A 'Bright' Day in Brighton

by Nurul Hamizah Binti Afandi (Malaysia)

I didn't expect to find United Kingdom

‘Light rain. High humidity. 90% chance of precipitation.’ Those were the expectations that we had in mind while stepping out of Arthur Tattersall House. Brighton is prominently known for its beaches; and going to a beach city on a rainy day doesn’t seem like a great idea. Yet we stick to the plan anyway since we had purchased our train tickets in advance. It was drizzling when we set off our journey at 7.20 in the morning to Euston Station and took a one-hour train to Brighton from London Bridge. Upon our arrival in Brighton, we headed to the Royal Pavilion Estate where we saw Royal Pavilion, a palace with a stunning Indo-Saracenic architecture that is prevalent in India. We were disappointed for not being able to see the exterior design of Brighton Dome, the south-coast's greatest art venue, due to some renovation work taking place. Nonetheless, I was excited to know that the Dome had once served as a temporary military hospital housing injured Indian soldiers in the First World War, which explains the existence of the India Gate on the south side of Pavilion Gardens that we had passed by earlier. The gate was a gift from India to commemorate their soldiers who were tended in the Dome and the Pavilion in 1914-1915. We then visited Brighton War Memorial; a large memorial pool located in front of the Pavilion Estate enclosed in a black gate decorated with big poppies. I started to realise that I had bumped into a lot of people with a cute poppy pinned to their coat, dress or shirt on that day. After having our brunch near a fountain which was not far from the memorial pool, we made our way to the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, totally unaware of what the building had in store for us on that day. “The admission is free today,” said a lady at the reception. I was a bit confused, as I thought the admission was meant to be free. But apparently the museum offers free admission on only one Saturday every month, so it was our lucky Saturday! Once we got inside, I told my friend that I wanted to see things that are related to the Brighton’s past, so we left the modern art gallery on the ground floor and went upstairs. I was looking at the gallery from above when a man approached us and asked where we – two Asian girls with their head scarves on – come from. He then said something about ‘respecting our people’ after we introduced ourselves. Leaving me puzzled, he then started to talk about a banner next to us which narrated the Hove Black History. We stood there for quite a long time as he told us about the Sikh, Muslim and Hindu soldiers who served and fought for Britain in the First World War. He then explained to us about the Remembrance Day; a historically significant day observed on 11th November every year. He said, "'The moment of remembrance’ is a 2-minute ‘moment of silence’, which starts at 11 a.m. to commemorate the soldiers that have died in wars.” At that moment, everything started to make sense to me. The red artificial poppies that I kept on seeing all over Brighton on that day have actually been used since 1921 to commemorate military personnel who have died in the line of duty. The man, who introduced himself as Bert, is not someone ordinary. Before we ended our conversation, he pointed out his name on a booklet about Brighton and Hove Black History: ‘Bert Williams MBE’. He is a Member of the Order of the British Empire; a man with an outstanding service! It was definitely a great honour for us to meet someone who was honoured by the Queen! We visited the other galleries before we bid farewell to Bert and walked out of the museum at around half past twelve. I was awed by the way I ended up in such a great place, on a great day, with a great figure. I didn’t care about the weather not being great anymore - our day trip had certainly gone beyond the contentment of a short getaway!