Madras War Cemetery is located in

Nandambakkam Nandambakkam is a western neighbourhood of Chennai, India. It is known for the Chennai Trade Centre and the Surgical Instruments Factory. In 2011 Nandambakkam was included to Chennai district by the Government of Tamil Nadu. Geography Nandamb ...

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

(formerly Madras),

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

, India. It was created to receive

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

graves from civil and cantonment cemeteries in the south and east of India where their permanent maintenance could not be assured.

Description

Madras War Cemetery is located on Mount-Poonamallee Road,

, about from the airport and from

St. Thomas Mount Parangimalai (known in English as St. Thomas Mount) is a small hillock in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, near the neighbourhood of Guindy and very close to Chennai International Airport. The ancient Syrian Christian community of India trace the ...

. The cemetery is open to the public. A view inside the cemetery

The cemetery occupies and contains the graves of 856 Commonwealth service people who died in the Second World War. It was established in 1952 by the Imperial War Graves Commission, which is now known as the

Commonwealth War Graves Commission 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 mil ...

(CWGC), to pay tribute to the people of the

Commonwealth nations The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...

who died in military service. The cemetery is maintained by the CWGC in partnership with

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

. The cemetery is given to the CWGC under perpetual lease by the Defence Ministry. The cemetery also includes Madras 1914–1918 War Memorial, which is situated at the rear of the site and is styled on the lines of a lawn cemetery. The memorial, which does not contain any bodies, bears plaques with the names of British and Commonwealth soldiers who died in both World Wars and the inscription; "Their name liveth for evermore". It bears the names of more than 1,039 servicemen who died during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and whose remains lie in many civil and cantonment cemeteries across India, where it is not possible to maintain their graves in perpetuity. Commonwealth nationals whose remains were buried include 14 Australians and 5 New Zealanders.

References

External links

*
Chennaibest.com – Monuments in Chennai – Madras War Cemetery
* * {{Cemeteries in India Cemeteries in India Monuments and memorials in Chennai 1952 establishments in Madras State Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in India

Description

See also

References

External links