Murree

Murree
Presidency: Bengal
Coordinates:	33.906905°N 73.395367°E
Altitude:	2,291.2 m (7,517 ft)
Present Day Details
Place Name:	Murree
State/Province:	Punjab
Country:	Pakistan
Transport links

Murree is a hill station in Punjab founded by the British in 1851.

There were cantonments nearby at Gharial (alternative spelling Gharrial) (four miles away) and Kuldannah, (Kuldana)

Nearby
Barian (Wikipedia) is situated in the Murree Hills, about 13 km north west of Murree, in the area known as the Galis (Gallis, Galies, Gallies, Gullies, Galiyat) where a number of small hill towns, many of which have Gali in their name, are situated along the crest of the ridge on the road that runs north from Murree to Abbottabad. Galiyat is the plural of Gali which literally means an alley but in this case it probably alludes to a valley between mountains. Barian Gali or Burean Gully is probably the same place as Barian. In 1901 this area became part of Hazara District , North West Frontier Province
Tret is situated 40 kilometers from Rawalpindi on the main road to Muree.

Military history

Insurrection at Murree 1857

Cantonments

In 1907:
"Murree is only a sanitarium. The mountain batteries go from Rawalpindi to the Hazara Galis. Clifden, Sunny Bank and Kuldannah form one cantonment. Clifden is, in summer, filled with a large number of women and children from Rawalpindi and Peshawar. A British Infantry Regiment is located at Kuldannah, and another in a temporary camp at Gharial, which also receives detachments from the summer garrison of Rawalpindi. Barian, on the borders of this district and Hazara, usually has a British Infantry Regiment from Peshawar or Nowshera".

The Army summer camp known as Barian Camp appears to have developed into a more permanent cantonment . "Barian was a lovely one-battalion cantonment at six thousand feet". In 1920 there was a RAF Hill Depot established at Lower Barian.

Bara Gali (Wikipedia), about 40km from Murree, also was a small cantonment.

Khaira Gali was a small cantonment on the road between Abbottabad and Murree, occupied in the summer months by one of the British mountain batteries which were stationed at Rawalpindi in the winter. (Spelling variants : Khaira/Khair/Khyra Gali/Galli

There was a Rest Camp at Tret.

Postcards and photographs of the cantonments

Postcards may not be permanent links, particularly those from ebay. If not, try Googling "old postcard" with the title of the postcard. Most are from stamps-auction.com.

• Postcard: A View of Cantonment General Hospital, Murree
• Postcard: View Kuldana, Murree Hills
• Postcard: Gharrial Barracks, Murree Hills
• Postcard: Gharrial Barracks in Winter (Snow) Murree Hills ebay
• Postcard: Charat Hill, Murree
• Postcard: General View of Military Line: Barian Camp (c 1910?)
• Postcard: Bazar Barian Camp, 7 Miles from Sunny Bank, Murree Hills ebay
• Postcard: Khan’s Pur, Murree Hill
• Postcard: Khan's Pur Murree.
• Postcard: Rest Camp (Tret) Murree Hills.
• Postcard: Upper Topa Murree 1910 imagesofasia.com
• Postcard: The Soldiers' Home Upper Topa, Murree Hill
• Postcard: Khair Gali Murree Hill
• Postcard: Khair Gali - (Murree)
• Postcard: Khaira Galli Murree Hills

Photographs

• 2009 Photograph of Old British Raj military HQ at Barian Cantonment. Now a military training school. flickr.com
• Photograph: 2nd Battalion Band, The Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment, Cherat, North West Frontier, 1913 from Janet & Richard Mason’s The Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment
• Photograph: 5th Battalion, The Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment, Barian Camp, Muree (First World War period) from Janet & Richard Mason’s The Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment
• Photographs of Barian: Barian: 1, Barian:2, Barian:3,Barian:4 from Photograph album of Private Henry Knight, who served in "A" Company of the 1/5th Royal West Kent Regiment in India during the Great War, from Janet & Richard Mason’s The Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment

Sites of Interest

The following are sites in and around the town.

• The ruins of Murree Brewery in Ghora Gali

Educational Institutes

• Convent of Jesus and Mary (originally boarding, now a day school)
• St Thomas College, Murree, for boys, was opened in 1882, probably by the Capuchin Fathers, and was subsequently taken over by the (Roman Catholic) Mill Hill Missionaries . However, it had probably closed by the 1930’s as there is no mention of this school in the entry for Murree in the Imperial Gazetteer of India, published 1909-1931
• St Denys School

Volunteer Regiments

G Company, 1st Punjab Volunteer Rifles, had its headquarters at Murree, and was composed of cadets belonging to the Lawrence Military Asylum at Ghora Gali, near Murree.

H Company, 1st Punjab Volunteer Rifles contained civilian residents from Rawalpindi and Murree, and had its headquarter at Murree. In 1907 G and H Companies were "in strength 121 men, exclusive of officers".

External Links

• Murree Wikipedia
• "Memories of Murree" by Walter Reeve (born 1934) whose father was in the Indian Army and later Pakistan Army. Details of a visit to Murree in 1936 from the author’s father’s memoirs, and the author’s memory of visits in 1948 and 1949. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 Scroll down. jang.com.pk 6, 13 and 20 November 2005, now archived websites. See References below for the author’s memories of an English schoolboy growing up in Peshawar around the time of partition.
• Churches and Chapels in Murree Youtube.
• Photograph: St. Deny's Church – Murree flickr.com
• Muree and Gallies www.geocities.ws/jamshedt
• Dr Ali Jan’s The old English Cemeteries in Murree, Pakistan
• MurreeHills.co.nr includes
  • Boarding Schools
  • Books about Murree
• Fifty Members of the Murree Club 1865 pages 46,47 from From Kashmir to Kabul: the photographs of John Burke and William Baker, 1860-1900 by Omar Khan 2002 Limited View Google Books. Also refer Photographer for more details of this book.
• "A rock epic". An article by Ali Jan about a 1909 regimental rock carving by the Northumberland Fusiliers, at Murree from The News on Sunday 19 July 2009 (jang.com.pk)
• Prince of Wales's Own West Yorkshire Regiment, Kuldana, Murree 1907- 1910 by Dr Ali Jan. Details of rock carvings.
• Three views of regimental badge rock-carvings at Cherat (Charat) Hill. Cherat, like the Khyber Pass had a tradition of regimental carvings on the rocky faces of the hillsides.
  • pre 1920, 1920, 1931
• British Soldiers' Cemetery, Lower Topa, Murree Hills – Pakistan You Tube
• Photograph of Murree Mountain (7,600 feet) taken from Lower Topa by IshtiaQ Ahmed flickr.com
• Images of Murree from "History of Pakistan"'s collection flickr.com
• The Murree Brewery murreebrewery.com
• Photograph of tonga journey returning from school in Murree, October 1905 from Ask the photo expert Blog 25 Sep 2012 findmypast.co.uk

Historical books online

• "Murree Town" Imperial Gazetteer of India, Volume 18, page 42.
• Map of Murree showing the cantonments, between pages 244 and 245, A Handbook for Travellers in India, Burma, and Ceylon published by John Murray, London Eighth Edition 1911 Archive.org.
• "Abstract of Medico-Topographical Report of Murree, Punjab" by Assistant-Surgeon J Reade, 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade, page 321 Army Medical Department: Report for the Year 1862
• Punjab District Gazetteers, Volume XXVIIIA, Rawalpindi District 1907, published 1909, is available to read online on the Digital Library of India website. Table of Contents commences computer page 8.

Further Reading

• Shaukat, Lala Rukh, "Mystique of Murree" Lahore: Ferozsons (Pvt) Ltd 2006 ISBN 969 0 01986 4