Great Faith: Tales of Sacrifice and Contribution marks the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day and Victory in Japan Day, and the end of the Second World War. Arabella was commissioned by by Nizam Uddin OBE, Founder and Convenor of Great Faith to paint 80 portraits. The collection is the story of courage, loyalty, and faith – told through powerful portraits that honour the Muslim servicemen and women who have stood for Britain in times of war and peace. At the heart of Great Faith is a profound truth: the armies that fought for Britain during the First and Second World Wars looked far more like the Britain of today than the Britain of 1914 or 1940. Soldiers from across the Commonwealth – Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, and others – fought side by side to defend our shared values and freedoms.
Yet too many of these stories, particularly those from Muslim communities, remain untold.
This is not about setting one group above another. On the contrary – it is about completing the picture. It is to remind ourselves that Britain’s war effort was not homogenous but richly diverse. Muslims, alongside Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and others, stood shoulder to shoulder to defend the freedoms we now enjoy.
Noor Inayat Khan was a British resistance agent who served as a wireless operator for the Special Operations Executive. In June 1943 she was flown to France to become the radio operator for the 'Prosper' resistance network in Paris, with the codename 'Madeleine'. Many members of the network were arrested shortly afterwards but she chose to remain in France and spent the summer moving from place to place, trying to send messages back to London while avoiding capture. She was eventually betrayed and subsequently arrested by the Gestapo. She was executed at Dachau concentration camp. She was posthumously awarded the George Cross.
The first Muslim soldier of the Indian Army to win the Victoria Cross in the Second World War was Jemadar Abdul Hafiz. On 6 April 1944, in fighting north of Imphal, he led his platoon up a bare hillside and, though wounded in the leg, went on and seized a Japanese machine gun and led a charge against the enemy with such ferocity that they fled the battlefield. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross
Born in Uttar Pradesh, Mohammad Usman was a high ranking officer in the British Indian army, fought in WWII and later fought and died in the Indo-Pakistani War in 1948. He was posthumously awarded the Maha Vir Chakra for his leadership and bravery
Gulmast Khan was born in 1882, briefly served in the Indian Army, being awarded the East and Central Africa Medal before joining the Police Department in 1900.
However, his greatest claim to fame is that during the Second World War, he was commissioned as a Pilot Officer when he was aged 59, becoming the earliest born Indian Air Force officer commissioned during the war
Abdul Qayyum Sher was born in Kohat (now in Pakistan). He was brought up in England and was about to attend Cambridge University when the Second World War broke out. Instead, he joined the British Indian Army and served in the Baluch Battalion. He was stationed in Burma to fight against the Japanese forces and was wounded during the war.
Fazal Hussain was a Punjabi Muslim from Jhelum in the Punjab. He was awarded the Indian Distinguished Service Medal (IDSM) for his actions during the Battle of the Sangro in November 1943 during the Second World Wa
On 2 March 1945, near Meiktila, Burma, Naik Fazal Din was commanding a section during a company attack on a Japanese bunkered position. His section was held up by machine-gun fire and grenades from several bunkers. Unhesitatingly, he attacked the nearest position with grenades and silenced it; but as he led his men against the other bunkers, six Japanese soldiers rushed from a nearby house, led by two officers wielding swords.
His action was seen by the whole platoon, who, inspired by his gallantry, continued the attack and annihilated the Japanese garrison of fifty-five men.
He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
Naik Shahamad Khan served in Mesopotamia as a machine gunner for the British forces and held back large scale offences from the enemy forces almost single-handedly. Enemy fire eventually damaged Khan’s machine gun, but he continued to fight with a rifle for hours, not allowing the enemy to advance. He was awarded a Victoria Cross
On the outbreak of the Second World War, Naik Sher Shah Awan enlisted with the 7th Battalion of the 16th Punjab Regiment in the Indian Army, and rose to the rank of Lance Naik.
He displayed extraordinary bravery during the Burma Campaign. During one battle with the Japanese, he twice left his section post, in spite of Japanese covering from small arms and mortars, crawled forward to fire into enemy groups.
Whilst on his way back for the second time he was hit by a mortar bomb, which shattered his right leg. He regained his position and propping himself against the side of the trench, continued firing and encouraging his men. When asked whether he was hurt, he replied that it was only slight. Some time afterwards it was discovered his right leg was missing.
He continued firing until for the third time the Japanese attack was broken up and until he was shot through the head, from which he subsequently died.
He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross
Shere Muhammad was born in pre-partition India. In the Second World War he fought for the British Army in Burma, serving as a Subedar (Captain). He was awarded two medals for his service.
Diplomat, Abdol Hossein Sardari, saved thousands of Jewish people in France from being deported to camps. Mr Sardari was the Iranian Consul in Paris at the time that the Nazis began their anti-Jewish activities and he successfully used an agreement that Iran and German had, which stated that all Iranian citizens were protected from German acts of and policies such as anti-Jewish measures.
On 9 April 1945 near Fusignano, Italy, at the start of the Allied Spring offensive in Italy Sepoy Ali Haidar's battalion was tasked with a difficult assault crossing of the Senio River. Only Haidar and the two other men of his section managed to get across under heavy machine-gun fire.
He used his own initiative to single-handedly charge a fortified enemy position, being seriously wounded in the process. Suffering further injuries, Ali Haider then attacked another enemy position successfully. His actions enabled the rest of the company to complete their mission and form the bridgehead.
He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery.
Abdul Rahman served as a soldier of the British Indian Army and was posthumously awarded the George Cross, the highest British (and Commonwealth) award for bravery not in combat.
He was awarded the decoration for the gallantry he showed while saving three other men from a burning vehicle on 22 February 1946 in Kletek in Java He was serving with the 3rd Battalion of the 9th Jat Regiment, which had fought in the Battle of Cauldron against Rommel's forces and saw action at Imphal. He also won the Military Medal in Burma in 1944.
Khaled Abdul Wahab was a Tunisian man who saved several Jewish families by hiding them on his farm near Mahdia. He saved a Jewish woman, the wife of an acquaintance, from rape by German officers by getting the officers so drunk they could not stand. He then collected the Jewish family and their neighbours, twenty-five people in all, and took them to his farm where they remained hidden until the end of the war. These were not the only Jewish families that he saved during the war and all those hidden at his farm were kept safe until the surrender of the Germans in North Africa in 1943.
In April 1941 when the Germans invaded Yugoslavia, Sarajevo was bombed from the air and the home of the Kavilio family was destroyed. They had fled to the hills when the bombing began, and were now without a home. As they were walking, they met Mustafa Hardaga, a Muslim friend who immediately offered them refuge at his house.
The Hardagas were observant Muslims. The household included Mustafa and his wife Zejneba, and his brother Izet and wife Bachriya. The women were supposed to wear a veil and cover their faces in front of strangers and having a strange man sleep at their home was a most unusual step. The Hartagas told them that they would now be part of the family. “Our home is your home”, they said, and to demonstrate this point, the women were not obliged to cover their faces in the presence of Josef Kavilio, since he was now a member of the family.
In April 1941 when the Germans invaded Yugoslavia, Sarajevo was bombed from the air and the home of the Kavilio family was destroyed. They had fled to the hills when the bombing began, and were now without a home. As they were walking, they met Mustafa Hardaga, a Muslim friend who immediately offered them refuge at his house.
The Hardagas were observant Muslims. The household included Mustafa and his wife Zejneba, and his brother Izet and wife Bachriya. The women were supposed to wear a veil and cover their faces in front of strangers and having a strange man sleep at their home was a most unusual step. The Hartagas told them that they would now be part of the family. “Our home is your home”, they said, and to demonstrate this point, the women were not obliged to cover their faces in the presence of Josef Kavilio, since he was now a member of the family.
Major Akbar Khan was the most senior Indian in the British Army during the Second World War and a member of Force K6, a little known Indian regiment of mule handlers.
Amidst the chaos of Dunkirk and the advancing German Army, the Indian regiment fought for victory and independence.
He was the first Muslim to become a general in the British Army.
On researching his family history, Irfan Malik learnt of the unique military heritage of his ancestral village, Dulmial, in the Salt Range of the Punjab, Pakistan, which had sent more men to fight in the First World War than any other in South Asia and was rewarded by a 12-pounder Blomefield cannon transported all the way from Scotland. He discovered that many descendants of the 460 men who left the village in the War, some three thousand, now lived in Britain and this led him to set up ‘The Friends of Dulmial Society’, aimed at researching the records of these men and the journey of the cannon.
Irfan Malik's Great Grandfather, Capt Ghulam served in the First World War
Corporal Chaudry Wali Mohammed was a member of Force K6, an Indian Regiment of mule handlers in WW2. Amidst the chaos of Dunkirk and the advancing German Army, one little-known Indian Regiment fights for victory and independence.
A survivor of Dunkirk, Mr Mohammad’s first British camp after his return from the horrors of France in May 1940 was at Stoney Castle in Pirbright.
Sher Ali Khan was commissioned into the 7th Light Cavalry of the British Indian Army in 1933. He subsequently commanded the 1st battalion of the First Punjab Regiment during the Second World War.
Djaafar Khemdoudi was a member of the French resistance during World War II. He forged health certificates and issued false documents, helping to save many Jewish children from the cities of Saint-Fons and Vénissieux. After being captured by the Germans, Khemdoudi was deported to the concentration camp of Ravensbrück.. Khemdoudi is considered to have been part of the "indigenous resistance"—a term used for Resistance members from North Africa. Like many such persons, Khemdoudi's actions during the war received very little attention after his death.
Harry Braimah was born in Ghana in 1871. He was a Colonel in the 81st and 82nd West African international army that was brought together to fight the Japanese occupation of Burma in the Second World War. He served in the south of Burma and was awarded three medals.
Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi was commissioned as an Emergency Commissioned Officer (ECO) in the rank of second lieutenant during the Second World War into the 4/7 Rajput Regiment.
He fought in many battles along the Burma front.[His commanding officers agreed on Niazi's skill in completely surprising the enemy, his leadership, coolness under fire, and his ability to change tactics, create diversions and extricate his wounded men. At the Burma front in 1944, Lt. Niazi impressed his superior officers when he commanded a platoon that initiated an offensive against the Imperial Japanese Army at the Bauthi-Daung tunnels
Lt. Niazi's gallantry had impressed his British commanders at GHQ India and they wanted to award him the Distinguished Service Order, but his rank was not high enough for such a decoration.
Fahad is an army reservist and has been since 2022.
Babbar Ali has been serving for five years in the Royal Lancers as a front line recce soldier. Throughout that time he has been to Ukraine three times, Belize, Slovakia, America and a tour of Kosovo.
Rear Admiral Amjad Mazhar Hussain, CBE is a senior retired Royal Navy officer. He was the highest-ranking member of the British Armed Forces from an ethnic minority.
He joined the Royal Navy as a Weapons Engineering Officer in 1976, and was sponsored to study engineering science and business administration at Collingwood College, University of Durham. By 1993 he had reached the rank of Commander.[3]
He served as Naval Base Commander, Portsmouth, for 3.5 years from mid-2002. In 2006 he was appointed Director General Logistics (Fleet) and promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral.
He was appointed Director-General Weapons in 2008 and Director (Precision Attack) and Controller of the Navy in March 2009 Hussain is a prominent advocate of greater minority participation in the armed forces. He was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 2011 New Year Honours.
As an adventurous 16-year-old eager to follow in the military footsteps of his elder brother who had been a Japanese prisoner of war at the start of the war, Mohammad Hussain defied the wishes of his parents and ran away from home to join the volunteer British Indian Army in 1941.
After training for a year and a half, Muhammad joined the Italian campaign as the machine gunner on an armoured car in September 1943 under the 8th Indian Division fought in the battle of Monte Cassino.
When VE Day finally arrived, Muhammad and his comrades had advanced into Austria and learned of the German surrender alongside Bulgarian allies.
An officer in the British Indian Army, Mahmood Khan Durrani served in Malaya from March 1941. After Malaya was overrun by the Japanese in 1942, Durrani and a small party were cut off from their colleagues. Three men, including Durrani, remained in hiding for three months before they were betrayed and seized by the enemy-sponsored Indian Nationalist Army. Durrani was sent to a prisoner of war camp where, despite severe torture, he refused to cooperate with the Indian National Army. He was awarded the George Cross.
Agha Ibrahim Akram served in the British Indian Army in Burma. He later became a historian and diplomat, authoring several works on military history. His career reflects the contributions of Muslim officers during the war.
On researching his family history, Irfan Malik learnt of the unique military heritage of his ancestral village, Dulmial, in the Salt Range of the Punjab, Pakistan, which had sent more men to fight in the First World War than any other in South Asia and was rewarded by a 12-pounder Blomefield cannon transported all the way from Scotland. He discovered that many descendants of the 460 men who left the village in the War, some three thousand, now lived in Britain and this led him to set up ‘The Friends of Dulmial Society’, aimed at researching the records of these men and the journey of the cannon.
Irfan Malik's Grandfather, Subedar Habib Khan, served in the Burma campaign during the Second World War.
Muhammad Ayub Khan was born in Rehana in 1907. His father was a Risaldar Major in the Indian Army. In 1922, he enrolled at Aligarh University but before completing his studies he was selected for entry to the Royal Military College in Sandhurst, England.
During the Second World War he was Second-in-Command of a regiment in Burma and commanded a regiment in India.
Selahattin Ulkumen was a Turkish diplomat stationed on the Greek Island of Rhodes. In July 1944 the Nazis instructed that all the Jewish people on the island were to be rounded up for transportation to another island but in reality, they were destined for Auschwitz and the gas chambers. Ulkumen visited the German commandant on Rhodes and reminded him that Turkish citizens were not to be transported so he demanded the release of all the Turkish Jews along with their families.
On a trip to Pakistan, Tahira Ahmad discovered that her Grandfather had served in the British Indian Army in Burma in the Second World War. She also found a citation that was published in the London Gazette on 6th June 1946 which highlighted several episodes of bravery. “Subeder Liaqat Hussa has always shown only great technical ability, but also coolness and a total disregard for his own personal safety”
Jemadar Pir Khan put himself in a dangerous firing position, and repelled multiple attempts by the enemy to outflank and overwhelm them. While under fire, Pir Khan also assisted his comrades who were injured and dying.
Pir Khan only had 3 of his 50 original bullets remaining when his efforts forced the enemy to retreat. For his actions he was awarded the Empire Gallantry Medal, which was converted into the George Cross.
Captain Mateen Ahmed Ansari was taken prisoner following the Battle of Hong Kong 1941. He refused to denounce his allegiance to the British as he wanted to remain loyal. For this he was subjected to starvation and torture in the notorious Stanley May Jail.
Despite his treatment, Ansari continued to defy his captors and organised several escape attempts. He was sentenced to death and beheaded by the Japanese on 20th October 1943.
Subadar Major Mahboob Khan served with the 20th Indian Division. The Division saw active service in Assam, Burma and Indo-China until it was disbanded in April-May 1946.
Mohammed ″Mod″ Helmy was an Egyptian-German physician who was recognized by Israel as one of the Righteous Among the Nations in 2013, with his name being listed at Yad Vashem in the city of Jerusalem.
He helped to save a Jewish family in the heart of Nazi Germany.
When British Officers were all killed or incapacitated in the second battle of Ypres, Jamadar Mir Dast rallied the remaining soldiers and led them to successfully complete their mission - including personally carrying eight wounded officers to safety. He was wounded and sent for treatment to the Brighton Pavilion, where King George V presented him with his Victoria Cross.
Abdelkader Mesli was an Algerian Sunni imam and resistance member during the Second World War. Through his actions at the Grand Mosque of Paris, at the Fort du Hâ, and within the Army Resistance Organization (ORA), he contributed to the rescue of several hundred Jews from the Holocaust. He also extended assistance to escaped African soldiers. Having survived Dachau, he returned to France after the war.
Ghulam Hassan first joined the Navy in 1899 as a teenager, having left his home in Mirpur in present day Azad Kashmir, Pakistan - then part of pre-partition India - to board the ships at Mumbai (Bombay).
He worked as a labourer before eventually being promoted to full naval service.
General Nawab Sir Sadeq Mohammad Khan V Abbasi was the 12th and final Nawab (ruler) of the state of Bahawalpur from February 1907 to October 1955, and then as a titular figure until his death in 1966.
The Nawab served as an officer with the British Indian Army, fighting in the Third Afghan War (1919) and commanding forces in the Middle East during the Second World War.
On researching his family history, Irfan Malik learnt of the unique military heritage of his ancestral village, Dulmial, in the Salt Range of the Punjab, Pakistan, which had sent more men to fight in the First World War than any other in South Asia and was rewarded by a 12-pounder Blomefield cannon transported all the way from Scotland. He discovered that many descendants of the 460 men who left the village in the War, some three thousand, now lived in Britain and this led him to set up ‘The Friends of Dulmial Society’, aimed at researching the records of these men and the journey of the cannon.
Irfan Malik's Great Grandfather, Subedar Mohammad Khan, served in the 33rd Punjab Regiment
Exactly two years before the First World War came to an end, Ahmet Ali Çelikten became one of the world’s first Black military aviators. Çelikten, who retired from the Turkish Air Force as a colonel in 1949, set the stage for future mixed-race fighter pilots and Black excellence within militaries around the world.
Risaldar-Major Ashraf Khan joined the RIASC as a sepoy at the age of 17 in 1913. By the time the Punjabis of Force K6 arrived in France in 1939, he had reached the highest VCO rank possible. He was a man who commanded the respect of everyone he met, a soldier in his prime, with a lifetime of military experience.
He received the Indian Order of Merit – the highest decoration that could be given in the Indian Army after the Victoria Cross. At the end of the war, Risaldar Major Ashraf had been in the British Indian Army for thirty-two years
Iftikhar Khan joined the Indian Army in 1930 and was posted to the 7th Light Cavalry.He was promoted to Major on 29 August 1946. He commanded the 7th Light Cavalry in Japan as part of the occupation forces from September to December 1946.
Seventeen year old Refik Vessel met a Jewish family who had escaped a camp. He suggested that they should move to his parents' home in the mountains. Veseli and the family set out on a long journey by mules over rocky terrain. They took side roads, moving during the nights and hiding in caves during the days to avoid detection by the German military.
Mohammed Sawar Khan was born in the Gujer Khan region near Rawalpindi, Punjab, an area known for its large number of recruits.
He joined the Bombay Sappers and Miners (Engineering Corp) as a teenager.
He served, alongside his brother and numerous members of the extended family, during the Second World War mainly on the Burma front.
He served for 25 years retiring in 1947.
Awal Nur belonged to the most famous Indian Army regiment of 1914-18, Queen Victoria's Own Corps of Guides.
He served in Belgium, France and East Africa from 1914 to 1917, and he was wounded three times. But his most extraordinary exploit was on His Majesty's secret service.
Nur was one of 16 Indian soldiers specially chosen to join British officers on a secret Indian Army mission into Soviet Central Asia in early 1918.
On the direct orders of London, the mission's goal was to stop Soviet resources in Central Asia from reaching the Germans by railway and the Caspian Sea.
Nur's adventures as a secret agent took him across the Himalayas on a yak, before he worked tirelessly with other officers to frustrate enemy plans and escape capture.
rsala Khan of the 57th Wilde's Rifles led the troops of the first Indian company to enter the German trenches on the western front in Belgium on the night of 22 October 1914.
He went on to serve until 1918, in France, Egypt, German East Africa and India. Then, in the summer of 1919, he represented his regiment in London at the official Indian victory parade.
Mohammad Asghar Khan studied at the Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College. Aspiring to be a pilot, he intended to join RAF College Cranwell, but admissions were suspended in 1938. He enrolled at the Indian Military Academy in 1939, graduating with distinction and commissioning into the British Indian Army in January 1940.
With the onset of the Second World War, the Royal Indian Air Force asked for volunteers and Khan transferred in December 1940. Stationed in Hyderabad in 1942, he was ordered by Maj. General Richardson to attack a convoy of Hurs traveling with Pir of Pagaro VI. Leading three aircraft, Khan refused upon seeing it consisted of unarmed civilians and returned to base. Threatened with a court-martial, Khan replied, "I cannot follow an unlawful command."
Flight Lieutenant Khan led aerial operations in the Burma Campaign as Commander 'B' Flight, No. 9 Squadron RIAF.
Hasan Shah is an Electrical technician in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and has been serving since October 2021. His first exercise outside of the UK was in Georgia to carry out a live fire exercise called Agile Spirit. He found this a great opportunity to work with other NATO military forces..
His grandparents moved to the UK in the 1970s and he is the first in his family to join the military.
Corporal Iqra Shahzadi was the first woman to wear a hijab in the military. She works as a military nurse at Frimley Park and always aspired to be in the Army, despite not seeing hijab-wearing Muslim women represented.
The NHS trust that runs Frimley Park says it is a "special honour" to have Ms Shahzadi among their colleagues.
Zaman Shah was born in Pakistan and moved to the UK in the early 2000s.He joined the army in September 2014 six months after leaving school, starting his career in Harrogate army college at the age of 17 and then moving to Catterick to do his infantry training. He serves with the 2nd Duke of Lancaster Regiment. He has deployed to many different countries such as Cyprus, America, Kenya, Sweden.
Major Naveed Muhammad MBE joined the Royal Corps of Signals Army Reserve in December 1987.
He deployed on operations to the former Yugoslavia in 1996 as part of the Peace Implementation Force and then to Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003 and 2010 respectively in support of the UK’s commitments there. Major Muhammad visited Sierra Leone in 2015 during the British military’s deployment to combat the deadly Ebola virus and supported key messaging activities to ensure that the local population was able to participate effectively in eradicating the disease. He has secured two prestigious Race for Opportunity awards. Firstly for recruiting, then as Chair of the Armed Forces Muslim Association whose aim is to support personnel in the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force. For his exemplary service, Major Muhammad was awarded an MBE in the 2016 Queen’s New Year’s Honours.
Muhammad Sohail Azad is an RAF cyberspace Engineering Officer with multiple deployments to the Middle East. His parents are from the same area as Khudadad Khan, VC winner in the First World War.
Nadim Bashir is a Retired Lt Col. He joined the army cadets at the age of 13 in 1975. Then joined the parachute regiment in 1979
He studied law alongside and became a reservist in the army for the rest of his career becoming Captain, then Major then Lt Colonel before retiring in 2023.
A special Muslim contingent called ‘Force K6’ was a Mule Transport Corps a part of the Royal Indian Army Service Corps from the British Indian Army. They were made up of 4 companies. The majority of the 200 men were from the mountainous regions of the North west Frontier of modern day Pakistan. They were required to help with transport of goods to and from the frontline in the muddy terrain in France..
Abdul Ghani served in Force K6 of the Royal Indian Army Service Corps in Britain during the Second World War. He was a mule driver in the 29 Mule Company, a mule transport company used to carry ammunition and supplies to frontline locations where motorised transport could not reach.
Haji Habib Khan Butt received four medals for his service in the Second World War - the War Medal, the India Service Medal, the Republic Medal and the Pakistan Medal.
He moved to Bradford after the war.
On researching his family history, Irfan Malik learnt of the unique military heritage of his ancestral village, Dulmial, in the Salt Range of the Punjab, Pakistan, which had sent more men to fight in the First World War than any other in South Asia and was rewarded by a 12-pounder Blomefield cannon transported all the way from Scotland. He discovered that many descendants of the 460 men who left the village in the War, some three thousand, now lived in Britain and this led him to set up ‘The Friends of Dulmial Society’, aimed at researching the records of these men and the journey of the cannon.
Irfan Malik's Grandfather, Capt Lal Khan, served in the Burma campaign
Colonel Ismail Khan served as a liaison officer with the 2/10th Baluch Regiment, part of the 8th Indian Infantry Brigade. He was captured by the Japanese when they took Singapore in February 1942, spending the rest of the war as a prisoner of war in Seletar camp.
During the war Kaddour Benghabrit was based at the Muslim Institute at the Paris Mosque where he used his position to save hundreds of Jewish people. He arranged to have papers issued to Jews showing that they were Muslim which saved them from the Nazi round-ups and deportation. Also he assisted with hiding Jewish people in the mosque to escape the Nazi persecution. The actual number of people saved by Kaddour Benghabrit varies but the consensus is that he saved in the region of 500
Behiç Erkin was a Turkish diplomat in France who saved more than 5000 Jews from Nazi persecution.
In Italy, on 10th July, 1944, a Company of the 5th Mahratta Light Infantry attacked a position strongly defended by the enemy. During this attack a rifle section commanded by Naik Yeshwant Ghadge came under heavy machine-gun fire at close range, which killed or wounded all members of the section except the commander. Without hesitation, and well knowing that none were left to accompany him, he rushed the machine gun post. Unfortunately he was shot in the chest and back by enemy snipers and died in the post which he had captured single handed.
Lance-Naik Islam-ud-Din, awarded the George Cross posthumously, was a soldier in the British Indian Army during the Second World War. He was serving in the 9th Jat Regiment when, on April 12, 1945, he saved his comrades' lives by throwing himself on a live grenade in Pyawbwe, Central Burma. He was killed instantly.
When Yad Vashem, the Shoah Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, was established in 1953 by the Knesset, one of its tasks was to commemorate the "Righteous Among the Nations". The Righteous were defined as non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
Albanian Rifat Hoxha was one of those names
Khudadad Khan served in the First World War with the 129th Baluchis, and was the first Muslim soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross.
In October 1914, he arrived in France and was among 20,000 Indian troops sent to the front line to help stop the Germans from capturing the strategic ports of Boulogne in France and Nieuwpoort in Belgium.
They faced the advancing Germans under terrible conditions: water-logged trenches, insufficient hand grenades and barbed wire, and gaps in the line due to a shortage of soldiers. The Germans attacked on 30 October, and many Indian soldiers were killed or wounded. Khudadad Khan’s machine gun crew, along with one other, carried on fighting until they were overrun by Germans and everyone was bayoneted or shot. Khan was the only survivor. He pretended to be dead and then managed to crawl back to his regiment under the cover of darkness.
The bravery of Khan and his fellow Baluchis gave the Allies enough time for British and Indian reinforcements to arrive and stop the German army from reaching the vital ports. He was treated for his wounds at a hospital in Brighton and was later decorated with the Victoria Cross by King George V at Buckingham Palace.
Captain Anis Khan served courageously in Dunkirk and spent nearly four years as a prisoner of war – the longest of any Indian officer in the Second World War.
The walls of the Menin Gate are covered with the names of 54,607 soldiers who were killed in Belgium and have no known grave. Among them are 412 soldiers from India including Muslims such as Bahadur Khan of the 57th Wilde's Rifles, who fell during the First Battle of Ypres on October 28, 1914.
The walls of the Menin Gate are covered with the names of 54,607 soldiers who were killed in Belgium and have no known grave. Among them are 412 soldiers from India including Muslims such as Nur Alam of the 40th Pathans, killed on April 26, 1915, during the Second Battle of Ypres.
Col. Raja Ghulam Rasool served in the 16th Punjab Regiment. Stationed in Tripoli, he fought against an Italian offensive in which he helped to repulse the Italian forces leading to their subsequent surrender. For his actions he was awarded a Military Cross
Captain Ali Akbar Raja served with the 14th Punjab regiment. 44th Indian Division from 1940 to 1945. He fought for the British against the Japanese.He survived after being lined up in a firing squad by the Japanese and shot at, stabbed with a bayonet and had cigarette stubs burned on him. He pretended to be dead, and after many hours crawled to a nearby family who took him in. He was eventually captured as a POW in 1942.
Aamna Warsi is Mohammed Sawar Khan’s grandaughter. 64 years after he retired, she joined the Air Cadets during high school, later attesting into the RAF in 2019 during her medical cadetship.
She is now a Flight Lieutenant.
Flight Lieutenant Warsi has completed her General Duties Medical Officer year and is in her first year of GP training.
Sardar Bahadur Risaldar Major Raja Fazal Dad Khan was a member of the Indian Army who served with distinction during the First World War. He was awarded the title of Sardar Bahadur, a high honor within the British Indian Army, and received the title for extraordinary bravery in the war. He was also awarded the title of Risaldar Major, indicating his position of authority and command within his unit.
Habibullah Khan Khattak served with the Bihar Regiment and during the Second World War, he campaigned in Burma and was amongst a handful of Indian officers to have commanded an infantry battalion at war. He was mentioned in dispatches for service in Burma in the London Gazette 10 January 1946 as temporary Major, Bihar Regiment
Haseeb joined the British Army as a Commonwealth soldier in 2021. He received the best endeavor award from IRTC Pirbright. He served in The Royal Dragoon Guards regiment for four years as a tank crewman and has recently transferred to the RAF as a Peoples Specialist (Currently Serving at RAF Northolt). In recognition of his performance as a Trooper, he was promoted to Lance Corporal in 2024.
His brother (Sqn Ldr Muhammad Sohail Azad) is also serving in the RAF as an officer and Haseeb has a vision to follow in his footsteps and commission in the near future.
He belongs to the Awan race - who were considered one of the martial races by the British, due to their perceived fighting prowess and willingness to serve in the military.
Fasiel Iqbal joined the British Army in 2003 and is still serving. He has been involved in military diplomatic relations with Kuwait, where he has been helping to train recruits and officers.
Ameed Mahmood is reading Medicine at Imperial College London. He is an RAF Medical Officer Bursar and aspiring military plastic surgeon. His goal is to improve access to medicine.
Since becoming the first imam and Muslim chaplain to the UK armed forces in 2005, Mr Hafiz has advised the military on religious and cultural affairs. Between 2010 and 2012 his work also supported peace-building, stabilisation and conflict resolution through regular deployments to Afghanistan.
He was awarded an OBE in 2014
Ammani Bashir (Nadim’s daughter) has been in the Army for 8 years. She’s currently a regular serving captain doing the job of General Duties Medical Officer.