Such an honour to meet again with friends from Colourful Heritage and the local community to remember the 14 men of Force K6/The Indian Contingent who served in WW2 and died here in Scotland.
Muslim soldiers who came from the Punjab, in what is now Pakistan, they provided animal transport for the Allies, first in France and then the UK. They were stationed around the Cairngorms in 1942 for Snow & Mountain Warfare training, some of them camped beside Loch Insh, near where I live.
One of them, Khan Mohammed, died in a blizzard in the Cairngorms on a training exercise on the 15th of October that year. He is buried, along with 8 of his Muslim brethren, here in Kingussie cemetery, where the graves were tended for over 60 years by local lady, Isobel Harling BEM.
It has been an enormous joy and privilege over the years to meet her and the other local people who have honoured these men, including her daughter Gaynoll Craig and Heather Taylor, who instigated this striking memorial for the men in 2022. Also historians Hamish Johnston and the late Ghee Bowman; and the Colourful Heritage team, Omar Sharif and Saqib Razzaq, now a lovely friend.
Our @storylandssessions project teamed up with them all in 2022 to tell the Force K6 Story here, exactly 80 years after they first arrived in the strath.
My book about the Cairngorms, The Hidden Fires, includes a tribute to them.
@birlinnbooks
#ForceK6 #IndianContingent #BritishIndianArmy #WW2 #multiculturalism #Scotland #decolonisation #antiracism #Cairngorms #celebratediversity
