The Port Trust War Memorial, a sandstone column with a lamp on top, is located at the junction of the Shoorji Vallabhdas Road and SS Ram Gulaam Marg at Ballard estate. Even as India deals with the ramifications of the global crisis following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a war memorial in the quaint Ballard Pier area of south Mumbai stands testament to the role played by the Port of Bombay in World War I and the British officers who had lost their lives in the “great war”.
The Port Trust War Memorial, a sandstone column with a lamp on top, is located at the junction of the Shoorji Vallabhdas Road and SS Ram Gulaam Marg at Ballard estate. The structure has winged lions and brass plaques on three sides which spell out the contribution of the Bombay Port Trust during World War I.
City historian Deepak Rao said the Bombay Port Trust was one of the most important ports in the east for the British empire. “Those days there were no airplanes. The Bombay Port Trust was the most important port for the British east of the Suez Canal. Hence it played a key role during World War I as far as officers, soldiers joining the war from India and transportation of food grains was concerned,” he explained.
City historian Deepak Rao said the Bombay Port Trust was one of the most important ports in the east for the British empire. One of the plaques on the structure spells out the contribution. It reads, “The port of Bombay in the great war 1914-18. 1870000 troops and personnel embarked and disembarked at the docks. 3046 transports and 668 hospital ships were dealt with at the docks. The first transport left Bombay on the 21st August 1914. 2073 troop and hospital trains were railed over the port trust railway. 2228000 tons of military stores were shipped from the port. 494 government ships used the port trust dry docks.”
The brass plaque on the other side of the structure provides the names of some British officers who lost their lives in World War I. The plaque reads, “This Memorial was erected by the Trustees of the Port of Bombay in honour of the following officers who lost their lives for their country in the Great War 1914 – 1918.” The officers include Captain Eric Stuart Dougall, assistant engineer who “maintained his guns in action all day through a heavy concentration of gas and high explosive shell… he was killed in action on Mount Kemmel on April 14th, 1918 aged 32 years.”
The plaque further lists 2nd Lieutenant Ronald Edward Wilson, machine gun section, Bombay Volunteer Rifles, an assistant engineer who was killed in action while leading his section in an attack on a German position at age 31. The last name on the list is Giacinto Ramagnoli, “a docks clerk who proceeded on war service on 1st June 1915 with the Italian Army on the outbreak of war between Italy and Austria-Hungary was killed in action on 11th October 1916, aged 21 years”.
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