This website commemorates the men of the 69th and 84th Garo Labour Companies who served their King Emperor during the First World War. Back in those days, The Garo Hills formed part of Assam in north east India and although the population had largely been converted to Christianity by zealous (and obviously successful) 19th Century missionaries, the make-up of the area was still largely tribal. The Sangma, Marak and, to a lesser degree, the Momin people were, and still are, dominant tribes in the West Garo Hills.
Today, those hills lie in Meghalaya, a relatively new Indian state, forged out of Assam in 1974. The memorial below, located in Tura, Meghalaya, commemorates those men of the 69th and 84th Garo Labour Companies who lost their lives during the Great War.
Most Indian Labour Corps companies did not keep war diaries and unfortunately the 69th and 84th were no exception. I am indebted though, to Labour Corps expert Ivor Lee, who has sent me what information he has on both units; information pieced together from other war diaries. As far as the men are concerned, the passage of time and the repetition on the memorial of the same surnames (imagine trying to research a British memorial populated almost entirely with Johns Smiths and William Browns) must make obtaining further information about them, very difficult indeed. Nevertheless, as with all of my research projects, I would be delighted to hear from anybody who can assist me with any information, no matter how small or anecdotal, about the memorial, the men, or the labour companies they served with.
The memorial to the men of the 69th and 84th Garo Labour Companies at Tura, Meghalaya.