The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is expected to announce on Monday, July 6, that 9,909 Indian Army personnel will be recognised as casualties of the First World War after a five-year review of historical military records. 

The names were identified through the Punjab Registers project, a collaboration between the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), the University of Greenwich and the UK Punjab Heritage Association. The project digitised and examined records held at the Lahore Museum. 

Researchers reviewed records relating to about 320,000 Punjabi recruits who served in the British Indian Army during the First World War. 

Amandeep Madra, chair of the UK Punjab Heritage Association, said: “Britain and Punjab share a long history, notably during the two world wars, and for more than 100 years, part of it was missing. 

“These men were never commemorated, not because they did not serve, but because a decision made a century ago excluded their sacrifice from the record.”

The project found that many of the servicemen died in non-operational areas in India during the war, or in circumstances that meant they were not classified as war casualties under British Indian government rules at the time.