The crucial contribution made by Sikh soldiers during the First World War has been immortalised in a new photographic exhibition.

getwestlondon reported earlier this month how west London cousins Amit Amin and Naroop Jhooti had chronicled the varied beards and turbans sported by Sikhs for their latest show, The Singh Project.

The pair held a competition to find the final subject for the exhibition, which has attracted global attention ahead of its opening next month.

The winner was Jasdeep Singh, of Sutherland Road, Southall, who as a curator at the National Army Museum has been working to raise awareness of the role Sikhs played in the First World War.

He chose to wear the uniform of the 15 Ludhiana Sikhs, the infantry regiment which was among the first from the Indian Army to reach the Western Front in 1914.

"I've been working on my own project about Sikhs in the First World War, for which about 20 volunteers have been attending historical re-enactments wearing the uniform," said the 31-year-old.

"The idea was to get them to learn about what their forebears would have gone through by getting them to wear the uniform and take part in rifle drills or cook meals using the same rations Sikh soldiers would have carried 100 years ago.

"We've chronicled the project in blogs and on our website but I thought it would be great to bring it to wider attention through the striking photography of Amit and Naroop."

Among the volunteers in Jasdeep's project is Kuljit Singh, the great, great grandson of war hero Manta Singh, a decorated member of the 15th Sikhs who famously rescued a wounded officer using a wheelbarrow he found abandoned in no man's land.

Despite making up just one per cent of the population of British India at the time, Sikhs accounted for nearly a fifth of the British Empire's Indian Army at the outbreak of the First World War.

The 15th Sikhs fought in the battles of Festubert and Neuve Chapelle in France during the war, in which they sustained huge casualties.

Jasdeep was photographed wearing the Indian Army Kurta, with a 15th Sikhs badge, or 'chakkar', pinned to his turban, and his beard folded inwards as Sikh soldiers would have worn theirs in battle.

Having been asked to pose in the 'port arms' stance, with his rifle across his chest, he says he was stunned to find a Sikh soldier adopting almost exactly the same pose on a stained glass window at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst when he visited the following day.

"It's amazing to think an artist commemorating the war 100 years ago chose to do it in almost exactly the same way, albeit in a very different form, as two modern day photographers from west London," said Jasdeep.

Amit and Naroop said: "Jasdeep's entry really stuck a chord with us. This year marks 100 years since the start of World War One, in which many Sikhs fought and died alongside British troops. It represents what the Singh Project is about for us: celebrating Sikh identity and honoring Sikh history and culture."

* The Singh Project is at The Framers Gallery, 36 Windmill Street, Fitzrovia, from November 3-15. Entry is free and opening hours are 10am to 5.30pm.