Families across Britain are being encouraged to record and share the wartime experiences of relatives who served for Britain, after research found many in the UK do not know that large numbers of South Asian soldiers fought in the Second World War. The My Family Legacy project, backed by the Royal British Legion, is building an online archive of Asian veterans’ stories to highlight the shared histories and sacrifices of the country’s diverse communities.
An estimated 2.5 million volunteers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka served in the Second World War — the largest volunteer army in history. My Family Legacy, a joint initiative from thinktank British Future and the British Asian newspaper Eastern Eye, asks families to submit names, photographs and memories of ancestors and living relatives who served in the world wars so these stories are preserved and made public.
Polling by Focaldata for British Future found that half of the British public were unaware that Indian service personnel had served in the Second World War; only around 60% of British Asians knew. To mark this history, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi MP, chair of the House of Commons defence committee, hosted a parliamentary memorial event on 4 November to honour two late Second World War veterans now featured on the My Family Legacy site: Havildar Maj Rajinder Singh Dhatt MBE, who fought at Kohima during the campaign that helped stop a Japanese advance into India, and Sgt Muhammad Hussain, who ran away from home at 16 to join the army and later fought at Monte Cassino in Italy.
Dhesi said he feels a duty to ensure the sacrifices of Black and Asian Commonwealth service members, including his own Sikh ancestors, are not forgotten. Relatives of the veterans have urged the recording of these lives: Sgt Hussain’s grandson described it as imperative to document the ‘greatest generation,’ and Maj Singh Dhatt’s granddaughter stressed that Commonwealth and ethnic minority soldiers have too often been left out of mainstream history.
Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, said the project aims to help people discover, document and share family stories of courage, service and sacrifice and to show how remembrance can help unite modern Britain. Gail Walters of the Royal British Legion added that including South Asian service personnel, with support from their families, will provide a fuller, more accurate picture of the nation’s wartime story.
