Exhibition: The Indian Army in the First World War: An Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Perspective

This exciting new mini-exhibition about the Indian Army and the First World War is due to launch on 6 November 2017.

The exhibition is the product of a collaborative project led by Oxford University’s History Faculty and the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum. It reveals new insights into the role played by people from across the Indian subcontinent during the First World War; as well as exploring the historical connections between the British Indian Army and the local communities of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, since men from the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry served alongside Indian troops in Mesopotamia (Iraq) in 1914-18.

The project was led by Dr Priya Atwal (an Oxford historian) and Stephen Barker (heritage consultant), with the support of academic leads, Dr Jeanette Atkinson and Professor Adrian Gregory. It has been funded by a £12,000 grant from the Arts & Humanities Research Council ‘Voices of War & Peace’ WWI Engagement Centre, which was awarded in June.

A team of volunteers, working with Dr Atwal and Mr Barker, designed the exhibition. The volunteers are an intergenerational and multi-faith group from the local community – making this project among the first in the UK to bring together a diverse range of white and British Asian participants to study and interpret the history of the First World War from a wide range of cultural perspectives. Visitors to the mini-exhibition can take a “behind the scenes look” at the project and the experiences of the volunteers through a short documentary film made by award-winning independent film-maker, Sharon Woodward, which will be part of the display.

The content of the exhibition is based in part on the new research conducted by the team into the previously unstudied archives of the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum, which contain fascinating material relating to the activities of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in India and the Middle East from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A public appeal was also launched via the media for family/ancestral stories from the war to be shared with the researchers, to be featured in the exhibition. The stories and archival research together uncover new dimensions to the experiences of ordinary Indian and British people caught up in the global war, and the exhibition as a whole provides a fresh and illuminating perspective into the connections between local and imperial history, as well as paying tribute to the sacrifices made by previous generations during a devastating conflict.

The mini-exhibition will be hosted by Wycombe Museum from 6-30 November 2017, and then by Banbury Museum from 6 December until 8 January 2018. It will later be displayed at the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock from 1-30 April 2018. Entry to the exhibition is free at Wycombe and Banbury, though an entry fee is required at the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum. Family audiences are very welcome to attend and there will be special activities provided for children.

Wycombe Museum will also be hosting two special events on the Remembrance weekend in November, in connection with the exhibition: a family-friendly ‘cultural activity’ day on Saturday 11 November, and a guest lecture by Priya Atwal and Stephen Barker on Sunday 12 November, entitled ‘The Indian Army in the First World War: an Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire perspective’. These events are again open to the public, though some booking charges may apply.

For further information and interviews, please contact:

Dr Priya Atwal

(Knowledge Exchange Fellow in History, University of Oxford)

Email: priyakatwal@gmail.com

Phone: 07986 559519

Twitter: @priyaatwal