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Wednesday, February 25, 2009


British Graves, yet again!

We had posted an entry (Dec 12, 2008) on the abandoned graves of two British soldiers who lost their lives in the 1921 Revolt. We had ended with the hope that an agency like the Commonwealth Graves Commission would take care of these graves to prevent possible desecration. 

We were pleasantly surprised to receive a communication from the eminent British author ('The Great Hedge of India' and 'Tea - Addiction, Exploitation and Empire', among others) and a great friend of Malabar, Roy Moxham, about his efforts to take up the issue with the War Graves Commission and their reply. 

We reproduce below their reply in order to demonstrate the great care they take of their dead and the practical difficulties in looking after scattered graves of British dead. It also gently reminds us that Government of India had, in 1950, given 'assurances that these sites would be respected and remain undisturbed.' Are we in default of this?

Thank you for your e-mail of 15th December 2008.

 Firstly I must apologise for the delay in my reply but we are currently working to clear a large back log of enquiries. Please find below all the details that we hold for Private Ely and Private Hutchings, this being the information provided by the relevant service authority after the war.

Their names are commemorated on Madras memorial because their graves at Tirurangadi could not be maintained. Please see our Historical notes/explanation below.

 Private  ELEY , F M
 Unit: 2nd Bn.
 Regiment: Dorsetshire Regiment
 Service No: 5718896
 Date of Death: 30 August 1921
 Commemoration: MADRAS 1914-1918 WAR MEMORIAL, CHENNAI
 India
 Face 17.
 Additional Information: Buried in Tirurangadi Graves.

 Private  HUTCHINGS , H C
 Unit: 2nd Bn.
 Regiment: Dorsetshire Regiment
 Service No: 5718762
 Date of Death: 20 August 1921
 Commemoration: MADRAS 1914-1918 WAR MEMORIAL, CHENNAI
 India
 Face 17.
 Additional Information: Buried in Tirurangadi Graves.

 Location: Madras War Cemetery is about 5 kilometres from the airport and 14 kilometres from the central railway station. The GST Road (Great Southern Trunk Road) leads from the airport past Trident Hotel to Kathipara roundabout. The way is via Mount Poonamall Road, passing at the foot of St.Thomas Mount. The cemetery can easily be located on the right hand side of the road 1 kilometre from St. Thomas Mount. From Madras Central Railway Station the route is up Mount Road (Anna Salai) and over the bridge which crosses the River Cooun. The route passes St. Mary's Cemetery on Pallawan Road and is via LIC building (Life Insurance Corporation Building) situated on Mount Road, which leads to Anna Flyover and to Kathipara Junction.

  Visiting: The memorial stands in Madras War Cemetery. The cemetery is open  daily, including Sundays (excluding public holidays)  between 08:00am and     18:00pm. Outside of these times, access can be gained via two other gates which are always open as they lead to the resident manager's living quarters within the cemetery.

 Historical: The MADRAS 1914-1918 MEMORIAL is situated at the rear of the cemetery. It bears the names of more than 1,000 service  who died during the First World War who lie in many civil and cantonment cemeteries* in various parts of India where it is not possible to maintain their graves in perpetuity. The memorial stands in MADRAS WAR CEMETERY which was created to receive Second World War graves from many civil and cantonment cemeteries in the south and east of India where their permanent maintenance could not be assured. 

The cemetery contains 856 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War.

 * Agra Cantonment; Aligarh Civil; Allahabad New Cantonment; Arogyavaram Pothapole Union Mission Sanitorium; Bangalore Cantoment (Kulpully); Bangalore (Hosur Road); Bantra, Howrah; Bareilly; Barkacha Military Grave; Barrackpore New; Bellary Military; Benares Cantonment; Bettiah; Bezwa  Eurpean; Bolarum Cavalry Barracks, Secunderbad; Calcutta (Entally); Calcutta (Lower Circular Road); Calicut New Beach; Cannanore General; Cawnpore Cantonment New; Chakrata; Chaubattia; Chikmagalur; Cuddapah European; Dehra Dun; Dinapore No 3; Dum Dum New; Fatehgarh Cantonment Open; Fyzabad Cantonment; Gaya New; Jamalpur Railway; Jhajha; Jhansi Cantonment; Kailana, Chakrata; Kala Khan, Naini Tal; Kataphar New, Jalapahar; Kharagpur; Kohima; Kotwa Military Grave; Kydganj New, Allahabad; Landour General; Lebong Cantonment; Lucknow Cantonment Military; Madras (Kilpauk); Madras (St Andrew's); Madras (St George's) Cathedral; Madras (St Patrick's); Madras Wesleyan; Madura R.C.; Malappuram (Christ Church); Mussoorie General; Muttra; Narayan Guda Hyderbad Government; Ootacamund (St Thomas); Poonamallee; Port Blair; Puri; Purna R.C.; Raichur Railwa  Ramandrug; Rangamati; Rhanikhet New; Roorkee; Sadiya; Saharanpur; St Thomas's Mount Church; Secunderbad; Secunderbad European R.C.; Shahjahanpur Cantontoment; Sillong; Tirurangadi; Trimulgherry Cantonment; Wellington Garrison.

 In 1950, after the British withdrawal from India, it was announced in Parliament that the continued maintenance of the cemeteries could not be undertaken  by the Governments of India and Pakistan.They did however, give assurances that these sites would be respected and remain undisturbed.

It was obviously not possible for the Commission to endeavour to maintain a few war graves in a cemetery otherwise unmaintained. It was, therefore, decided that a permament commemoration of the war dead buried in these cemeteries should be on memorials at Madras, Kirkee, Karachi and Delhi.


 I hope that this information is helpful to you.

 Yours sincerely,

 Mrs J Williams
 Enquiries Section


15 comments:

  1. We must appreciate the care and concern shown by the British for their dead. At the same time we find our people showing utter disregard for the dead. I am referring to your previous blogs. But can we say that the British has the same regard for the death of other nationals?

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  2. Hi,

    I am not sure who is the person behind this blog. Would you like to get in touch with me please. I would like to discuss some things specific to Quilon/Kollam histroy. My Email is jeffery@fernandez.net.au

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  3. That's an interesting post and thanks for covering this topic. I am in touch with people at the War Graves Photographic Project and I know that they would be interested in adding these graves to their growing archive. Can I suggest you get in touch with Steve Rogers via their website: http://www.twgpp.org/

    Many thanks

    Paul Nixon

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  4. CKMadhusudan, regarding your last sentence, I would have thought that the answers to that lie in their thousands in Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries; plenty of nationalities there, former enemies included.

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  5. Dear Mr. Roy, Greatly appreciate your efforts in this direction. looking forward to your visit to this part of the world-premnath

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  6. Many thanks for all the valuable comments. Calicut Heritage Forum has contacted both jeffrey and Steve. Reg. CKM's observations, we do not want to add to what Chailey has so eloquently said in reply, except to say that respect for the memory of the dead is an index of civilised behaviour.We at CHF would like to give proper respect to all graves, irrespective of nationalities or past adversarial relationships. Moreover, we see history in graves, as much as we see it in archives and monuments.

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  7. Well done. "respect for the memory of the dead is an index of civilised behaviour". Very correct. Thanks.

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  8. As you said CKR, Graves have to be respected and above all are remnants of an historical era. From those inanimate objects arise stories that can animate future generations...

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  9. This blog is by far the best of its kind. The language is crisp and the presentation world class. When it comes to detail I cannot think of someone more meticulous .I am sure this collection will make a fine book. Bit heavy on graves lately, but then that is where they are, six feet under and the weight of a Panchayat office over some!
    Uday

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  10. I was surprised to find that there are people who care for the heritage the historical Malabar holds. Good Work!

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  11. Apologies for using this comments section to contact the admin person,since there seems to be no other details on the blog itself.

    This is with regard to the preservation of the graves of the British privates. I haven't seen any further news about it on your blog since this post and would assume that the status quo had continued.
    I have raised this case at the Royal Society in London to the personnel of Association of Cemeteries and wonder if you could get in touch with myself to see if there can be a way forward.
    Looking forward to an early action at your end.

    Thank you very much.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thank you, Bhima Club for your offer of support. As you will see from the detailed reply of the War Graves Commission above, they are commemorating the same graves in the Madras Cemetery and it is no longer practicable to maintain the Tirurangadi graves. However, in case you would like any further information, please get in touch with the administrator at calicutheritageforum@gmail.com

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  13. I am the Eagle Group of Companies Archivist. Eagle was an airline that operated between 1948 and 1968. In 1950 we lost an aircraft at Dum Dum it was a converted Halifax bomber.The purpose of the flight was to fly freight. On takeoff is crashed into a building.
    We have been asked by family members if we can help in locating two graves of the crew believed to be buried somewhere in Dum Dum Calcuta. Their names are as follows: John (may have been listed as Arthur Stoney and Dennis Carter. The date of the accident was November 25th 1950. Any help would be appreciated.
    Eric

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  14. Thanks Eric. We shall definitely try to locate details about the unfortunate crash of 1950.Incidentally, we do hope you realise that Calicut and Calcutta are two different places with a road distance of more than 1800 kilometers. Calcutta is now known as Kolkata and Calicut is now officially called KOzhikode.

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  15. Reply to Bhimna Club post 17 Feb. 2012.

    SIRA (South India Research Associates) is currently researching all Europeans burials in South India - Portuguese through the British period. We have published 'Malabar: Christian Memorials' - Cannanore, Tellicherry & Mahe. Complete survey of the Nilgiri Hills available at the end of the year. Currently surveying all the other districts of Kerala for future publications. This will make Kerala the first province in India to have a complete record.

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