The Royal Pavilion was used as a hospital during the first world war, and the bodies of the Indian soldiers who died there were cremated at a 'ghat' 500ft. above sea level on the Downs, the Chattri was erected on the site as their memorial and the inscription reads:

 

To the memory of all the Indian soldiers who gave their lives in the services of their King Emperor in the Great War this monument erected on the site of the funeral pyre where the Hindus and Sikhs who died in hospital at Brighton passed through the fire is in grateful admiration and brotherly affection dedicated.

 

It was erected by the India Office and the Brighton Corporation in memory of the Indian soldiers who gave their lives during the 1914-18 War, and was unveiled by King Edward VIII, when Prince of Wales in 1921. It's impressiveness is heightened by the fact that the monument stands on the site of the burning ghat on which were cremated the bodies of Hindu and Sikh soldiers who died at Brighton.

 

The Chattri (the traditional form of memorial to the dead in India) is borne on a broad platform approached by steps, at the head of which aregranite slabs indicating the exact site of the crematory slabs. Beyond rises a white Sicilian marble dome, supported on eight pillars, the whole memorial being of trueIndian design. Around the Chattri is a two-acre garden

 

Access

 

Through a farmyard north of Vale Avenue, following signs to Standean Farm. After some 200 yards, a (well marked) footpath veers off to the left and climbs the Downs for more than a mile.

 

 

See also 'Chattri Story'

 

 

 

 

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