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

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

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Cawnpore was the headquarters of Cawnpore District in the Allahabad Division of United Provinces during the British period.

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/Cawnpoor/Caunpoor

Modern name:Bibigarh
Variants: Bibigurh/Bibigahr/Bibighar

FIBIS resources

• Images of Cawnpore
• Photograph: Cawnpore Barracks 1915 FIBIS Gallery collection of photographs of Arthur Cecil Gregory who served in the 5th Bn. East Surrey Regiment in various parts of India during WWI, including Cawnpore
• Photograph: The Kanpur Memorial Church, originally called the All Soul's Cathedral FIBIS on Facebook
• "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

• BACSA has published the book Cawnpore – its early history and Kacheri Cemetery Guide by Zoë Yalland, 2012. "An engaging history of Cawnpore, with inscriptions on tombs in the old Kacheri cemetery and biographical notes. A new edition of the author’s two books on Kacheri Cemetery which have long been out of print. 150pp, numerous illustrations". See BACSA Books.

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. At least some of these entries may be found in the FIBIS database: Percy-Smith/Bullock papers: Graves and Monuments
  • Volume1 1906 contains entries and is available at the British Library. 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 it 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

Church memorial inscriptions

• Memorial to those who died 2nd Bn The Essex Regiment 1925-1928 at All Souls Church, Cawnpore indian-cemeteries.org
• Memorial to those who died 1st Bn The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) during the stay of the Battalion in India 11.1925-2.1936 All Souls Church, Cawnpore indian-cemeteries.org
• For some further inscriptions from Cawnpore, see Indian Cemeteries

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
• 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. Details of the Cup from India-British-Raj Mailing List.
• William Bradshaw was appointed assistant weaving master at Muir Mills in 1931 and worked there until 1952
• Profile of The British India Corporation which was registered as a Limited Company on 24 February 1920.to amalgamate a number of companies, most of which were located in Cawnpore:
  • Cawnpore Woollen Mills Co. (established 1876). Still in existence as a Government of India Company, (along with New Egerton Woollen Mills Co. Ltd., Dhariwal, Punjab. (established 1882)).
  • Cooper Allen & Co. Ltd. proprietors of the largest Army Boot and Equipment Factory in the world – Kanpur (established 1881)
  • North–West Tannery Co. Ltd., Proprietors of the largest and the most up-to-date Tannery in the East – Kanpur (established 1881).
  • Cawnpore Cotton Mills Co. Ltd. (established 1882).
  • Empire Engineering Co. Ltd., Civil, Mechanical, Motor and Constructional Engineers, Contractors and Builders – Kanpur (established 1894).

Volunteer Regiments

• Cawnpore Light Horse

External links

• Cawnpore encyclopedia.jrank.org (Online 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica)
• 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"
• Photograph: Cawnpore Well Taken c 1928 flickr.com

Historical books online

• District Gazetteers of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh: Volume XIX Cawnpore by H R Nevill 1909 is available to read online on the Digital Library of India website.