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. The Christian Burial Board now oversees this cemetery and will identify and show visitors to a relevant grave. Burial records are maintained on site and the Board is contactable by email for enquiries.
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).

Fort William Burial Ground

As a result of new construction in the Fort in the 1880s, the ‘old’ burial ground is no longer in existence, and some of the headstones were moved and are now mounted on the walls at South Park Cemetery. The ‘new' burial ground is part of the military base and is closed to the public.

These burial grounds are different burial grounds to those at Bhowanipore Cemetery, the old (separate) part of which is known as the Military Burial Ground.

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. (More details.) The crematorium was built by a French company Toisoul Fradet & Co. based in Paris, which specialised in crematoriums, and continued operating until the early 1980s, when erratic gas supply caused it to close.

The Mini Cemetery with a closed Gas Crematorium (150 graves) is now under the control of the Christian Burial Board, Kolkata

Maps of Calcutta

For location of the cemeteries see Calcutta - Maps, where a number of maps produced at different dates are available.

Records

BACSA records

• BACSA (British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia) cemetery publications are
  • Calcutta: South Park Street: Register of Graves and Standing Tombs (from 1767) 1992 "128pp, 9 plans, also serves as index to tomb photos in BACSA archive"
  • Calcutta: South Park Street by Maurice Shellim, 1986 (2nd edition) "On progress in restoring 'The Great Cemetery'. 28pp, 8 illustrations, 2 plans"
  • Calcutta: French Cemetery by Basil La Bouchardiere, 1983 "Cemetery cleared in 1977 - a complete record. 28pp, 8 illustrations, 4 maps/plans"

See BACSA Books.

BACSA have put the indexes to these cemetery books 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

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 BACSA Cemetery files select Calcutta and West Bengal.

External links

• Christian Burial Board, Kolkata
  • Burial Records
  • South Park Cemetery
• Photographs of South Park Street Cemetery including a small group by ron de lightbox Flickr.com
• Records of the Scottish Cemetery, Kolkata Grave number, name and burial year transcribed from handwritten cemetery records. Further information, where available, on request. From the archived website of St Andrews Church, Kolkata

The Scottish Cemetery Project includes Full list of tombs and an advance search. It is stated on the Main Page that “The digitized versions of the burial records of St. Andrew’s Kirk have been made available to us”. However, as far as can be established, this website does not include those digitised burial records, neither can an online source for the burial records be established. Perhaps they may be held by St Andrew’s Church, for the use of Church staff.

• 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, now archived, has photographs and transcriptions from the following cemeteries. Although an archived website, the internal links appear to be still working.
  • 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.
• "The Greek Cemetery of Kolkata" by Helen Abadzi. academia.edu.
• Jewish records: Calcutta Grave Records from Genealogy National Sephardic Library, now archived webpages.

The Oseh Haised Board also maintained the Jewish cemetery in Darjeeling.

• Inscriptions from Bhowanipore Cemetery, Kolkata Over 700 names from Commonwealth War Graves Commission. cwgc.org
• Buried history by Shine Jacob Kolkata June 3, 2012 business-standard.com. Calcutta cemeteries. Includes advice that the East India Charitable Trust answers queries about Bhowanipore Cemetery in respect of the section they manage.(not War Graves) (Note: this function is not mentioned on the EICT website, although it is stated the Trust is actively associated with the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia (BACSA). Select “Contact Us” in the EICT website for contact details). (In 2005 it was advised the Bhowanipore Cemetery was maintained by APHCI, the Association for the Preservation of Historical Cemeteries in India, the sister organisation of BACSA), with contact details given.)

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
• List of inscriptions on tombs or monuments in Bengal possessing historical or archaeological interest by C R Wilson, 1896 is available as a free pdf type download from FamilySearch (located, if the given link is not permanent, by searching the Library catalogue). Includes index. Part I contains the Calcutta inscriptions; part II contains inscriptions from the Lower Provinces. c 248 pages This link may have download problems during maintenance night time Utah Time (Utah Time=GMT less seven hours). Try again at another time. Adobe Acrobat reader probably required.

• The Thackerays in India and some Calcutta Graves by Sir William Wilson Hunter 1897 archive.org