helps correct a long-standing injustice , noting that thousands of Indian soldiers who died in the campaign were never named on the memorial despite their sacrifice.

Many Indian casualties were historically commemorated only numerically or through registers , rather than by name, reflecting inequalities in how colonial troops were remembered. The CWGC identified the Basra Memorial as a key example of such gaps and launched efforts to address them.

A physical update to the memorial has not yet been carried out because security conditions in Iraq limit travel and restoration work . The CWGC therefore opted for a digital solution until the site can be safely assessed for permanent changes.

The commission said digital memorials complement physical sites and help people worldwide engage with the stories of the 1.7 million Commonwealth personnel who died in the two World Wars.