Chattri ( Brighton ) The Chattri is a war memorial in the English city of Brighton and Hove . It is situated in a serene position above the city on the South Downs above the suburb of Patcham , and is accessible only by bridleway . It stands on the site where a number of Indian soldiers who fought for the British Empire were cremated during the First World War . The structure has Grade II listed status , reflecting its architectural and historic importance . Indian soldiers in Brighton . India was part of the British Empire during the First World War , and more than 800 , 000 Indian soldiers fought for the Allied Powers . During the four years of fighting , thousands of wounded combatants were brought to Britain to be treated in makeshift military hospital s . Three were established in Brighton ; one was the town ' s famous royal palace , the Royal Pavilion . King George V is said to have decreed that Indian soldiers were to be treated at the Pavilion , apparently believing that the flamboyant Indo - Saracenic building would provide familiar surroundings . In December 1914 , 345 injured soldiers were transported to Brighton by train and were transferred to the hospitals . The King and Queen , Mayor of Brighton , Chief Constable of Brighton and other dignitaries visited frequently , and careful arrangements were made at the Royal Pavilion to provide for the different dietary and other cultural requirements of Hindus , Sikhs and Muslims . Although the great majority of soldiers recovered from their injuries , some died . The 21 Muslim men who died were taken to the Shah Jahan Mosque in Woking , Surrey , and buried in accordance with Islamic tradition in a new cemetery . The bodies of 53 Hindus and Sikhs were taken to a remote location high on the South Downs above Brighton , where a ghat ( funeral pyre ) was built so they could be cremated and their ashes scattered in the English Channel . This funeral rite was again carried out in line with religious custom . In total , 18 men who were treated at the Royal Pavilion died , ten of whom were cremated on the ghat . ( The 56 other victims died at the Kitchener Hospital — now Brighton General Hospital — or a temporarily converted school at York Place . ) History of the memorial . In August 1915 , soon after the last cremations at the ghat site , a lieutenant in the Indian Medical Service and the Mayor of Brighton , Sir John Otter , planned the establishment of a memorial to the soldiers who had died in Brighton . Lt Das Gupta made the proposal , but Otter took on the project almost single - handedly ; after leaving his position as Mayor he chaired Brighton ' s Indian Memorials Committee . In December 1915 he made a proposal to the India Office for a memorial on the ghat site and another in Brighton town centre ; Sir Austen Chamberlain , the Secretary of State for India , agreed this in February 1916 . In July of that year , the land on which the ghat stood , and the immediate area around it , was transferred from the Marquess of Abergavenny to the ownership of Brighton County Borough . At the same time , the India Office agreed to share the cost of building and erecting the memorial with Brighton Corporation ( the forerunner of the present Brighton and Hove City Council ) , on the understanding that the Corporation would be responsible for the town centre memorial . Funds were raised during 1917 . After delays caused by the need to dedicate all available resources to the war effort , in April 1918 a Manchester - based building firm was awarded the contract to build the memorial . The main building material was marble ; its arrival from Sicily was delayed by more than a year , but building work started in mid - 1920 . A young Indian architect , E . C . Henriques , designed The Chattri ; Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob , an English architect who was responsible for many buildings in India and who helped pioneer the Indo - Saracenic architectural style , provided guidance . Construction work started in August 1920 and continued until the end of that year . Brighton Corporation owned the memorial and took responsibility for its maintenance , and a cottage was provided nearby for a caretaker . This added £1 , 117 ( £ as of ) to the final cost of £4 , 964 ( £ as of ) . The Chattri was unveiled on 1 February 1921 by Edward , Prince of Wales . By the 1930s , the memorial had fallen into disrepair . The caretaker had died , nobody had replaced him , and the cottage had been demolished . The India Office , which had received many complaints about The Chattri ' s condition despite the Brighton Corporation having taken full responsibility for its upkeep , liaised with the Corporation and the Imperial War Graves Commission in an attempt to encourage action . Between them , they planned a new maintenance policy and agreed to reduce the amount of surrounding land belonging to the memorial ; in 1920 a area had been created around it . The Second World War intervened , though , and the whole area was requisitioned by the Army . By the end of the war , The Chattri was covered with bullet holes after being used as a target by troops practising their rifle shooting . After the war , the War Office agreed to pay for repairs , and The Chattri was restored to its original condition . Starting in 1951 , the Royal British Legion undertook annual pilgrimages to the memorial , and also contributed to its upkeep . Although the pilgrimages ceased in 1999 , the Sikh community has led a similar annual ceremony each year since 2000 . The Chattri was listed at Grade II by English Heritage on 20 August 1971 . It is one of 1 , 124 Grade II - listed buildings and structures , and 1 , 218 listed buildings of all grades , in the city of Brighton and Hove . Architecture and location . The Chattri was built at the exact location where the funeral pyres were constructed for the cremation of the 53 soldiers . This is an isolated , windswept position on the South Downs above Brighton . The only access is from a path off a bridleway between the A27 Brighton Bypass at Patcham and the Clayton Windmills at the top of the Downs . The bridleway , which at that point runs along a ridge between Hogtrough Bottom and Deep Bottom , is part of the Sussex Border Path , and The Chattri is at the northern extremity of the City of Brighton and Hove , on the border with the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex . White marble from Sicily was used for the body of the memorial . It sits on a plinth of grey stone which stands over three blocks of granite which cover the slabs used during the cremations . The Chattri takes the form of a tall , domed pavilion , rising to to the finial at its apex . The base is square , and the eight columns carrying the dome start with square bases before becoming octagonal halfway up . The base of the dome is then octagonal . The plinth bears an inscription in English , Hindi , Punjabi and Urdu , the text of which was prepared by Sir John Otter :