BACSA General Meeting, 24/10/2024

Around 50 members attended the BACSA General Meeting at the Union Jack Club, London, on 24 October 2024.

The President, Sir Mark Havelock-Allan, welcomed us to the meeting, following which Denise Love, Projects Officer, updated us on the projects currently being supported by BACSA.

In addition to the ongoing conservation work at St Mary’s Cemetery, Madras, where the very challenging conservation of the early 19thc Anderson Monument has now been completed by Jeernodhar Conservators, with the guidance of Ravindra Gundu Rao, BACSA AR (Area Representative) for Tamil Nadu, two projects concerning burial data are in progress. Prof Jigna Desai and students from the Centre for Heritage Conservation at Ahmedabad University have surveyed St Andrew’s Cemetery at Bhuj, Gujerat, to help recover the church’s lost burial records; and the enthusiastic members of the Asansol Heritage Research Group are digitising the ecclesiastical records of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in the coal-mining area of Raniganj, West Bengal. This information will be added to the website’s burials database.

This year we have also seen the start of two projects outside India: at Dhaka, in Bangladesh, where the heavily overgrown, early 17thc ‘Colombo Sahib’ monument, depicted above by Zoffany, is being conserved, and at Malakand, Pakistan, where initial clearance work is under way at the Old British Cemetery.

Mark Whitehouse, the BACSA AR for Afghanistan, reported that the Kabul Cemetery is being cared for, by a gardener/caretaker funded by staff at the non-resident Embassy in Doha. Prior to 2021, funds for maintenance and repair were co-ordinated locally by the British Embassy, with support from the 15 Embassies of countries with nationals buried in the cemetery. As these funds have now run out, the FCDO is considering running a fund-raising event with BACSA. (Further details will be published in the BACSA Newsletter, as and when they become available).

Peter Boon, the Hon Secretary, reminded all BACSA members travelling in South Asia to submit a BACSA Cemetery Visit Report, ideally with photographs, on cemeteries and monuments visited. The form is easy to fill in, online, and important in helping BACSA assess possible candidates for projects. So far this year we have received reports on a variety of Indian cemeteries in Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Pallikunnu, Prayagraj (Allahabad), Tirupati, Chittor and Vaithiyanathapura. We have also received one on Petamburan Cemetery in West Jakarta, Indonesia, from Richard Cornwallis, the AR for Indonesia.

Tina Davies, Events Organiser, reminded us about three BACSA activities being planned for 2025: a visit to Belmont House, near Faversham, Kent, on 18 June 2025; and two possible guided tours – one on the digital trail featuring East India Company monuments and memorials at St Paul’s Cathedral, London; and, one later in the year, at The Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence, an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, which promises to celebrate ‘the creative output and internationalist culture’ of the golden age of the Mughal Court c. 1550-1660, ‘during the reigns of its most famous emperors, Akbar, Jehangir and Shah Jahan’. (Keep an eye on the BACSA Newsletter for further details of these events).

Charles Greig introduced our guest speaker, Jennifer Howes, a London-based art historian specialising in British Imperialism, whose latest book ‘The Art of a Corporation: The East India Company as Patron and Collector‘, examines the history and self-image of the East India Company, as shown by the paintings and sculptures it commissioned.

The talk, titled ‘The East India Company’s Commissions for Westminster Abbey’, focused on four monumental sculptures inside the Abbey that were paid for by the Company between 1760 and 1806. One of these was dedicated to Major-General Stringer Lawrence, the founder of the East India Company’s army. Robert Clive, the famous soldier of fortune whose final years were mired in disgrace, died mere weeks before Lawrence. The East India Company memorialised Lawrence in particularly grand style, most likely to distract from the numerous scandals connected with Robert Clive.

Also in Westminster Abbey is the memorial to Edward Cooke, an Officer in the Royal Navy, whose ship, the Seville, clashed with a French frigate near the mouth of the Hooghly. Credited with saving Calcutta from a suspected invasion, Cooke was mortally wounded and died, aged 27, two months later. He was buried at South Park Cemetery, in Calcutta. In London the EIC commissioned a memorial to him from John Bacon the Younger. Completed in 1806, it was erected in Westminster Abbey against a ‘plain-looking wall’ which, however, as Jennifer pointed out, is, curiously, not a wall, but the back of a much larger memorial to James Wolfe, another military hero who had also died young, from wounds received in his moment of triumph (in his case aged 32, at the Plains of Abraham, Quebec, in 1759).

The meeting closed, with most members staying to enjoy the Indian curry lunch – and using the opportunity to renew old friendships and make new ones.

Our thanks are due to the staff of the Union Jack Club for their help in running this event, and to meetings organiser Rosemary Raza, and all the other BACSA members who volunteered their help. A new friendly face at the door this year was Meryl Balchin, standing in for Denis and Patricia Doble, whose ill-health prevented them from joining us. Many attendees expressed surprise at their absence – we send them our best wishes, and hope to see them again before long.

The publications and bric-a-brac tables, organised by Caroline Whitehead with the help of Jeanette Burn, Valerie Robinson, and Charles Greig, made £85.50, a welcome contribution to the annual maintenance cost of cemeteries. Please scour cupboards, attics and garages for books and items with an Indian connection – supplies are running low! Rosemary Raza has offered to act as the central point for collection; she asks that you contact her (‘rrraza@hotmail.com’) in the first instance.

Rachel Magowan

(Suggestions for BACSA website news items are always welcome – please send them to ‘comms@bacsa.org.uk’)