French War Memorial
பிரெஞ்சு போர் நினைவுச்சின்னம்
Memorial on Goubert Avenue to the people of French India who died in the First World War, inaugurated in 1938 and lit up every year on 14 July.
The Monument aux Combattants des Indes Françaises morts pour la Patrie stands on Goubert Avenue, opposite the Gandhi statue. It remembers the people of French India who died for France in the First World War.
History
France decided in 1915 to reinforce its army with recruits from its Asian territories, and a recruitment campaign began that December. Pondicherry offered 800 recruits and sent 500 combatants overseas; 75 of them died.
The memorial was erected in 1937 to designs by the sculptor Gaston Petit and an architect named Delafon, and inaugurated on 3 April 1938 by Governor Crocicchia. A bronze plaque lists the soldiers who died in the First World War; later plaques add those who died in the Second World War, the Indochina War and the Algerian War. The monument remains the property of France.
What to see
- The memorial and its bronze plaques
- The illumination every year on Bastille Day, 14 July
Why visit
A reminder of a chapter of French India’s history that is rarely told, at the heart of the seafront.
- Coordinates
11.931916, 79.835354