'Jon Sen', through bloodstained glasses

Amit Roy

Jogendra Nath Sen

London, March 6: BBC television was due to broadcast another Indian documentary but compared with India's Daughter, it is much less controversial.

This time it is about an army private by the name of Jogendra Nath Sen, who is thought to be the first Bengali soldier to have died for Britain in World War I.

The programme, to be broadcast on BBC1 but only to regional viewers in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, has been billed "the story of an Indian student who became a World War I hero".

As part of the research into tales of bravery to mark the 100th anniversary of 1914-1918 war, the British authorities and research organisations are digging up stories of people from other countries who made the ultimate sacrifice for someone else's "King and country".

Although much better educated than his compatriots in the British army, Sen could not be made an officer since this was restricted to whites. So Sen, who enlisted as a private and the only non-white member of the 15th West Yorkshire regiment, could not rise through the ranks.

Sen was killed in action near the Somme in 1916. He was 27 years old. He was buried in Sucrerie Military Cemetery, Colincamps, France.

Since Jogendra was difficult for his fellow soldiers to pronounce, they anglicised his first name to "Jon".

The story of "Jon Sen" was discovered by Santanu Das, an expert in India's involvement in World War I. Das is a reader in English at King's College London, a Leeds University spokesman said.

Das came across Private Sen's bloodstained glasses in a museum display case on a visit to his hometown of Chandernagore in Hooghly.

Das said: "I was absolutely stunned when I saw the pair of glasses. It's one of the most poignant artefacts I've seen - a material token of the fragility of life at the front."

When Das gave a talk as part of the Leeds University's "Legacies of War centenary project", someone pointed out that Private Sen's name was on the nearby university war memorial and further information began to pour in, he said.

Das added: "The glasses led me to find other remarkable objects, some from my own extended family, and on to a tantalising trail of other educated middle-class Bengalis, who often served as doctors.

"More than a million Indian soldiers and non-combatants served in different theatres of World War I, but what is so unusual about Jogendra Sen is that he was not part of the Indian Army but of the Leeds 'Pals' Battalion. I sometimes wonder what his experiences would have been as the only non-white person in the battalion at that time - and of his family when the glasses arrived, all the way from France to Chandernagore."

Sen merited an obituary notice in the Yorkshire Evening Post on Friday, June 2, 1916. "Among the casualties in the Leeds 'Pals' Battalion one is reported today which has a singular interest," the paper noted.

"A young Indian named J.N. Sen, a native of Chandernagore, Bengal, came to the Leeds University in October, 1910, to study and after taking an engineering course for three years, graduated as bachelor of science."

"Being of a cheerful disposition, was much liked by everybody," the paper said. "When the 'Pals' Battalion was formed in September 1914, Private Sen, who was then 27 years of age, became one of its first members. He has been killed. Several months ago when the 'Pals' paraded in the City, Private Sen came in for much notice because of his evident connection with the East. He was a single man and his Mother resides in India."

There is some information about how he fell.

He died in action as part of a wiring party that was heavily bombarded late on the night of May 22. "'John Sen' was hit in the leg and neck by shrapnel and died almost immediately. He was evidently hit in the leg first as when they fetched him in he had a bandage tied round it and must have been bandaging it up when he was hit again in the neck which killed him."

Prof. Alison Fell, who leads the project at Leeds University, commented: "I found the piecing-together of Sen's story from the historical traces of his life and death that had survived in India and in Yorkshire very moving."

The researchers were also intrigued by a mystery woman whose picture was found in Sen's personal effects with the inscription, "Yours with love, Cis."

The photograph of the well-dressed young woman, taken in a Scarborough portrait studio, was identified by researcher Ruth Allison as Mary Cicely Newton (nee Wicksteed), who may have met Sen through her connection with Mill Hill Chapel in Leeds, where he sang in the choir.

A comrade, Arthur Dalby, told historian Laurie Milner in 1988: "We had a Hindu in our hut, called Jon Sen. He was the best-educated man in the battalion and he spoke about seven languages, but he was never allowed to be even a lance corporal because in those days they would never let a coloured fellow be over a white man, not in England, but he was the best educated."

A British artist, Caroline Jaine, has painted a portrait of Sen, oil paint and gold leaf on wooden board, for the "World War I Forgotten Heroes" project. She said that when she learnt of Sen's story, "I knew immediately I would have to dedicate a portrait to him. I chose the photo of him as a student in Britain - a proud moment I think - and decided to make his 'colour' a beautiful thing, rather than the hindrance it became. I also embellished him with golden Indian designs and painted his famous glasses in gold leaf."

"His fellow students by contrast are black and white and I painted their eyes shut - symbolising the inequality between British and Indian servicemen in WWI."