British Cemetery, Callao
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The British Cemetery of
Callao Callao () is a Peruvian seaside city and Regions of Peru, region on the Pacific Ocean in the Lima metropolitan area. Callao is Peru's chief seaport and home to its main airport, Jorge Chávez International Airport. Callao municipality consists o ...
Peru is a cemetery used exclusively for burials of members of the British community in Peru. It has since been used for other expatriate nationalities.


History

The British Cemetery began its activities in 1834, when the British Consul in Lima and Callao obtained a supreme decree from the Peruvian Government granting him the right to purchase a plot of land for the construction of a cemetery exclusively for burials of members of the British Colony. For the proper management of this cemetery, in 1835 the Government of King George IV sent money through a British Parliament Act (Art. 6, Chapter 85, Paragraph 14), under the supervision of the British Consul in Peru. This marked the beginning of the British Cemetery Association, which has since then been protected by its statutes. To corroborate the above, the Peruvian Government issued a supporting regulation under a Decree dated 5 May 1836, authorizing the burial of members of the British Colony. After more than 160 years, the British continue to be responsible for the Burial Ground Society (now the British Cemetery Association), with two British Cemeteries - the Old Cemetery in Bellavista - Callao and the New Cemetery in Av. Colonial, also in Callao, named that way for strictly chronological reasons.


Present day

Among the tombs at the Old British Cemetery in Bellavista, one can find the names of people of many other nationalities: Germans, Polish, Swedish, Danish, Hungarians, Czechoslovakians, Yugoslavians, Russians, Swiss, Chinese, Japanese, Americans and many others, as well as an endless variety of religions. People of these and other nationalities participated in the development of Peru after the war of independence from Spain in 1821. The very first person to be buried there was the youngest son of General
Sir Gordon Drummond General Sir Gordon Drummond, GCB (27 September 1772 – 10 October 1854) was a Canadian-born British Army officer and the first official to command the military and the civil government of Canada. As Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, D ...
G.C.B., Lieutenant William Russell Drummond, who died when his leg was amputated on 1 January 1835 after being shot in an ambush while on duty. One of the men who fought for Peru's independence was the English General (subsequently named Peruvian Marshall) William Miller, who was originally buried in the British Cemetery in Bellavista upon his death on 31 October 1862, at 65 years of age. His remains were transferred to the " Official Pantheon of Heroes" on 16 October 1926, under the mandate of President Don Augusto B. Leguia, a great anglophile. However, not only illustrious people are buried in Bellavista. General Miller's favourite cook, a black man named William Hanam born in
Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inter ...
, died at the age of 60 from
edema Edema, also spelled oedema, and also known as fluid retention, dropsy, hydropsy and swelling, is the build-up of fluid in the body's Tissue (biology), tissue. Most commonly, the legs or arms are affected. Symptoms may include skin which feels t ...
and was the 17th person to be buried in the Old British Cemetery. Several foreigners who died in the Battle of Angamos during the
Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...
between Chile and Peru were also buried there; others who survived the battle were later also laid to rest in the Bellavista Cemetery, including Samuel MacMahon, the first engineer of the Peruvian Monitor Huascar, who witnessed and survived the Battle of Angamos. During the same war, Bernard Fleming, a 17-year-old who was born in Lima of British parents, died in the Battle of Miraflores on 15 June 1881. His colleagues laid his body to rest in the British Cemetery. There are many other anecdotes like these. The cemetery contains five
Commonwealth War Graves The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mi ...
of British naval personnel, three from World War I and two from World War II.
CWGC Cemetery report, details obtained from casualty record. Thanks to the documents kept in the Cemetery, we have a record of diseases and plagues of medical interest, such as the Yellow Fever plague in Lima in April 1868, when more than 200 Germans died within only a couple of months, without counting the British and Peruvian casualties of this disease. Another incident recorded was the Smallpox plague in 1879, a disease that has been very rare on these coasts since the discovery of the smallpox vaccine. Many members of the British and American colonies who helped develop the cemetery are also buried there, such as: William Pitt Adams, Business Manager and a prominent and well-known member of the British Delegation in Peru and one of the promoters of the Cemetery. Also buried there are the remains of the son of the former secretary of the American Treasury, the honourable A. Adams, Captain Alexander Dallas, Commander of the American Squadron in the Pacific. Europeans and their descendants include families like the
Backus Backus is a middle English surname deriving from the Old English bacan "to bake" and hus "house." It is believed to have originated in the north English historic counties of Cumberland and Durham. People Notable people with the surname include: ...
family, founders of the breweries, as well as descendants of the famous railway entrepreneur Mr. Enrique Meiggs who built the Southern Railway (Mollendo -
Arequipa Arequipa (; Aymara and qu, Ariqipa) is a city and capital of province and the eponymous department of Peru. It is the seat of the Constitutional Court of Peru and often dubbed the "legal capital of Peru". It is the second most populated city ...
) during the Balta Government and, subsequently, the Central Railway. It is also the resting place of Scottish engineers who arrived to build the railway to La Oroya and died of the dreaded malaria. Crew members, officers and employees of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, which ran a fleet of ships that sailed between our coasts and Europe, are buried there as well.


References

{{coord, -12.057, -77.121, type:landmark_region:PE, display=title Cemeteries in Peru Anglican cemeteries in South America British military memorials and cemeteries Buildings and structures in Callao Region