Secunderabad

Secunderabad
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Presidency: Madras
Coordinates:	17.45°N, 78.5°E
Altitude:	543 metres (1,781 ft)
Present Day Details
Place Name:	Secunderabad (twinned with Hyderabad)
State/Province:	Andhra Pradesh
Country:	India
Transport links
Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway

Secunderabad is a cantonment town that is now generally considered a part of the city of Hyderabad. The villages of Trimulgherry and Bolarum are suburbs of Secunderabad.

History

Secunderabad was founded during the reign of the Nizam Sikander Jah on land ceded by him to the British in 1800. Despite being located in Hyderabad State, it remained under British control. The town had a large military garrison and the British stationed a Subsidiary Force there, complimented by the Nizam's Contingent who were stationed at Bolarum.

Records

• An 1871 Marriage was noted to be in the Madras Ecclesiatical Returns at the British Library, indicating these Returns are a source of records.
• LDS film: Names from Secunderabad Cemetery, Hyderabad, India ca. 1820-1990 - film 795981 Item 6 which is a microfilm of an unnamed “manuscript (photocopy)”
• Probably most of the church records are part of the Madras Returns, but it is not known whether any can be found in the Indian States N5 Series at the British Library from 1890. Refer Hyderabad State.

Transport

Secunderabad was the location for the headquarters of the Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway, the first of several railways to be constructed by the Indian princely states.

Description in 1837

The British barracks at Secunderabad were described by Dr Archibald Shanks, Surgeon of the Corps, in 1837 in the Madras Quarterly Medical Journal (the full description can be read here on Google Books. He was stationed in the cantonment with the 55th Regiment of Foot and describes the barracks to indicate how they have been the cause of extensive sickness and mortality amongst the troops.

He notes that the burial ground for HM troops is very nearby and "crowded with tombstones", with names totalling thousands of British soldiers. He states that records show that between 1804 and 1836 and average of 73 deaths occured per year.

The proximity of the barracks to open drains were a cause for the Doctor's concern and he deems the over-crowded, poorly ventilated barracks objectionable in location and construction. New barracks, however, were soon to be constructed. The regimental hospital was more acceptable, on higher, drier ground. Although not big enough (he notes it can take 100 patients, whereas sometimes closer to 200 beds were needed) it was well ventilated.

External links

• Secunderabad Wikipedia
• The Earliest Churches in Secunderadad by Shyamola Khanna. Channel6 magazine.com, now an archived page
• Photograph: St John's Church, Secunderabad with description British Library Online Gallery
• Photographs: Secunderabad, remains of the British Raj The Parade Ground Cemetery, or Protestant Cemetery (Church of St John the Baptist), Secunderabad. A collection on flickr.com, from Wattman (Museum van mijn 20e eeuw), taken January 2013.
• This India List post indicates that the priest at St Mary's Church in Secunderabad, c 1904, resented having to send the ecclesiastical returns which in turn led to one of the marriage registers being lost.

Historical books online

• Secunderabad page 72, The Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal Volume 68 1847. The cantonment was classified as one of the "Stations on the Table Lands"
• "Sanitary and Topographical Report of Secunderabad EI" [East Indies] by Staff-Surgeon Dr Crawford, page 313 Army Medical Department: Statistical Sanitary and Medical Reports for the year 1860 (published 1862) Google Books