CSI Christ Church, Salem, Tamil Nadu: 150th Anniversary, 1875-2025

A BACSA Project Report… and notice of the forthcoming sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary events at CSI Christ Church, Salem, Tamil Nadu…

In 2009 BACSA supported a project to conserve 40 graves in the Old Anglican Cemetery at Salem. Denise Love, BACSA Project Co-ordinator, describes the work performed below. Meanwhile Rev Jawahar Wilson Asir David, Chairman and Presbyter of Christ Church, Salem, has supplied details of the church’s forthcoming sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary celebrations:

Consecrated by Rt Rev Frederick Gell, the Bishop of Madras, on 26 October 1875, the Christ Church building on Fort Road, Salem, was designed by Robert Fellowes Chisholm, a pioneer of Indo-Saracenic architecture, who also designed the University of Madras Senate House Buildings and the Madras Presidency College. Since 1950 the church, which holds services in Tamil and English, has belonged to the Coimbatore diocese.

In 2009 BACSA contributed funds towards a project enabling the Salem Historical Society (SHS) to identify and conserve 40 of the most dilapidated graves in the ‘Old Anglican Cemetery’, situated opposite the church.

The result was, according to Denise Love, ‘an exemplary restoration’. Following an inaugural ceremony of prayer led by Rev Jacob Ravikumar, of Christ Church, the undergrowth was cleared; the 40 graves (of 29 adults and 17 children, buried between 1797 and 1879) were photographed, and appropriate conservation work was carried out by the contractor Mr T Joseph Dhanaraj.

The earliest grave to be conserved was that of two boys, John and Robert Morris (the infant sons of Mr Samuel M Morris, Assistant Surgeon to the Garrison), who died in 1797. Another was the obelisk tomb of Lieutenant Colonel Fehrszen, who died in 1820, aged 34, ‘after an ineffectual struggle of only 12 hours’ against cholera morbus. In July 1837 cholera tragically removed four members of the Bevan family – Mary Ann, Emma, Julia and Adela, the wife and three daughters of Captain Henry Bevan. Other graves conserved included those of Rev Henry Crisp, a missionary with the London Mission Society, who died, aged 28, in 1831, and Archibald Hamilton, Assistant to the Principal Collector and Magistrate, who died aged 27 in 1846.

A bound volume with photographs and inscriptions of all the graves was sent to BACSA, and lodged in our cemetery file at the British Library. Denise Love volunteered to research the biographies of the deceased. The result was published as the Cemetery Record Book for the Old Anglican Cemetery, Salem, available through the BACSA shop.

The work performed attracted so much local interest that, with generous donations from Church and SHS members (exceeding the BACSA grant), a further 50 graves were conserved.

A ceremony of dedication was held on All Saints’ Day (1 November) 2009 to honour the dead and mark the contribution of all who had participated in the project.

The sesquicentennial celebrations will finish on Sunday 26 October 2025, with ‘a Holy Communion Service, a Congregation Feast and a concluding ceremony’. All are welcome to attend, in particular descendants of former congregation members. In the meantime BACSA is delighted to have been invited to contribute a ‘Felicitation’ to the Church’s Souvenir Brochure.

Denise Love and Rachel Magowan

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Diary Dates

BACSA Newsletter readers, family and friends may be interested in the following events:

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