Sepoy Khudadad Khan

Both Robert Foster Dill and John Rowe Dill are buried at the Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez. The newspaper archives do not tell us all the story though.

Khudadad Khan (1888-1971)

In the case of Robert Foster Dill, he was severely wounded in the first battle of Yypres in an engagement that has become famous for other reasons entirely, namely, the award of the first Victoria Cross to a Muslim, Sepoy Khudadad Khan. This incident is reported on The British Library Website Blog  and reads as follows:


On 31 October 1914, the 129th Baluchis were engaged in heavy fighting around the Belgian village of Hollebeke, in the course of which two machine gun crews of the Regiment were cut off. One of the machine guns was destroyed by a shell, and its crew killed or wounded. A short time later, the British officer, Captain Dill was severely wounded. Despite being wounded himself, Khudadad kept working his gun with the other men of his gun detachment until they were rushed by the enemy in overpowering numbers. All were killed except Khudadad, who was left for dead. Amazingly Khudadad survived this attack, and under the cover of darkness was able to crawl back to the safety of the Regiment.

Khudadad lived on until 1971, one of 400,000 Muslim soldiers who fought for the British Empire in the war, their contributions to be almost entirely forgotten in future years. 

Robert Foster Dill meanwhile recovered from his wounds, only to die at Neuve-Chapelle. Of the 4447 members of the 129th Punjab regiment, 3585 casualties were suffered in just this one engagement. John Rowe Dill met his own end not far away, just a few months later.