The Chattri

This article is about the monument near Brighton, England. For the Indian architectural motif, see Chhatri.

The Chattri
For Indian soldiers who died in hospital in Brighton
Unveiled	1 February 1921
Location	50°53′3″N 0°8′49″W Patcham, Brighton and Hove, England
Designed by	E. C. Henriques
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name	The Chattri
Reference no.	1379911

The Chattri is a First World War memorial near Patcham (part of the city of Brighton and Hove) on the south coast of England. It was unveiled in 1921 in memory of 74 Indian soldiers who died in military hospitals in Brighton, particularly the 53 Hindus and Sikhs who were cremated on the site. More than a million Indians fought in the British Indian Army during the First World War (1914–1918), of whom 140,000 served in Europe. Over 4,300 were treated in temporary hospitals in Brighton between December 1914 and February 1916 and the Hindus and Sikhs who died there were cremated at a remote hilltop location. A proposal for a memorial on the cremation site was advanced by the mayor of Brighton and funding was agreed between the local council and the British government.

The monument was designed by Elias Cosmas Henriques under the supervision of Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob, and takes the form of a chattri or chhatri ('umbrella' in several Indian languages), an elevated dome-shaped pavilion. The dome is in white marble and stands on one end of a grey stone terrace, which covers the ghats (funeral pyres) used for the cremations. The unveiling ceremony took place on 1 February 1921, presided over by Edward, Prince of Wales. The monument was subsequently allowed to fall into disrepair and was damaged by rifle practice in the Second World War. The Royal British Legion organised a pilgrimage to the Chattri in 1932 and then annually from 1951 to 1999, when the ceremony was taken over by the local Sikh community.

Academics have suggested that the Chattri's purpose was to promote Indian unity within the British Empire and to show that the Indian casualties were treated with respect. Susan Ashley suggested that its neglect after the unveiling ceremony was evidence of the British government's insincerity, but that it had been repurposed by the local community. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission unveiled a separate memorial on the same site in 2010. The Chattri is a Grade II listed building.