Indenture deed transferring the Woking Mosque and property to the Woking Mosque Trust

At this link we have made available the Indenture deed, dated 12 April 1915, by which the Woking Mosque and the Memorial House were placed in ownership of the Woking Mosque Trust created by the Committee of the London Mosque Fund with the agreement of Henry Leitner, son of the builder of the Mosque Dr G.W. Leitner.

At the end the Indenture states:

“…Henry Gottlieb Leopold Maurice Leitner hereby grants and confirms unto the Trustees and their heirs all the two pieces of land situated in the parish of Woking in the County of Surrey lying on or towards the South or South East of the London South Western Railway … together with the buildings on the said two pieces of land of which one is the Mosque hereinbefore mentioned and the other is the Memorial House hereinafter mentioned…

to HOLD the said premises unto and to the use of the Trustees and their heirs to the intent that the said mosque may at all times be used as a mosque and that the said Memorial Building may at all times be used for charitable purposes and the management and use of the said premises shall be either under the directions of the Committee known as the London Mosque Fund Committee or wholly or partially under the directions of such other body or persons as the Secretary of State for India for the time being shall from time to time appoint…”

The source of this Indenture is the book A Miracle at Woking — A History of the Shahjahan Mosque, by Muslim P. Salamat, published by Phillamore & Co, 2008, Appendix A, pp. 97–99. We have divided it into paragraphs here for ease of reading and have also pointed out any typographical errors.

Link to the text of the Indenture

See this link for more on the London Mosque Fund.

The Woking Mosque Trust has since this Indenture till the present been the owner of the Woking Mosque, the Memorial House and the related property. After the independence of India and the creation of Pakistan, the office of the Secretary of State for India ceased to exist, and a new scheme was devised in 1953 by which the Trust was placed under the control of the Pakistan High Commission, London, with the High Commissioner for Pakistan (i.e., the ambassador of Pakistan to the UK) as chairman.

The Trust is registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (number 241402 ) and is known as Woking Mosque Fund and Sir Salar Jung Memorial House. See this link to the registry entry of this body on the website of the Charity Commission, which refers to the Indenture mentioned above.