Chinese Labour Corps The Chinese Labour Corps ( CLC ) was a force of workers recruited by the British government in World War I to free troops for front line duty by performing support work and manual labour . In all , some 140 , 000 men served in the CLC before it was disbanded and most of the men repatriated to China between 1918 and 1920 . Origins . In 1916 , Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig requested that 21 , 000 labourers be recruited to fill the manpower shortage caused by casualties during World War I . As China was initially not a belligerent nation , her nationals were not allowed by their government to participate in the fighting - although the Chinese later declared war against Germany and Austria – Hungary , on 14 August 1917 . The scheme to recruit Chinese to serve as non - military personnel was pioneered by the French government . A contract to supply 50 , 000 labourers was agreed upon on 14 May 1916 and the first contingent left Tianjin for Dagu and Marseille in July 1916 . The British government also signed an agreement with the Chinese authorities to supply labourers . The recruiting was launched by the War Committee in London in 1916 to form a Labour Corps of labourers from China to serve in France and to be known as the Chinese Labour Corps . A former railway engineer , Thomas J . Bourne , who had worked in China for 28 years , arrived at Weihaiwei ( then a British colony ) on 31 October 1916 with instructions to establish and run a recruiting base . The Chinese Labour Corps comprised Chinese men who mostly came from Shandong Province , and to a lesser extent from Liaoning , Jilin , Jiangsu , Hubei , Hunan , Anhui and Gansu Provinces . The first transport ship carrying 1 , 088 labourers sailed from the main depot at Weihaiwei on 18 January 1917 . The journey to France took 3 months . Most travelled to Europe ( and later returned to China ) via the Pacific and by Canada . Service . A total of about 140 , 000 Chinese workers served on the Western Front during and after the War . Among them , 100 , 000 served in the British Chinese Labour Corps . About 40 , 000 served with the French forces , and hundreds of Chinese students served as translators . By the end of 1917 there were 54 , 000 Chinese labourers with the Commonwealth forces in France and Belgium . In March the Admiralty declared itself no longer able to supply the ships for transport and the British government were obliged to bring recruitment to an end . The men already serving in France completed their contracts . By the time of the Armistice , the Chinese Labour Corps numbered nearly 96 , 000 , while 30 , 000 were working for the French . In May 1919 , 80 , 000 Chinese Labour Corps were still at work . The workers mainly aged between 20 and 35 served as labour in the rear echelons or helped build munitions depots . They were tasked with carrying out essential work to support the frontline troops , such as unloading ships , building dugouts , repairing roads and railways , digging trenches and filling sandbags . Some worked in armaments factories , others in naval shipyards , for a pittance of one to three francs a day . At the time they were seen just as cheap labour , not even allowed out of camp to fraternise locally , dismissed as mere coolies . When the war ended some were used for mine clearance , or to recover the bodies of soldiers and fill in miles of trenches . Their contribution went forgotten for decades until military ceremonies resumed in 2002 at the Chinese cemetery of Noyelles - sur - Mer . After the Armistice , the Chinese , each identified only by an impersonal reference number , were shipped home . Only about 5 , 000 to 7 , 000 stayed in France , forming the nucleus of the later Chinese community in Paris . Most who survived returned to China in 1918 . Throughout the war , trade union pressure prevented the introduction of Chinese labourers to the British Isles . Sidney and Beatrice Webb suggested that the Chinese Labour Corps were restricted to carrying out menial unskilled labour due to pressure from British trade unions . However , some members of the Corps carried out skilled and semi – skilled work for the Tank Corps , including riveting and engine repair . One member of the Corps , First Class Ganger Liu Dien Chen , was recommended for the Military Medal for rallying his men while under shellfire in March 1918 . However he was eventually awarded Meritorious Service Medal as it was decided Labour Corps members were not eligible for the Military Medal . By the end of the war , the Meritorious Service Medal had been awarded to five Chinese workers . After the war , the British government sent a War Medal to every member of the CLC . The medal was like British War Medal issued to every member of the British armed forces , except that it was of bronze , not silver . Other workers . As well as Chinese workers , there were Labour Corps serving in France from Egypt , Fiji , India , Malta , Mauritius , Seychelles , the British West Indies as well as a Native Labour Corps from South Africa . It was estimated that at the end of the war over 300 , 000 workers from the Colonies had aided in labour . There were 100 , 000 Egyptians , 21 , 000 Indians and 20 , 000 South Africans working throughout France and the Middle East by the end of the war in 1918 . Aftermath . After the end of the war Chinese labourers were given transport back to China between December 1918 and September 1920 . Casualties . The Corps did not take part in combat . According to the records kept by the British and French recruiters , around 2 , 000 men of the Chinese Labour Corps died during World War I , most from the 1918 - 1919 Spanish Flu pandemic , and some as a direct result of enemy action or of wounds received in the course of their duties . In all , an estimated ten thousand died in the war effort , victims of shelling , landmines , poor treatment or the worldwide Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 . Some Chinese scholars , who contest these figures , say the number of deaths was as high as 20 , 000 . Fifteen members of the corps were sentenced to death for murder during the course of the war . In addition , four died and nine were wounded when British troops fired on them in December 1917 . The members of the CLC who died were classified as war casualties and were buried in about 40 French and Belgian graveyards in the North of France , with a total of about 2000 tombs and a few tombs in one cemetery in Belgium . The largest number of graves are at Noyelles - sur - Mer on the Somme , next to the workers ' camp of the British army where a cholera outbreak and some of the fiercest battles occurred as well . The cemetery contains 842 gravestones each engraved with Chinese character s , guarded by two stone lions , gifts from China . One of the four following proverbs were inscribed on the standard Commonwealth War Grave Portland stone gravestones : " Faithful unto death " , " A good reputation endures forever " , " A noble duty bravely done " and " Though dead he still liveth " . Cemeteries include : Impact . The workers saw first - hand that life in Europe was far from ideal , and reported this on their return to China after the war . Chinese intellectuals of the New Culture Movement looked on the CLC as a point of pride - Chen Duxiu , for instance , bragged that " while the sun does not set on the British Empire , neither does it set on Chinese workers abroad . " But the ill treatment of these workers was added to the list of grievances against Britain . A more positive impact was on the educated youth who came to France to work with them , such as James Yen , whose literacy programmes under the auspices of the YMCA showed him the worth and dignity of the Chinese common man . He worked out a 1 , 000 Character Primer which introduced basic literacy and became the basis of his work in China .