Cawnpore

Cawnpore
Presidency: Bengal
Coordinates:	26.460738°N, 80.333405°E
Altitude:	126 m (413 ft)
Present Day Details
Place Name:	Kanpur
State/Province:	Uttar Pradesh
Country:	India
Transport links
Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway East Indian Railway Great Indian Peninsula Railway Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway

Cawnpore, in north central India, is now known as Kanpur. The nearest large city is Lucknow. Cawnpore was the scene of the infamous Siege of Cawnpore and subsequent massacre in 1857, when dozens of British women and children were slaughtered and their bodies thrown down the Bibighar well.

The city was (and remains) an important railway junction, with the East Indian main trunk line from Calcutta to Delhi meeting spurs from the Bombay, Baroda and Central India, Great Indian Peninsula and Oudh and Rohilkhand Railways.

Military history

Siege of Cawnpore Jun 1857
Cawnpore (Satichaura Ghat)
Cawnpore (Bibigarh)
Recapture of Cawnpore July 1857
Siege of Cawnpore Nov 1857

Spelling Variants

Modern name: Kanpur
Variants: Cawnpore, Cawnpur

Modern name:Bibigarh
Variants: Bibigurh/Bibigahr/Bibighar

FIBIS resources

• "Adam Maxwell of Cawnpore-Indigo and Intrigue" by Judith Vandenburgh Green FIBIS Journal Number 25 Spring 2011, pages 25-33
• "William Garnett, the Volunteering Major" by Michael Garnett FIBIS Journal Number 26 Autumn 2011, pages 26-30. For details of how to access this article, see FIBIS Journals

He was on the Bengal Unattached List located at Cawnpore from 1883, where he worked for a time at the Army Boot Factory, rising to Commissary and Honorary Major in 1912. He also played a major role c 1884 in the establishment of the Cawnpore Light Horse and on retirement to England in 1919 held the rank of Company Sergeant Major in this volunteer regiment.

Cemeteries

• A BACSA (British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia) cemetery publication, but currently (10/2010) out of print, is
  • Kacheri Cemetery, Kanpur : a complete list of inscriptions with notes on those buried there by Zoe Yalland 1985

BACSA have put the indexes to this cemetery book online and these indexes are free to browse. If an indexed name is of interest then application can be made to BACSA for details of the relevant burial inscription - charges apply for this service.

This cemetery was open 1781-1865 and up to 1846 was known as the Officers’ Burial Ground, as mainly military officers and their families were buried there. It became known as Kacheri Cemetery in 1857. Blunt has some entries under Kachahri Cemetery. Private soldiers were buried at Hiramun-Ku –Purwa (open 1796-1818). The New Cantonment Cemetery was open 1818-1943.

• Monumental Inscriptions from Cawnpur Cantonment Cemetery by Lieut-Colonel W A Gale R.E. from Miscellanea Genealogica Et Heraldica: Fourth Series
  • Volume 1 1906. This is a Preview Google Books and unfortunately only part of the data is shown. This book is available at the British Library. Page 54,page 114, page 145,(pages missing prior to page 145), page 172, page 216 Index of Names (Entire book)
  • Volume 2 1908 Archive.org Page 21, page 61, page 138, page 164. Index of Names (Entire book). The last entry of data states "To be continued" so tt appears there is more data probably in Miscellanea Genealogica Et Heraldica:Fourth Series, Volume 3,, and perhaps even additional volumes, available at the British Library

Education

• Christ Church College, Kanpur. The College began as an S.P.G. [Society for the Propogation of the Gospel] Mission School in the 1840’s. First called Mission School, then Christ Church School, it grew into a College affiliated to the Calcutta University in 1866.
• Girls’High School, (Wikipedia), known as Methodist High School since 1952. Established 1874. It also admitted some boys.

Economy and Business

• Maitrey Bajpai’s Industrialisation in Cawnpore
• The books Traders and Nabobs: The British in Cawnpore 1765-1857 by Zoe Yalland 1987 and Boxwallahs : the British in Cawnpore, 1857-1901 by Zoë Yalland 1994 are available at the British Library, A description of the latter book is given in this link
• Arklow Sailing Club’s Cawnpore Cup was presented by Henry Horsman, born in Cawnpore in 1927. His father, Albert Horsman , born 1892, was a boxwallah who owned and ran, with his brother Harry, the Swadeshi Cotton Mill in Cawnpore. The "Ursula Horsman Memorial Hospital" in Cawnpore is named after Henry’s mother, who died in an aeroplane crash in 1935.
• William Bradshaw was appointed assistant weaving master at Muir Mills in 1931 and worked there until 1952

Volunteer Regiments

• Cawnpore Light Horse

External links

• Cawnpore Love to Know 1911
• Kanpur Wikipedia
• Cawnpore City Imperial Gazetteer of India, Volume 9, page 315.
• Cawnpore map 1909 Imperial Gazetteer of India Volume 26 Atlas
• Civic administration and politics in Kanpur since the establishment of the corporation by A P Tripathi and H N Sabharwal 3 June 1977. An online thesis from DSpace at Vidyanidhi. Chapter 1 includes "Origin of Kanpur"