The remarkable story of an airman who overcame prejudice to become one of only a handful of Indian fighter pilots in the First World War, can be retold thanks to newly released archive files. The heart-breaking tale of Lieutenant Shri Krishna Chanda Welinkar is one of thousands of stories from the First World War preserved in family correspondence in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s (CWGC) archive.
The stories are now being made available to the public for the first time. A revamped online portal will also make digital access to CWGC’s unique archive resource easier than ever.
The never-before-published files contain thousands of letters, pictures and other papers sent between the Commission and the next of kin of First World War dead.
By digitising and releasing these files over the course of the year it is hoped a new generation of researchers and students will be able to understand the impact of losing loved ones during the First World War. Amongst these is Shri Krishna Chanda Welinkar, who hailed from Bombay, India. Welinkar eventually became a pilot and went missing while on patrol over the skies above the Western Front in June 1918. His family would have to wait nearly three years before they finally knew for certain that he had died, and his grave was located.
Following the 1918 Armistice the then Imperial War Graves Commission began the mammoth task of building cemeteries and memorials for the 1.1 million Empire war dead, more than half of whom were missing.
During this early period of the Commission’s work, tens of thousands of letters and appeals were exchanged with families wanting to know where their sons and husbands had been laid to rest or commemorated.
Many would struggle to deal with the lack of closure and their efforts to locate a dead or missing relative are played out over decades of correspondence that can now be viewed online thanks to this digitisation project from CWGC.
The records – known as enquiry files – are part of a collection of nearly 3,000 files which never been made available to the public before. Nearly half have been digitised so far, alongside a previously unreleased collection of more than 16,000 photographs held in negatives in the Commission’s archive.
Lieutenant Shri Krishna Chanda Welinkar
Lieutenant Shri Krishna Chanda Welinkar was one of 1.3 million Indians who answered the call to fight for the British Empire. Nearly 74,000 of these men would never see their homeland again and are remembered today in cemeteries and memorials throughout the world, including France, Belgium, the Middle East and Africa.
Welinkar was a well-educated man studying at Cambridge University. He trained to become an aviator in Middlesex and wished to join the Royal Flying Corps (later known as the Royal Air Force). Upon attempting to enlist, Welinkar encountered the same prejudices as his other fellow Indian airmen and was encouraged to become an air mechanic instead.
He was eventually given a commission in the Royal Flying Corps as an Officer. In 1918, he was posted to France and patrolled the skies above the Western Front. In June 1918, Lieutenant Welinkar embarked on what would be his final patrol; he did not return and was reported missing. His fate remained unknown for many months afterwards.
The E-files chronicle the remarkable discovery of Welinkar and his final resting place long after the war had ended. Colonel Barton, who knew Welinkar, acted on behalf of his mother and helped find her missing son. They spoke to former enemies and honed their search to the grave of an unidentified man, buried by the Germans as “Oberleutnant S.C. Wumkar” in a grave in Rouvroy.
The body was later moved and reinterred in Hangard Communal Cemetery Extension but it wasn’t until the vital clue, found in the original German burial records in February 1921, that it was confirmed beyond doubt this grave was Welinkar.
In May 1921 Colonel Barton, on behalf of Welinkar’s mother, requested that a Commission headstone be placed on the grave with the following personal inscription:
“TO THE HONOURED MEMORY OF ONE OF THE EMPIRE’S BRAVEST SONS”
The stories of Lieutenant Welinkar and the other Indian airmen who fought for the British Empire may reflect a relatively small part of India’s role in the First World War. However, the part of Welinkar’s story recorded in the Commission’s Archive shows that his grave was of equal importance to all of the war dead commemorated by the Commission and was to be treated in a manner that, in the words chosen by his family for his personal inscription, respected the memory of ‘one of the Empire’s bravest sons’.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Andrew Fetherston, chief archivist for CWGC, said, “For everyone who died in the First World War there was inevitably a partner, parent or child back home who had questions. The heart-breaking letters in CWGC’s archive give us an insight into what it was like for those families trying to come to terms with their loss. They are stories that show desperate searches for closure, former enemies uniting and, on many occasions, the sad realisation that a missing loved one would always remain so. We are pleased to be able to make this invaluable piece of World War history accessible to a new generation and help deepen our understanding of how the First World War impacted those who were left behind.”
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) commemorates the 1.7 million Commonwealth servicemen and women who died during the two World Wars. It also holds and updates an extensive and accessible records archive. The Commission operates in more than 23,000 locations in more than 150 countries and territories.
To view CWGC’s archive through the new online portal visit: https://www.cwgc.org/history-and-archives/cwgc-archive
