Dharm Sheel Chowdhary originally came to England to do postgraduate medical studies, having received a basic medical qualification from Lahore Medical College. He studied at Edinburgh University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, before joining Dr Gilder’s medical practice in Laindon, Essex, as a GP. In 1933, shortly after his Indian wife joined him in Laindon, Chowdhary bought the practice. The couple went on to have two children, remaining in Britain for the rest of their lives.

According to his wife Savitri Chowdhary's memoir, Chowdhary worked around the clock, also offering dentist work, eye tests and a counselling service. He became a hugely popular doctor and hired a number of assistants to help him with his practice over the years. Chowdhary also served in the Civil Defence and the Home Guard in the Second World War. While the Chowdharys had numerous English friends in Laindon, they were also closely connected to the Indian community in London, making frequent excursions there for meals at Veeraswamy’s, Shafi’s and the vegetarian restaurant Shearn’s, and to attend social functions at the Hindu Centre and the India Club both of which he and his wife helped to establish. An Arya Samaj Hindu and trained as a Hindu priest in India, Chowdhary also officiated at Hindu marriage ceremonies, including that of Indian and English acrobat pair, Dickie Pather and Maisie Rogers.

Chowdhary died in 1959, aged 57, and was mourned by the people of Laindon. In 1966, some years after his death, the Chowdhary County Primary School was opened in Laindon and named after him. The plaque on the school (now closed) read: ‘To honour the memory of Dr Dharm Sheel Chowdhary who gave devoted service to the people of Laindon and the local schools throughout the period from 1931–59.’

Having worked as a high school teacher in her native Punjab, Savitri Chowdhary arrived in Britain in 1932 after a four- or five-year separation from her husband, Dr Dharm Sheel Chowdhary, who had come to Britain for postgraduate medical studies and recently begun work at a practice in the small Essex town of Laindon. On arrival, she found her husband had, to a large extent, adapted to English life and encouraged her to do the same. Shedding her saris for dresses and cutting her hair short, Chowdhary sought to fulfil the role of a doctor’s wife in an English town and to immerse herself in community life.

However, she also remained in touch with her Indian self, wearing saris for evening engagements, cooking curry at home, and socializing with the middle-class Indian community in London. Not only did she and her husband help establish early British Hindu organizations such as the Hindu Association of Europe and the Hindu Centre, but Savitry Chowdhary, on the encouragement of an English friend, Miss Cresswell, also became involved with the India League, attending – and occasionally speaking at – political meetings in London.

In the early 1950s Savitri Chowdhary published one of the earliest Indian cookery books with Andre Deutsch, subsequently giving talks on Indian cooking and even making television appearances to demonstrate her skills.