The Royal Pavilion in Brighton served as a military hospital for Indian soldiers during World War 1. This provided an opportunity to promote a vision of the British Empire to audiences in Britain and India. The hospital was portrayed as a place of royal benevolence where Indian soldiers received excellent care, helping to justify and legitimize continued British rule in India during a vulnerable time. Though not originally intended as a hospital, the Pavilion was chosen to emphasize Britain's royal patronage of Indian troops through its former use as a royal residence. The hospital experience was carefully stage-managed to portray an idyllic "Virtual India" for propaganda purposes while also sequestering influences that could undermine British authority such as Christianity or women.
2. ‘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
3. ‘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
4. Consider this…
Three Indian Military Hospitals in Brighton:
• Kitchener (2000 beds)
• York Place Schools (600)
• Royal Pavilion (722)
5. … so why?
Royal Pavilion and Museums online
collections have 173 photographs and
artworks relating to the Indian Hospitals in
Brighton….
…. yet only 29 of these depict anything
other than the Pavilion!
6. The media
• Photographs
• Postcards
• Artworks
• Books
• Film
• Magic lantern slides
• Newspaper coverage
12. • The Royal Pavilion was more than a
hospital: it was a media spectacle.
• This spectacle helped establish a worthy
vision of the British Empire, just as the
Empire faced its greatest crisis.
13. Why was this vision of Empire so
important?
1. Legitimacy of Empire was part of the
language of political debate in the First
World War
14.
15.
16. Why was this vision of Empire so
important?
2. Vulnerability of India
17. ‘While we hold on to India, we are a first-rate
power. If we lose India, we will decline to
a third-rate power. This is the value of
India’
Lord Curzon, Viceroy 1899-1905
18. The Indian Mutiny
• Began in 1857 with mutiny amongst Bengali soldiers
• Inspired by rumour that troops would be forced to use animal fats
to grease their rifle cartridges
• Gathered momentum and captured political discontent with East
India Company rule
• Almost forced the British from India. Led to demise of East India
Company and creation of direct rule through the Raj
• Ended attempts by British policy makers to ‘Westernise’ India
19. Why was this Vision of Empire
so important?
3. Importance of Indian Army to war
effort
20. • 1.3 million Indians served in World War One
• Indian Corps was of critical importance in early
months of war on Western Front
• By the end of 1914, Indian Corps made up
20% of British Expeditionary Force in France
and Flanders
• Of the 35 miles of front held by the BEF, 8 of
these held by Indian Corps troops
21. • Most Indian nationalists supported the war:
Mohandas Gandhi actively recruited Indians to
the cause
• Threat of Muslim rebellion in India, particularly
after the Ottoman Empire entered the war
• There was a need to reinforce moral position
of British rule in India
22.
23.
24.
25.
26. How was this vision created?
• Royal benevolence
• Paternalism
• ‘Virtual India’
• Promotion of the ‘martial races’
27. Sir Walter Roper Lawrence
• Senior civil servant in India
• Served as Lord Curzon’s
Private Secretary 1898 –
1903
• Former columnist on Indian
affairs for The Times
• Had organised royal tour of
India for Prince of Wales
1905-6
• Friend of George V and
wrote several speeches for
him
• Appointed Commissioner
for Indian Hospitals by
Kitchener in November
1914
28. Why was the Pavilion chosen?
‘ We are pushing along at highest
pressure with the difficult problem of
making a hospital out of this most
unsuitable building.’
Col. J McLeod, Commanding officer of Royal
Pavilion hospital, in letter to Sir Walter
Lawrence,
3 Dec 1914
29. • Indian architecture was not as
important for the Indians as many
believe. Rarely commented on by the
sepoys in their letters
• Status as a royal palace was far more
important
30. ‘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
33. ‘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
[November 1914] 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
34. ‘ 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
35. Charles Phelp, ‘Brighton Gives of
her best for our Wounded Indian
Soldiers - Bravo Otter’, Brighton
and Hove Society, 3 Dec 1914
Paternalism
36. ‘ Practically we regard them as spoilt children
just now…to whom all sorts and conditions
of men bring congratulations and greetings,
and little gifts’
‘..it remains only to wish that the King himself
could be there and see this beautiful
childlike faith in his fatherly solicitude for his
soldiers’.
The Times,
2 January 1915
37. ‘Virtual India’
• Nine separate kitchens
• Separate water taps for Muslims and
Hindus
• Signs in Hindi and Urdu
• ‘Untouchables’ used as orderlies
• Sikh gurdwara set up in the grounds
• Hindus and Sikhs cremated at a ghat on the
Downs
• Muslims buried in a specially created
cemetery in Woking
41. ‘I have seen vernacular translations of the
gospels at the Pavilion, and I have orders
that these should be strictly excluded’
‘Questions arise every day with clergymen and
missionaries who wish to be admitted to the
hospitals… if it is abroad that any attempt
has been made to proselytise men who are
sick or wounded, there would be great
trouble’
Sir Walter Lawrence in a report to Lord
Kitchener, early 1915
42. The Martial Races
• Emerged in 1880s and promoted by Lord Roberts
• Mixture of fashionable Social Darwinism and local
military traditions
• Favoured those who had supported the British
during the Indian Mutiny
• Part of a ‘divide and rule’ strategy
• Concentrated on rural communities: educated men
and townspeople excluded
• Influenced recruitment until 1930s
49. Legacy
• November 1915: Majority of Indian Corps
withdrawn from Western Front
• Jan 1916: Pavilion closed as military hospital
• Mar/Apr 1916: Pavilion opened to public. Over
10,000 visitors in less than a week. Revenues
collected for ‘Mayor’s charities’
• Spring 1916: Pavilion became hospital for limbless
British men
50.
51. ‘I know that when you come here many of you have sad
feelings. You think that life is not going to be much good to
you any longer; but when you come on to Roehampton and
see the fellows walking about with their artificial legs and
using their artificial arms, and when you know what good
work they are able to do in the workshops – many have
become skilled workers instead of unskilled, as they were
before the war… You will be filled with hope… For hope
welcomes all who enter here!’
Viscountess Falmouth, quoted in Brighton Herald,
26 August 1916
53. ‘It is befitting that we should remember, and that future
generations should not forget, that our Indian comrades
came when our need was highest, free men – volunteering
soldiers – who were true to their salt – and gave their lives
in a quarrel of which it was enough for them to know that
the enemy were the foes of their Sahibs, their Empire, and
their King.’
Speech by the Prince of Wales at the unveiling of the Chattri,
1 February 1921
