Peace Garden

After a trip over to Woking to pick up a new desk chair, I stopped on Horsell Common for a walk. 

I have often passed this site with its distinctive architecture which seemed to have appeared in the last few years, and had assumed it was an Indian or Muslim cemetery for the local community. So today I investigated.

It was indeed a Muslim burial ground, but was actually established after the first world war for Muslim soldiers. Of the 400,000 Muslims who went to war for Britain across the two World Wars, 50,000 died and a further 65,000 were wounded in action, some evacuated to England for treatment.  Of those who died in England far from home and family  27 Muslim soldiers were buried here, but in 1969 they were exhumed and reinterred in the Muslim section at the Brookwood Military Cemetry, leaving the area to fall into disrepair despite recognition by English Heritage with a Grade II listing.

Work to restore this unique site as an Islamic inspired garden of peace and remembrance began in 2013, and opened by Prince Edward in 2015.  Today it was truely peaceful, and I was the only visitor to appreciate the 27 Himalayan birch trees to represent the servicemen originally buried here, the traditional domed archway entrance orChattri , and the water feature leading to a memorial stone (behind me).