A 105-year-old war hero who moved the King and Queen to tears at the 80th anniversary of VJ Day has said he is “thrilled” to be alive to see the launch of a memorial to the British Indian Army. Captain Yavar Abbas, a veteran of the 11th Sikh Regiment, spoke at a parliamentary reception in the Speaker’s House to launch the Freedom Fountain memorial.
The memorial, an “enormous” two-metre banyan tree fountain, is to be erected in Cambridge to honour the volunteers of the ‘forgotten’ Indian Army who served in World War I and II. More than 1.3 million Indian soldiers served in the First World War and over 2 million in the Second World War, with more than 87,000 killed in the latter.
Captain Abbas, a combat cameraman who twice escaped death, said: “I could not have wished for a better thing to have happened in the closing years of my life, than to be privileged to be associated with this noble cause.” He added that the British Indian Army was special because its troops were volunteers who fought in “two of the most terrible wars imaginable”.
Organisers are halfway to raising the £180,000 needed for the memorial, which is hoped to be built in time for Remembrance Day. Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, who hosted the launch, said: “The British Indian Army was one of the greatest volunteer forces in history, yet for many years insufficiently recognised in our national story.”
Captain Abbas expressed his wish to live long enough to see King Charles lay the first wreath at the memorial. Last year, he moved the King and Queen to tears at the VJ Day anniversary by going off script to salute the monarch, who is undergoing cancer treatment.
