Muslim Burial Ground

This is a rare purpose-built Muslim burial ground from the First World War, comprising red brick walls, corner pavilions, and an entrance gate. It was designed by T Herbert Winny, India Office Surveyor, and built by the local firm Ashby and Horner Ltd. between 1915 and 1917. The structure is constructed in red brick laid in Flemish bond with Portland stone dressings and domes. The burial ground is rectangular in plan, measuring approximately 100 by 120 feet (30.5 by 36.5 metres).

Setting and Entrance

The burial ground is set among the pine trees of Horsell Common. The entrance, facing west, takes the form of a chattri — a red brick pavilion of square plan with a prominent Islamic ogee-profile arched entrance. It features a deep overhanging eave, or chujja, supported on scrolled brackets, and is crowned by a central dome. The corner piers have stone bases. A circular flower motif decorates the spandrels of the entrance arch, and a simpler circle motif runs continuously in the circumferential band below the stone dome. The dome itself is designed in a beehive fashion with carefully cut stone blocks, set on an eight-sided stone ring supported by brick pendentives. The north and south sides have blind brick panels with moulded brick frames to both the inside and outside. A stone near the base of the north-west side is inscribed: "T.H. WINNY, A.R.I.B.A / ASHBY AND HORNER BUILDERS". Originally there were wooden gates with a latticed pattern and finial growing out of a floral base, but these had not survived at the time of inspection in 2009.

Boundary Walls

Extending from the entrance are walls approximately 8 feet (2.5 metres) high that form the rectangular enclosure of the burial ground. These have a brick plinth and a cut-out arcade with ogee-profile arches. The walls are divided into bays by brick piers with stone capitals and bases approximately every 15 feet (4.5 metres). For one bay to the south of the entrance, one to the north of it, and much of the western stretch, the arcade has been lost to vandalism and deterioration in the late 20th century and unsympathetically capped with concrete. The corners are marked by taller pillars with diamond-shaped stone plaques embossed with flowers on each face, and domed polygonal turrets above.

Interior

Following the removal of the graves in 1968, the interior is now an open, grassy space, no longer consecrated ground but an evocative place nonetheless. Part of the original planting scheme survives: four plane trees, a traditional tree in Islamic garden design, in a rectangular formation in line with the corner pavilions.

Historical Context

Over one million troops from India, including what is now Pakistan, fought for Great Britain during the First World War. Soldiers wounded in battle were brought to special hospitals on the south coast of England, particularly Brighton, and those who died received burial rites according to their religion. Hindu and Sikh soldiers were cremated in special crematoria at Patcham, Netley, and Brockenhurst, but there was no special burial ground for Muslim soldiers until 1915. In that year, the War Office felt the need to respond to German propaganda suggesting that Muslim soldiers were not being buried in a respectful way concordant with their religion. This propaganda, aimed at Indian Army troops serving on the Western Front, promoted the German alliance with Turkey as a holy war and tried to win over the support of Muslim soldiers. It was decided to build the burial ground in Woking because, at that time, it was home to the only purpose-built mosque in Britain (now listed Grade II*; there is not, otherwise, a direct relationship between these two buildings).

The burial ground was designed by T Herbert Winny, India Office Surveyor, and built by the local firm of Ashby and Horner Ltd.; the landscapers were Messrs Neal of Wandsworth. A proposed waiting room and mortuary appear not to have been carried out. Photographs from 1917 show extensive plantings (such as cuppressus in four varieties) around the inner and outer perimeter walls, as well as marking four squares of lawn at the centre of which were four plane trees. The burial ground was completed by 1917, by which time it had received 19 burials of soldiers who died between 16 July 1915 and 3 February 1916 (a further 25 Muslim soldiers were buried at Brookwood). The gravestones were simple Portland stone, with round-arched heads facing west, according to Islamic tradition.

Documentary sources from the time of its completion suggest that the Viceroy and the India Office were keen to reproduce images of the burial ground and publicise its opening, all with a view to counteracting the negative propaganda, which was shown to be so false by the provision of this special consecrated place. The War Graves Commission took over the burial ground's upkeep in 1921. The cemetery was used again during the Second World War when a further five Muslim soldiers were interred at Woking. In 1968, due to vandalism, all the burials were moved to nearby Brookwood Cemetery (Grade I on the Parks and Gardens Register). There are few comparators with this special structure, although a connection can be made with The Chattri at Patcham, Sussex, of 1921, dedicated to Sikh and Hindu soldiers who were cremated nearby after dying in hospital in Brighton.

The First World War soldiers buried here included: Abdullah and Babu, Followers; Alla Ditta Kahn of the 15th Lancers; Ash Gar Ali, Hanza, and Shaikh Mohiuddin of the Army Hospital Corps; Bagh Ali Khan and Sher Gul of the 82nd Punjabis; Bostan of the 9th Mule Corps; Fazal Khan of the 93rd Burma Infantry; Kala Khan of the Mountain Battery; Khan Muhammad of the 108th Infantry; Mahrup Shah and Zarif Khan of the 129th Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis; Mehr Khan of the 19th Lancers; Mirze Iqbal Ali Beg of the Royal Military College; Sarmast of the 57th Wilde's Rifle Frontier Force; and Shaikh Abdul Wahab of the 29th Lancers. The Second World War burials included Jan Muhammad of the 16th Punjab Regiment; Karam Khan of the Royal Indian Artillery; Khawaja Din of the Indian Pioneer Corps; Muhammad Masalachi of the Indian General Hospital; and Ali L.A.C. Yousef of the Royal Air Force.

This burial ground represents a rare example of purpose-built Islamic architecture for the Muslim community in England at this early date, and serves as a commemorative architectural witness to Muslim sacrifice in the First World War. Its design is inspired by the Mughal style so successfully employed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in New Delhi.