 | ||
The Old Christian Cemetery, Abbottabad (also known as the OCC, or the Gora Qabristan White-people's cemetery), is a cemetery situated in Abbottabad town, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North-West frontier Province), Pakistan. It dates from British colonial times.
Contents
History
The cemetery was established in 1853 when James Abbott (Indian Army officer) founded Abbottabad town itself and for long, it remained the main Christian cemetery in the town and for the nearby Galyat hill tracts and was later attached to St. Luke's Church, Abbottabad when it was completed in 1864. The cemetery contains many interesting old graves and memorials. Most of these have Frontier military campaigns' connections and significance for military historians, including the graves or tombs of Major Hugh Rees James, Major Leigh Richmond Battye and Colonel A W Crookshank, as well as others. The Rev. Henry Fisher Corbyn, of the Bengal Ecclesiastical Establishment, who spent long years here as Vicar, and who had previously served in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and established a 'charitable home' there at Ross Island (Andaman) is also buried here. Also buried here is Lady Julia Helen Palmer (née Aylmer; died 1896) first wife of General Sir Arthur Power Palmer, a former Commander-in-Chief, India.
Present status
Since Partition and Independence of Pakistan in 1947, the Old Christian Cemetery has suffered considerable neglect, due to various financial constraints upon the Church of Pakistan and maybe around 70-80 of the older graves dating back prior to 1947, still survive and can be properly verified. It is interesting to note that a family of Muslim caretakers lives within the precincts of the cemetery, who have been traditional caretakers of the site since circa 1902-1903, prior to which time two retired Gurkha soldiers of the 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles used to tend to it, from around the 1870s onwards.