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ISSN 0141-6588 Ctt0WK1DAR Vol. 4. No. 6 Autumn 1987 Editor: Dr. Rosie Llewellyn-Jones THE GUIDESCHAPEL, MARDAN BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR CEMETERIES IN SOUTH ASIA (BACSA) On Sunday5th April 1987 the Centenary of the Corps of Guides Chapel was celebrated in Mardanat a service attended by some 150 visitors. PRESIDENT CHAIRMAN from the United Kingdom as well as various parts of the North West Mr. H.M. Stokes Frontier of Pakistan. Sue Farrington was present and she has compiled Sir John Cotton, KCMG, OBE the following report. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE COUNCIL Mr. F.O. Bell OBE 'It dawned a brilliant sunny Spring day. and the chapel looked as im Mr. J.S. Hewitt, MBE maculate as it must have done a hundred years earlier when its builder, Mr, B.C. Bloomfield Miss S.M. Farrington Colonel Robert Hutchinson. would have been putting the finishing tou Mr. V.E. Davies, OBE Major A.G. Harfield, BEM, FRHistS ches to his creation. He would have been proud of the scrubbed head Sir John Lawrence Bt., OBE Mr. E.A. Johnston stones and paths which now surround the chapel, and from his own plot Mrs. K.L. Lewis CBE, MA, FSA Mrs. C. Langdon-Davies in the old cemetery near the Commandant's House. astonished at the Sir Hugh Mackay-Tallack Mr. R.N. Lines MBE large turn out. and reception given to the congregation by the Punjab Sir Cyril Pickard, KCMG Mrs. P. Mccandlish Regimental Centre. The service was conducted by the Norwegian Pastor, The Rt. Hon. Lord Rees, PC, QC Mr. R.B. Magar the Reverend Keir Valle, and the Bishop of Peshawar. Bishop Khair Mr. M.H. Rossington, CBE ud-din, in Urdu, Pushtu and Mr. M.G. Satow, OBE Mrs. P. Saul English. After an address by the Bishop. The Rt. Hon. the Viscount Slim, OBE three plaques were unveiled, including one in memory of her husband, Mr. G.E.D. Walker, MBE General Goff Hamilton. by Mollie Hamilton, better known as the author MM Kaye. Below the English inscription of this plaque were a few HONORARY SECRETARY HONORARY TREASURER lines in Urdu which translated read: 'Death may take me away, but I Mr. T.C. Wilkinson MBE Mr. J.R.G. Comyn live on with my true friends. Ask not where my tomb lies, you will 761 Chartfield Avenue find me among my comrades'. London SW 15 6HQ Wreaths were then laid at the Foundation Stone set into the east wall MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY& FAMILY HISTORY OFFICER outside, to the accompaniment of the Last Post played by buglars of DEPUTY TREASURER the Punjab Regiment. By now the temperature had risen. and the con Miss E. de Bourbel MBE Mrs. Rosemarie Wilkinson gregation moved to the most welcome shamianas erected just outside the churchyard. While the senior guests. including several widows and PRESS& PUBLICITY OFFICER and retired British officers who had made the long journey. were taken on a tour of the old cemetery, the Commandant's House and the Mess, Mr. J. Wall the remaining one hundred or so guests were entertained by a band of the Pubjab Regiment, and served reviving cold drinks by immaculately pugri-ed Mess staff. This was followed by an excellent lunch, and it AIMS OF BACSA was with reluctance that late in the afternoon, the celebrations ended and everyone dispersed. several via the chapel for some moments of This Association was formed in October 1976 to bring together people with a concern for the many hundreds of European cemeteries, isolated graves reflection on all that had elapsed in the past one hundred years. and monuments in South Asia. There is a steadily growing membership of The tremendous efforts of Miss Karen Nielsen and Captain Roderick over a thousand, drawn from a wide circle of interest - Government· Goldsworthy to make this celebration become a reality should be re ~hu~ches; Services; Business; Museums; Historical and Genealogical 'soc corded. It was a remarkable collaborative effort between the various ieties, etc. More members are needed to support the rapidly expanding Christian communities, the Pakistan Army who were the most charming act~vities of the Association - the setting up of local Branches in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Ceylon, Malaysia etc., the building up of and hospitable hosts, and many Muslim supporters which should set up a R~cord file in the India Office Library and Records; and many other the Guides Chapel well in preparation for its next one hundred years. proJects for the preservation of historical and architectural monuments. .;/C:.:;..(,1.L 1;JP!(ifi/.1/L}r~,,, ,(.:;..()'.J.tf."' -~t -> The annual subscription rate is £2 with an enrolment fee of £8. There are C~-:1! i/: ~ i;:,.J .,if-L d,/;,1,( special rates.for joint me~bership (husb~nd and wife), for life membership '<'("( J},;. v.#,..ft-;,-r_/v/i and for associate membership. Full details obtainable from the Secretary. 4r"j/J j? j 4JV.tfJ f.• 4r"(U J/! v i::.y.) 4- Editor: Rosie Llewellyn-Jones 135 Burntwood Lane, London SW 17 Above: The Gospel according to St. John Chapter 12, verse 23 in Urdu read at the Guides Chapel Centenary Service. See also p. 107 98 THEMAIL BOX thus sealing for ever a lonely royal grave. Perhaps some of the saddest cases BACSAdeals with are those where a grave has been irretrievably lost and no memorial remains to mark the * * * * * * last resting place of some-one who worked and died in the East. When An interesting reminder of the hazards faced by membersof the East such an event occurs and is coupled with a royal connection, the un India Companyeven after they had left India's shores came recently folding story becomes both poignant and intriguing. Chowkidarhas from a very unlikely source - an article in 'The Motorist' by Chris already noted the Fitzclarence family in India (see Vol. 1, No. 1 p.3) Hoare. In it he details the strange fate of the three-masted East but we were grateful to receive a reminder of another Fitzclarence Indiaman 'Grosvenor' which went aground in the early hours of 4 Aug whose career in India was shrouded in mystery. The five Fitzclarence ust 1782 while returning to England. The accident happened on the brother were the illegitamite sons of William lV by Mrs. Dorothea Wild Coast of Transkei, Southern Africa and the remaining survivors, Jordan. One entered the Navy, one the Church of En9land and the re receiving no help from the unfriendly natives, decided to walk to maining three brothers entered the army in India. Of the three, the the Cape which they mistakenly thought was nearby. In fact they were one who held the highest rank was Lieutenant General Lord Frederick, about 600 miles away and set out unarmedwith only the meagre rations who became Conunanderin Chief of the BombayArmy and died at Puran that had drifted ashore from the wreck. Food ran out immediately and dhar near Poona in 1854. His memorial was still visible in 1943. the party were harrassed by locals who would sometimes confront sur George, the second brother was created Earl of Munster in 1831, short vivors and simply cut the metal buttons off their coats. Manyof the ly after his father's accession to the throne. He committed suicide group fell ill and were left to die. Others lived on wild fruit, in 1842 in England. But the third brother, Henry was a more shadowy mussels and dead fish. They travelled under constant threat from character. He was omitted altogether from Burke's Peerage and Lodge's wild animals. Peerage notes him first as a Captain RNwho died in 1818 though this waslater corrected to 87th Foot and the date of death to 1817. Months later six castaways reached the Cape on foot. A rescue exped ition was immediately launched, but only another twelve survivors It was Sir Evan Cotton, the distinguished Calcutta historian who first were ever found, though there were persistent rumoursof white women attempted to solve the mystery of Henry's death. He had noted a ref living amongthe natives. A hundred years later a small number of erence by EmmaRoberts to 'a broken column at Allahabad' which marked gold and silver coins were recovered from the site of the wreck which 'the resting place of a Fitzclarence'. With his usual meticulousness led people to think the 'Grosvenor' was a treasure ship. Manyweird Cotton wrote to the Chaplain of Allahabad who reported that not only and wonderful attempts were subsequently made to explore the wreck - was there no 'broken column' but no relevant entry in the burial one bizarre scheme involved tunnelling tc it, in 1921 and the entrance register. A relative could not help either, saying that to the best to the tunnel can still be seen. Other efforts included an unfinished of his knowledge Henry had been drowned at sea though he gave no fur breakwater round the supposed site, rock-blasting, exploration by ther details. Gradually Henry's career was pieced together. After giant crane and even the intervention of a medium. Sir Arthur Conan serving as an officer in the 10th Hussars in the Peninsula War he Doyle was actually asked to enlist the help of Sherlock Holmes, whom was sent to India as a Lieutenant in the 22nd Dragoons in 1814, under manybelieved to be a real person, to solve the riddle of the ship. the sponsorship of the Governor General, the Marquess of Hastings. No more than a few cannons have ever been found and the fate of the Henry became an ADCto Sir ThomasHislop, Commanderin Chief at Mad 'Grosvenor' and the majority of her survivors remains a mystery to ras, though he seems to have been stationed at Bangalore.