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 was 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. The Headquarters of Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway, their railway workshops and a railway colony were at Lallaguda (Lalaguda), in the suburbs 2 miles (3km) east of Secunderabad town centre.

During the Second World War Secunderabad was a major hospital base for troops fighting in North East India and Burma.

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.

FIBIS Resources

• Transcriptions of Gravestones in Secunderabad FIBIS Database

Records

• The church records for churches located in the British cantonment areas are part of the Madras Returns, now available on the commercial site findmypast, but possibly other church records can be found in the Indian States N5 Series at the British Library from 1890, now also available on findmypast.
  • As an example, an 1871 Marriage was noted to be in the Madras Ecclesiastical Returns at the British Library, indicating these Returns are a source of records.
• FamilySearch film: Names from Secunderabad Cemetery, Hyderabad, India ca. 1820-1990 - film 795981 Item 6 which is a microfilm of an unnamed “manuscript (photocopy)” - (but also note transcriptions in FIBIS Resources above). The catalogue entry however shows that although digitised, this record is only viewable as a microfilm, which should be available at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. A possible source of some of the contents of the record is the book List of Inscriptions on Tombs or Monuments in H.E.H. the Nizam's Dominions : with biographical notes by O.S. Crofton. 1941, which is available at the British Library UIN: BLL01001781826, and in an Indian reprint edition.
• Also see Hyderabad State - Records.

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.

The Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Workshop of the Nizam State Railway (NSR) was established in 1893 and was located at Lallaguda (Lalaguda), part of Secunderabad, together with the railway colony. This area was not in the British controlled cantonment area, so baptisms, marriages and burials from churches in the railway colony will not be found in the Madras Ecclesiastical Returns.

Cemeteries

Cemetery names have changed over time as detailed below.

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 (retrieved 10 May 2016)
• 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.
• An 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.
• Photo Gallery: Accommodation for Soldiers and Officers: Plan of Barracks and Accommodation at Secunderabad, India, 1843 King's Own Royal Regiment Museum, Lancaster.
• RAF Secunderabad rafweb.org (retrieved 1 July 2014)
• A Queen Alexandra's Nurse in India by Margaret Ledger. WW2. Her postings included Secunderabad. bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar

Historical books online

• Plan of Secunderabad An Atlas of the Southern Part of India 1854 Archive.org
• 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
• Secunderadad page 245 Reports on mountain and marine sanitaria; medical and statistical observations on civil stations and military cantonments, jails - dispensaries - regiments - barracks, &c. within the Presidency of Madras, the Straits of Malacca, the Andaman Islands, and British Burmah from January 1858 to January 1862 by Inspector General of Hospitals Duncan Macpherson. 1862 Archive.org. Part of the series Selections from the Records of the Madras Government.
• Secunderabad page 415 Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the Sanitary State of the Army in India : with Abstract of Evidence, and of Reports Received from Indian Military Stations 1864 Archive.org
• "Secunderabad - An Appreciation from the Point of View of an R.A.M.C. Officer" [1926] by Captain S. Smith Part 1, Part 2 Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps 1926;46:5 pages 379-387 and 1926;46:6 pages 452-458
• "Secunderabad" page 289 Pictorial Hyderabad Volume I by K.Krishnaswamy Mudiraj 1929 Archive.org. Images are generally unfortunately of a low standard. All editions Archive.org, but the images seem poor in all editions.