A snapshot of the memorial tablet that will be placed in a war memorial.

The inscription on the memorial to Victoria Cross winner Rifleman Gabbar Singh Negi, 2/39 Garhwal Rifles. It will be set up in the village to which Negi belonged .

NEW DELHI : Colonel Amarsinh Savant (Retd) is excited about October 30. That evening, the former 82 Armoured Regiment officer , now based in Kolhapur (Maharashtra), will be attending a special function at the British High Commissioner’s residence commemorating India’s contribution to the First World War . Colonel Savant’s great grandfather had sent all his six sons to fight for the King Emperor—a great sacrifice that was acknowledged by King George V himself. His grandfather died a hero’s death fighting the armies of the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Ctesiphon in 1915, during the Mesopotamian campaign of the Great War: a theatre that had over 5,70,000 Indians almost singlehandedly driving the British Empire’s war effort.“I believe it will be a proud moment for India when Britain will officially acknowledge on Indian soil that they couldn’t have prevailed in the Great War without the Indian Army. My grandfather Risaldar Sardar Bahadur Govindrao Savant led a cavalry charge by the Maratha squadron of the 31st Duke of Connaught’s Own Lancers (now 13 Lancers, Pakistan Army) on November 22, 1915 and died in action. He was awarded the Victory Medal posthumously. But his elder brother, Wamanrao Savant, then a captain of Third Light Infantry, Gwalior State Forces survived the war and retired from service as a colonel. His four other brothers survived too. I am the eighth generation of my family in the army and I am proud of my grandfather’s achievement,” Savant told TOI.The event will see the handing over of digitized war diaries of the Indian regiments that fought in the Great War, six memorials for Victoria Cross winners and a memorial tablet expressing gratitude of the people of UK. British High Commissioner Sir James Bevan is expected to acknowledge India’s decisive role in the war and the immense sacrifices that this country made.Earlier, Brigadier Brian McCall of the British Army, who’s the defence adviser at the High Commission, had told TOI in an exclusive chat that anyone who would attend the event would walk away with his chest swelling with pride. However, there has been some anguish on the British side with the Indian armed forces not confirming their participation at the event. But a highly-placed source on the Indian side did confirm Indian Army’s participation to this correspondent on Friday.Elsewhere in Belgium, India for the first time acknowledged with pride her own participation in the First World War. An agency report quoted India’s Ambassador to Belgium, Manjeev Singh Puri, as having said at a function at the War Museum in Brussels on October 24, “This is a bond of solidarity. This is something that brought 130,000 soldiers from India a hundred years ago in the October of 1914 to Belgium where they joined many other countries in the defence of Belgium, Europe and to set a new global order in place. As a country, we are proud at the contribution of the soldiers from India and the Indian Army. We are very proud that we are part of this great endeavour that has led to global governance changes.”Before leaving for the event in Belgium, military historian Squadron Leader Rana Chhina (Retd) had said that the USI-CAFHR’s India and the Great War commemoration project has covered a lot of ground and will do more over the next four years. “Hopefully, when our project ends, the strictly Euro-centric and predominantly white narrative of the First World War would change, and no mention of the war would be possible without acknowledging the Indian role,” Chhina added.