Rangoon

Rangoon
Presidency: Bengal Presidency
Coordinates:	16.868878°N 96.236255°E
Altitude:	26m (85 ft)
Present Day Details
Place Name:	Yangon
State/Province:	Yangon Division
Country:	Burma
Transport links

FibiWiki Maps
See our interactive map of this location showing places of interest during the British period
[xxxxx Rangoon]

Rangoon, in what was formerly known as Lower Burma, was the capital of British Burma from 1885 and a separate district in Pegu Division during the British period. It was also the headquarters of Hanthawaddy District.

History

Rangoon came under British rule in the 1850s and was transformed into a busy commercial port. It became the capital of British Burma after Upper Burma was captured in the 3rd Burma War, making overland access from the rest of British India possible.

Military history

• Occupation of Rangoon 1824, part of the 1st Burma War
• Battle of Rangoon 1852, part of the 2nd Burma War

There was a cantonment at Rangoon. C 1927 a new cantonment was built at Mingaladon, twelve miles to the north of Rangoon, although some regiments remained in Rangoon. During the Second World War, Mingaladon was the location of an RAF base, which is now the Rangoon international airport.

Spelling Variants

Modern name: Yangon
Variants: Rangoon

Maps

• Map of Rangoon 1893 Ian Poyntz’ Rootsweb Historical Maps of India
• Map of Rangoon 1909 Imperial Gazetteer of India
• Map of Rangoon 1912 Historical Maps of Asia Collection, University of Texas, Austin
• Map of Rangoon 1924 Ian Poyntz’ Rootsweb Historical Maps of India
• Map of Rangoon 1931 Imperial Gazetteer of India
• The Anglo -Burmese Library includes at least one historical map of Rangoon which can be increased to show great detail, available in the members' area.

Churches

• Holy Trinity
• Yangon Siyin Baptist Church, previously St Philip’s Church
• Methodist English Church
• Telugu Methodist Church
• Presbyterian Church - Rangoon known as the "Scots Kirk".
• St Mary's (Roman Catholic)
• St. John’s Catholic Church
• St. Theresa’s Catholic Church

Cemeteries

• The English Cantonment Cemetery, Rangoon (Scroll down to near the bottom of the page) from Steve Fogden’s “ Chindit Chasing, Operation Longcloth 1943”
• Rangoon War Cemetery
  • Rangoon War Cemetery Roll of Honour roll-of-honour.org.uk
  • Rangoon War Cemetery Scroll down for photographs and cemetery information from Steve Fogden’s “ Chindit Chasing, Operation Longcloth 1943”
  • WW2Talk post CWGC Rangoon Memorial (Burma) 2010: Pics of all c27,000 names now available. A free offer.
• Taukkyan War Cemetery including the Rangoon Memorial
  • Taukkyan War Cemetery and the Rangoon Memorialfrom above mentioned website of Steve Fogden
  • Roll of Honour Taukkyan Memorial Roll-of-honour.org.uk
  • Taukkyan War Cemetery cwgc.org
• The Armenian Cemetery in Rangoon has been completely demolished.

External links

• Rangoon City Imperial Gazetteer
  
• Photograph: View of the Cantonment, Rangoon 1855 by Linnaeus Tripe. Click to enlarge. British Library

Postcard: English Soldiers’ Barracks, Rangoon chasingchinthes.com

Postcard: Barracks from Victoria Park, Rangoon chasingchinthes.com

• Photograph Album: Rangoon by DBHKer flick.com. Includes Photos of churches
• Photograph: The Strand Rangoon 1907 by Philip Klier. The National Archives UK on flickr.com
• Photographs of colonial buildings in Yangon taken mid 2012 from the website of photographers Jacques Maudy and Jimi Casaccia with the article Burma: Visionary Photographers Train Cameras On Yangon’s Colonial Buildings Eurasia Review August 2, 2012
• A Fading Yangon Captured in Photos with Photos September 13, 2012 Wall Street Journal Life and Style: Scene Asia, archived.
• "A toast to the past" [The Pegu Club] by Wade Guyitt 08 July 2013 Myanmar Times. Retrieved 30 August 2014
• Chasing Chinthes Armenians in Rangoon (retrieved 27 May 2014)
• "The last Armenians of Myanmar" by Andrew Whitehead 27 August 2014 bbc.com. Retrieved 1 September 2014
• New Cantonment, Mingaladon. Hansard 28 July 1927. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
• RAF Mingaladon rafweb.org. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
• Yangon [Anglican Archdiocese] Anglican Communion. Retrieved 28 October 2014
• Catholic Archdiocese of Yangon For the parishes, select, from the tabs, Parish. Some of these pages include a history of the churches.
• "Rangoon as a Modern City : The Impact of British Colonialism in British India" by Simon Duncan. Southeast Asia Seminar. Catching Up Southeast Asian New Body: States, Markets and Public Spheres. September 26-28th, 2013 Phuket, Thailand. Main Organizer CSEAS, Kyoto University.
• "Yangon's restoration gathers pace" by Ken Barrett, May 27, 2016 Nikkei Asian Review, archived.
• Photograph: Yangon Siyin Baptist Church, previously St Philip’s Church cityguide.com.mm, archived. St Philip’s Church of England was established in 1887
• Photograph: St Mary's [Roman Catholic] Cathedral, Yangon, the largest church in Myanmar; the exterior is red brick, while the interior features an unusual mix of red, green and white. It was designed by Dutch architect Jos Cuypers and was completed in 1899. go-myanmar.com on flickr.com

Historical books online

• John Crawfurd's Account of Rangoon in the Summer of 1826 Reprinted in SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research, Vol. 3, No. 2. Autumn 2005. Archive.org.
• "Rangoon" page 353 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.
• "Rangoon" page 435 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
• "Rangoon" page 1 The Land of the White Elephant: Sights and Scenes in South-Eastern Asia : A personal narrative of travel and adventure in Farther India, embracing the countries of Burma, Siam, Cambodia, and Cochin-China. (1871-2) by Frank Vincent Jun. 1874 Archive.org
• "Rangoon" page 145 Wanderings in Burma by George W Bird 1897 “South East Asia Visions” Cornell University with
  • Map of Rangoon Town and Suburbs
• Scenes in Burma: An Album of 125 Views c 1900-1910? Archive.org. Contains many photographs of Rangoon, including churches.
• Rangoon Diocesan Association: Quarterly Paper Church of England. 48 quarterly issues from 1897 to 1908. SOAS Digital Library. London University.The issue for June 1898 listed Clergy and English Missionaries throughout Burma. If the link is not permanent Search using keyword Rangoon.
• Drainage problems of the East : being a revised and enlarged edition of "Oriental drainage", [Volume 1] by C C James 1917, first published 1906 Archive.org. Includes chapters relating to Drainage of the major cities in India (Bombay, Calcutta, Karachi, Madras, “Benares, Lucknow, Mirzapur and Lahore”), Rangoon, Singapore, Penang and Shanghai, and of the major cities in Egypt. Drainage problems of the East, Volume 2- Plans by C C James 1917 Archive.org