St Andrews church was built in 1861 (services started in 1879) to cater to the British army personel whose families belonged to the Church of Scotland.
The church being small was demolished and a larger structure was rebuilt in 1888 by personel of the Scottish regiment.
The church is built in black stone having a red vaulted roof . The church has a belfry with the cross of St Andrews atop the same. The church bell is made from a five alloy metal. The interiors like the ceiling, pulpit are made in timber.The church outer walls are made from black stone and lime admixture.
There is also a memorial plaque dedicated to the Scottish soldiers.
The Kirkee War cemetery was built to accomodate the remains of the British and African origin soldiers(around 200) who died in the second world war.
The bodies arrived from parts of western and central India. This total includes the names of 629 servicemen whose remains were brought from Bombay (Sewri) Cemetery for re-interment here in 1960.
The cemetary contains 1668 commonwealth burials. It is very neatly maintained amidst a green lawn and flowers.
The Kirkee memorial stands within the cemetary and commemorates around 1800 soldiers who died in the first world war in parts of India and Pakistan.
Text and photographs: Abhijit Rajadhyaksha
You might be interested in knowing that St. Andrews Church was burnt to the ground this morning. Nothing survived. Marriage records, 2000 books, everything destroyed. Sad to see a part of Pune's history destroyed in this way.
ReplyDeleteWhat a pity .....sad to see such a beautiful church, a heritage site, reduced to ashes.
ReplyDeleteHi Abhijit,
ReplyDeleteMy great grand-aunt who died 5 March 1899 has on her burial certificate that the record was copied from the Church of Scotland. I wonder which cemetery she may have been buried at? Would that be St Sepulcher's? Or another one?