Category: Law, Memory and Empire

Decolonising Remembrance means honouring colonial service, not just voluntary loyalty

Colonial service in the two world wars: (1) Indian and British soldiers of the Lucknow Cavalry Brigade’s signal troop, France, 28 July 1915; (2) Gurkhas digging a fire trench near Merville, France, 1915; (3) the Indian Labour Corps at a forestry camp in France, 23 January 1918; (4) a Ceylonese watchman at a Fleet Air Arm base in Ceylon, 21 July 1944; (5) the King’s African Rifles in German East Africa, September 1917; (6) the British West Indies Regiment on the Somme, September 1916. Photos: H. D. Girdwood, British Library (1, 2); Imperial War Museums (3, 5, 6); U.S. Navy (4). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Memorial Gates honour ‘five million volunteers’. That word suits some colonial soldiers, excludes the conscripted and makes belonging depend on loyalty.