Naini Tal

Naini Tal
Presidency: Bengal
Coordinates:	29.38°N, 79.45°E
Altitude:	2,084 m (6,837 ft)
Present Day Details
Place Name:	Nainital
State/Province:	Uttarakhand
Country:	India
Transport links

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

Naini Tal, a hill station in the Kumaon foothills of the outer Himalayas, was the headquarters of Naini Tal District in the Kumaon Division of United Provinces during the British period. A cantonment was located there.

Spelling Variants

Modern name: Nainital
Variants: Nynee Tal/Naini Tal

Surrounding area

Bhim Tal, modern name Bhimtal (Wikipedia) is situated 22 kilometres from Naini Tal. It was the location of a Boer prisoner of war camp , established in 1902 at the north end of the lake, according to this link

Approximately 65 kilometres (40 miles) from Nainital is the Jim Corbett National Park.

Muktesar, (Muktsar, Mukstar), modern name Mukteshwar (Wikipedia), 51 km from Naini Tal, was the location of the Imperial Bacteriological Laboratory, which investigated diseases of stock in India. It subsequently became the Indian Veterinary Research Institute and remains the hill campus of that institution. It was also a tourist destination.

FIBIS Resources

• Images of Nainital
• Images of Nainital FIBIS Gallery

Schools

Naini Tal Diocesan Boys' School

Oak Openings Boys High School was renamed in 1889, when it was relocated from a previous site. Jim Corbett of Jim Corbett National Park fame attended this school. In 1905 the Philander Smith Institute of Mussoorie, founded by a Mrs. Smith, widow of Mr. Philander Smith of Illinois was moved to Nainital and "amalgamated" with the Oak Openings Boys’ High School and the result was the Philander Smith College .

"In the latter half of the 19th century, a number of “European” schools were founded in Nainital for British boys and girls. By 1906, there were over half a dozen such schools, including the Diocesan Boys’ School (later renamed Sherwood College) under the guidance of the Church of England; Philander Smith’s College (now Birla Vidya Mandir), maintained by an American; St. Joseph’s College, a Roman Catholic institution; Wellesley School, an American institution; St. Mary’s Convent High School, a Roman Catholic institution; All Saints Diocesan High School for Girls, under the Church of England, and Petersfield College for Girls. In the 1920s and 30s, the schools began to admit more Indian students."

The Philander Smith College disappears from the scene in the early forties, probably due to the Second World War. The deserted campus of the college was now to be occupied by the short lived Hallet War School of the early forties named after the last Governor of the then United Province.

Churches

• St John in the Wilderness (established 1884)

Cemeteries

• St John in the Wilderness (1845-1928) ( Some information can be found in BACSA file British Library ref MSS Eur F370/603)
  • Victims of the 1880 Landslip Burials at St John in the Wilderness -page 211 List of inscriptions on Christian tombs and tablets of historical interest in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh by E A H Blunt ICS 1911 Archive.org
• Pines Cemetery

Some information on the following three cemeteries can be found in BACSA file in the British Library (ref Mss Eur F370/604)

• Haldwani Cemetery (Muslim Graveyard)
• Kaladungi Cemetery. Some graves here date back to 1870s .
• Methodist Cemetery (Ayarpatta)

Volunteer Regiment

• Naini Tal Volunteer Rifles

External links

Naini Tal Brewery Camp

• Naini Tal Town Imperial Gazetteer
  
• Nainital Tourism
  • History of Nainital
  • Churches in In & Around Nainital District Includes St John In The Wilderness Church
  • Rare Old British Era Picture Gallery Of Nainital
• Photograph of St. John's Church, Nainital apparently now derelict. trekearth.com
• "Church In The Foothills" by Mukesh Rawat 16 February 2014 The Pioneer. The Church of St John in the Wilderness.
• "New lease of life for British-era cemeteries in Nainital" by Anupam Trivedi. January 13, 2016 Hindustan Times.
• History of Naini Tal gurneyhouse.com
• Terrible Landslip In India Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 236, 26 November 1880, page 4 paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
• Birla Vidyamandir School: History
• History of Sherwood College, originally the Nainital Diocesan Boys School, founded 1867. oldsherwoodians.com, the Sherwood Alumni website.
• History of St. Joseph's College, Nainital
• Photograph by Samuel Bourne - Lake, Nynee Tal, 1860 flickr.com

Historical books online

• "Naini Tal Town" Imperial Gazetteer of India, Volume 18, page 333.
• "Map of Naini Tal", between pages 282 and 283, A Handbook for Travellers in India, Burma, and Ceylon published by John Murray, London Eighth Edition 1911 Archive.org.
• "Naini Tal in the Days of the Company" page 240 Bygone Days in India by Douglas Dewar 1922. Archive.org.
• "Nynee Tal" from "A Sketch of the Physical and Topographical Characters and Other Relations of the Hill Sanitaria of Darjeeling, Nynee Tal, Landour and Murree, in the Bengal Presidency", page 307 Army Medical Department: Report for the Year 1862 Google Books
• "Nynee Tal" page 376 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
• From the Himalayas to the Equator; letters, sketches. and addresses, giving some account of a tour in India and Malaysia by Cyrus D Foss , one of the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 1899 Archive.org. With images. FamilySearch Digital book, where the images have been [correctly] rotated. May be slow to load. Includes Naini Tal.
• A Guide to Naini Tal and Kumaun by C W Murphy 1906 is is available to download as a pdf from Pahar-Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset, located under Books, Indian Subcontinent, 1906.
• Naini Tal : a historical and descriptive account, 1927, published 1928, is available to download as two different pdfs from Pahar-Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset, located under Books, Indian Subcontinent, 1927 and 1928.They are cataloged as 1927 Nainital--a historical and descriptive account by Clay and 1928 Naini Tal--a historical and descriptive account by Clay. It appears the author is considered to be J M Clay.
• My India by Jim Corbett originally published 1952 Archive.org. Includes some descriptions of Naini Tal. For more books by Jim Corbett, see Kumaon
• The Himalayan Gazetteer or the Himalayan Districts of the North Western Province of India by Edwin T Atkinson in 3 Volumes (6 Parts) originally published 1882, 1884, 1886 is available, in a reprint edition, to read online on the Digital Library of India website. Covers the regions of Kumaon and Garhwal. Volume 1, Part 1 Contents computer page 12; Volume 1, Part 2 Contents cp 12, Index cp 536; Volume 2, Part 1 Contents cp18; Volume 2, Part 2 Contents cp 16 Index cp 458, includes History of the British in the area; Volume 3, Part 1 Contents cp 10 Place names A-J; Volume 3, Part 2 Contents cp 8 Place names K-Z.

Pdf downloads: Vol. 1, Part 1 Vol. 1, Part 2 Vol. 2, Part 1, Vol. 2, Part 2, Vol. 3, Part 1, Vol. 3, Part 2. Additional files are available for Volume 3.

• District Gazetteers of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh: Volume 34: Nainital 1904 may be downloaded as a pdf from Bhagirathi - The Institute Repository of IIT Roorkee
• Naini Tal landslip page 72 The diary of a civilian's wife in India, 1877-1882 
by Mrs. Robert Moss King 1884 Archive.org
• Naini Tal landslip page 3 The Scientific proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society New Series Volume IV 1885 Archive.org
• 'Sick Leave: a Search for Health" by Captain J. C. Burns Journal of the Royal Army Army Medical Corps 1923;41:1 pages 55-63. The first part of the article describes Naini Tal.
• A description of the Imperial Bacteriological Laboratory, Muktesar : its work and products by Major JDE Holmes 1913. Archive.org. Investigation of the diseases of stock in India.