THE Chattri, Brighton’s memorial and war grave for those Indian soldiers who died in Brighton from injuries suffered in the trenches, is a very special Brighton landmark.

It can be seen from the A27 up on the Downs, north of Patcham.

The white, dome-topped construction on top of a white set of steps and platform is where Hindu and Sikh soldiers were cremated and is now officially looked after by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

It lists all the names of the soldiers who were cremated and is a poignant reminder of the sacrifice made by the 1,000,000 Indian soldiers who fought for the British Empire against the Kaiser’s Germany in the First World War. It was unveiled in 1921 in an opening ceremony by the then Prince of Wales. The same year, the Pavilion’s southern gate was replaced by the gift of the India Gate in a gesture of thanks from the people of India to the people of Brighton for their care given to Indian soldiers during the war. Both the Chattri and its sister monument, the India Gate, are now treasured monuments of Anglo-Indian relations, with the Chattri a Grade II listed building.

This wasn’t always the case though. Sadly in the Second World War the Chattri ended up briefly being used for target practice, some of the marks from which can still be seen. Today this would never be tolerated and a memorial service is held there every year to remember these gallant soldiers.

You can easily walk there using bridlepaths following the signs heading north from Braepool, north of the A27 at Patcham or by heading southwards from the Jack and Jill windmills at Clayton.

The First World War saw the construction of short-lived training airfields on Cobnor Point, in Rustington, at Ford Junction and even nearby at Goring (between where Limbrick Lane and Field Place are now) but it is the one that was at Tangmere which is the only one that has a lively and thriving museum which is well worth a visit.

Ford today just has a later jet age aircraft as a gate guardian to the Industrial estate to remind us of its flying role dating back from the First World War.

Tangmere though has much, much more. Many think of Tangmere more to do with the Second World War but the airfield was discovered in time to play an important role in the First World War.

Like Shoreham, it was discovered by a pilot making a landing and recommending it for use as an airfield, but in Tangmere’s case the pilot made a forced landing and then recommended that the land (part of the Goodwood Estate) would make a rather good runway. Lieutenant Geoffrey Dorman’s forced landing on his way to Gosport led to Tangmere being used by No.1 Squadron, who were the first to be sent to France. 91, 92 and 93 Squadrons of the RFC (the RAF’s WWI predecessor) then made the airfield their home before the US American Expeditionary Force moved in.

Shoreham Airport was another airfield that some of the Royal Flying Corps (predecessor of the RAF) embarked from for France in 1914, not all of which completed the journey.

Some were have said to have ended up flying backwards when windspeeds proved to be stronger than the horsepower of the engines.

Shoreham was also expected to defend London from the threat from Germany – with one bomber.

We must also remember Shoreham’s long and illustrious past as a military airbase in both world wars and as a civilian airport too. It has a long heritage as it is one of the earliest centres of aviation in the world, continually in use since 1910. It is even being the location of the first recorded cargo flight (a box of lightbulbs).

The famous Cecil and Eric Pashley moved their flying club from Brooklands to Shoreham in 1913, but then left it behind in 1914 as they moved into war service.

The airport then became an important training centre in the First World War, even claiming to be there at the very start of the Canadian Air Force.

Further inland from Shoreham is an unusual First World War Sussex feature, in that it is the site of a First World War poem recorded in stone in a country lane. The story behind the poem, which you read in Mouse Lane as you walk from Steyning to Chanctonbury Ring, is even more unusual.

Lieutenant John Stanley Purvis was not a Sussex man, and there is no recorded evidence of him having visited the area, but he must have done as his mysterious but emotive poem From Steyning to the Ring (or Chance Memory/The Steyning Poem as it was originally known) is the most famous literary link to the war of this part of Sussex. It gives Purvis’s imaginary account of a soldier in the midst of the horrors of trench warfare about to go over the top and advance.

The soldier is clearly missing his life back at home and taking solace from his memories of the track from Mouse Lane to Chanctonbury. However, Steyning Museum reveals not only the full story behind the poem, but that it was released under the pseudonym Philip Johnson, and also originally ended with the line “I can’t forget the narrow lane to Chanctonbury Ring”. Purvis’s route to the ring would have been via Steyning Station at that time, as it would have been possible to catch a train from Cranleigh to there, where he was at that time a teacher about to depart to serve.

On reading the poem it is still hard to imagine that it wasn’t written by a serving officer in France but penned instead by an imaginative, and presumably very scared young man, still at school in Cranleigh.

Purvis did serve in the trenches, following his brother who was killed in 1917, but he didn’t leave school until Christmas 1915. It is useful as it tells us that despite increasing censorship by 1915, the horrific conditions in the trenches; the very real chance of death and the fear of the Tommy in the trench had become well-known back in Britain, if not ever truly understood by those who hadn’t been there.

A walk up Mouse Lane is a must for those interested in the First World War in not just Sussex but Britain, as the description by Purvis paints such a terrifying picture. The fear Purvis was facing, or imagining shows why recruitment decreased in 1915, and why the government subsequently increased the pressure to enlist through propaganda. It tells why conscription, forcing men into the trenches came in soon after.