Cemeteries in Calcutta

Information on cemeteries in Calcutta.

Bengal Obituary

Calcutta cemeteries listed in the Bengal Obituary, are:

1. St John's Churchyard - from 1709 and maybe earlier.
2. South Park Street Cemetery - "The Great Burial Ground of Chowringhee" - opened on 25 August 1767.
3. North Park Street Cemetery "New burial ground Chowringhee" - probably opened in 1799 - on the opposite side of the road to South Park Street but no longer in existence. It was the final resting place of Richmond Thackeray (father of novelist), Lt Col James Achilles Kirkpatrick (the White Mughal) and other well known persons.
4. The Mission Cemetery - "The Mission Burial Ground, Chowringhee, commonly called Mr Kiernander's" - opened in or by 1773 for the wife of Rev John Zachariah Kiernander but no longer in existence.
5. Tiretta's Cemetery - "The French or Tiretta's Burial Ground, Park Street" - earliest record 1796, also no longer in extistence.
6. Bhowanipore Cemetery - "The Military Burial Ground, beyond the General Hospital was opened in the year 1782-3"
7. Lower Circular Road (at 184 Acharya Jagadis Bose Road) - "The New Burial Ground, Circular Road" was opened on 29 April 1840 for the remains of Captain E T Milner's child. This cemetery is still in use. However, the condition of the older graves in general is not good.
8. Scottish Cemetery (3 Karaya Road) - "The Scotch & Dissenters Burial Ground - was purchased in 1820.
9. Armenian Church & Cemetery - the Armenian Church of St Nazareth built 1724 has a burial ground attached to it.
10. Greek Church & cemetery - the Greek Church of the Transfiguration of Our Blessed Redeemer on Mount Tabor was consecreted 6 August 1781, but demolished and a new one built at Kalighat in 1926. "Greek cemetery at 105 Narkeldanga Main Road is forlorn" (NB: Interestingly I have a CD of pictures of Greek gravestones which was given to me, but need transcribing).
11. Portuguese Church & burial grounds of which there seem to be several, the most notable may be the Portuguese Burial Ground at Boithakhana, opened on 8 February 1786.
12. St Pauls Cathedral

3, 4 and 5 above adjoined opposite the South Park Street Cemetery which has been recently restored to a good standard. The sites of these cemeteries are now occupied by tall buildings.

There are Roman Catholic cemetries at 22 Convent Road and 169 Baliaghata Main Road.

Also mentioned are:

• The Jewish Cemetery at 45 Narikeldanga Main Road
• 5 Chinese Cemeteries

Burial grounds were also located at Dum Dum, Barrackpore, Serampore, Chandernagore, Chinsurah, Bandel and Howrah (epitaphs from which are represented in The Bengal Obituary - see Notes below). Many maritime related burials took place at Howrah, where St Thomas' Church and Cemetery were established in 1833.

Crematorium

A crematorium was erected in Calcutta in 1903, situated to the east of the Circular Road Cemetery. There was provision for the erection of a monument not exceeding 2 feet by 2 feet. It was intended mainly for the use of Europeans, Anglo- Indians and Indians who had adopted a European style of living. The Mini Cemetery with a closed Gas Crematorium (150 graves) is now under the control of the Christian Burial Board, Kolkata

Records

BACSA records at the British Library

The BACSA Archive at the British Library, shelfmark Mss Eur F370 includes entries in its catalogue under Cemetery Files . The Notes advise: The arrangement of this list and the names of provinces, places and cemeteries are based on the list which BACSA took over in 1976 from the British High Commission in India. The cemetery status (i.e. whether open or closed) is based on the information to hand, and may since have changed. If a particular cemetery is not in the list, some details of it may sometimes be found in the general file for the province or town in which it is situated.

The BACSA British Library archive catalogue is now available online at the BACSA website. Under the category Cemetery Files and Registers, BACSA Archive references at the British Library may be found for Calcutta on pages 5 and 6. In the vicinity of Calcutta: Bandel page 2, Barrackpore, and Berhampore pages 3 and 4, Chandernagore page 6, Chinsura page 7, Dum Dum page 9, Howrah page 11, Serampore page 22

Under the heading Publications - Calcutta there are the following references, also part of shelfmark Mss Eur F370

• 1207 Illustrated handbook to St John's Church (Old Cathedral) Calcutta [by E W Madge and K N Dhar] (66 pp. Calcutta, 1909)
• 1208 St John's Church (1787-1987) by Nisith S Ray. (21 pp., 1987) 2 copies with copies of Parish Magazine 1973-74
• 1209 A visit to St John's Church, Calcutta [by J A Gonsalves] (3 pp., 1971)
• 1210 St Andrew's Church of Scotland, Calcutta 1815-1965 with copies of Church magazines, July 1974 and Jan 1977 (20 pp., 1965)

  St Paul’s Cathedral Calcutta: see Mss Eur F370/1330

• 1211 South Park Street Cemetery, Calcutta. Register of graves and standing tombs: from 1767 by Maurice Shellim and others (BACSA 1992)
• 1212 The South Park Street Cemetery, Calcutta by Aurelius Khan and others (BACSA 1978)
• 1213 The South Park Street Cemetery, Calcutta 1978-1986 by Aurelius Khan and others (2nd ed, BACSA 1986)
• 1214 The South Park Street Cemetery Calcutta 1978-1997 (3rd ed, APHCI, 1997)
• 1215 French Cemetery, Park Street, Calcutta (BACSA 1983)
• 1216 "Préserver nos cimetiéres, l'example de nos collègues anglais: le cimetière francais de Calcutta" par Xavier Guyot, La Vie Généalogique, n.s. 3, no 13, (1996), pp. 17-22.

  Therefore Forward ! The Story of Carey Church Calcutta: see Mss Eur F370/1388

Other records

Bengal Past and Present: Journal of the Calcutta Historical Society, available at the British Library has a list of burials based on the original registers in Calcutta, two articles written by Rev W. K. Firminger. They are probably mostly covered by the Ecclesiastical Returns in the B.L., however there may be some additional entries which never made it to England (e.g. the ship carrying the returns to England was lost). There are also some biographical details.

• Burials 1713-1755 Volume 10 (1915) pages 257-284 (author not known)
• Burials 1759-1761 Volume 5 (Jan-June 1910) pages 136-142
• Burials 1762-1774 Volume 6 (July-Dec 1910) pages 92-126.

External links

• Christian Burial Board The Christian Burial Boards online search facility for access to grave records and pottahs of burials dating back to the 1700s

• South Park Cemetery from Christian Burial Board Kolkata

• This July 2009 post and this Aug 2009 post from the India List are about Lower Circular Road Cemetery.

• This India List April 2010 post mentions several cemeteries, including Lower Circular Road.

• Scottish Cemetery Kolkata The official blog for the team who went to Kolkata in 2008 to survey the Scottish Cemetery for The Kolkata Scottish Heritage Trust

• Photographs of Scottish Cemetery, Park Street Cemetery, St Andrew's Church BBD Bagh, Bishop's House

• Mullickbazar grave of Economist founder James Wilson, died 11 August 1860, in this link from the Telegraph, Calcutta. ‘Father of Indian finance', he was finance member of the Viceroy of India Council, akin to the post of chancellor of the Indian Exchequer.

• www.indian-cemeteries.org has photographs and transcriptions from the following cemeteries:
  • Lower Circular Road Cemetery.
  • North Park Street Cemetery.
  • Scotts Cemetery.
  • South Park Street Cemetery.
  • St Johns Church.
  • St Johns Church Black Hole Memorial.
  • St Pauls Cathedral.

Historical books online

• Asiaticus : In Two Parts. Part One, Ecclesiastical, Chronological and Historical Sketches. Part Two, the Epitaphs in the Different Burial Grounds in and about Calcutta by John Hawkesworth 1803. (80 pages) (Google Books)

• The Complete Monumental Register: Containing All the Epitaphs in the Different Churches and Burial Grounds in and about Calcutta by M Derozario 1815 (230 pages) (Google Books). Index of names.

• The Bengal Obituary: or, a record to perpetuate the memory of departed worth, being a compilation of tablets and monumental inscriptions from various parts of the Bengal and Agra presidencies 1851 Google Books has many records for cemeteries in Calcutta. Index of Names