Indian Prime Minister and French President visit Mazargues War Cemetery

CWGC Vice-Chairman Peter Hudson with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron tour the cemetery.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission welcomed the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron to Mazargues War Cemetery in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône, France) on Wednesday 12 February 2025.

The CWGC was represented by its Vice-Chairman Peter Hudson during the visit remembering Indian casualties who died in the First World War.

Almost a thousand First World War Indian soldiers or labourers are buried or commemorated in the cemetery. Marseille was the Base for the Indian troops in France during the First World War. Mazargues War Cemetery is the second largest site where Indian casualties are commemorated after the Neuve-Chapelle War Memorial in northern France.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron laid wreaths at the Stone of Remembrance.

It was created in 1918 to honour the soldiers from the British Empire who died in Marseilles with 1.742 casualties from the First and Second World Wars buried in the cemetery. It is also the place of burial or commemoration of Labourers from China, Egypt, Fiji and the British West Indies.

A Memorial, unveiled by Field Marshal Sir William Birdwood in July 1925 is located to the rear of the cemetery and commemorates 205 Indian casualties who were cremated. 38 sailors from the Indian Merchant Service are also buried in the cemetery.

A Stone tablet on the left-hand wall of the cemetery honours several members of the Egyptian Labour Corps who were buried in Le Canet New Communal, Marseille at the time, and whose graves were later lost.

Roses were also placed at the name panels in the memorial and at the headstones.