UK delegation to attend epic Saragarhi battle's 125th anniversary

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 4

The 125th anniversary of the epic Battle of Saragarhi, where 21 Sikh soldiers made their last stand against thousands of Pathans in the North-West Frontier Province, is being observed this month in a big way, with a 14-member delegation headed by a woman Major General from the United Kingdom attending the event.

A homage paying ceremony at the Saragarhi Memorial in Ferozepur, honouring descendants of the soldiers, release of a special first day cover and an intra-city ‘Saragarhi march’ within Amritsar are among the events planned.

The delegation from the UK is being led by Maj Gen Celia Jane Harvey, Deputy Commander Field Army. According to available information, she was commissioned into the Territorial Army section of the Women’s Royal Army Corps in 1987 and is the third female Major General in the British army and the first from the reserve forces.

Apart from Lt Col Wendy Faux, the second senior-most member who is also closely associated with the promotion of arts, all other officers and other ranks in the delegation, including women, are persons of Indian origin.

Fought on September 12, 1897, in the Tirah region of North-West Frontier Province then part of British India, the battle is one of eight stories of collective bravery published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

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