Portuguese Cemetery, also known as Gora Kabristan or Kacheri Cemetery is a cemetery located on

VIP Road VIP Road (officially Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue) is a major thoroughfare connecting the city of Kolkata with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, Dumdum/Kolkata Airport. Located in the North-Eastern outskirts of the city, it was buil ...

Kanpur Kanpur or Cawnpore ( /kɑːnˈpʊər/ pronunciation (help·info)) is an industrial city in the central-western part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1207, Kanpur became one of the most important commercial and military stations o ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The road used to be called Amherst Street and still houses many government offices and residential bungalows.

History

In the 1760s, some traders had settled at Kanpur, including some

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

. The first British troops arrived around 1770, and Kanpur rapidly became a major garrison town. The foundation stone of the cemetery was laid in 1781 when Lieutenant Colonel John Stephen died in the city. The grave of Stephen is considered to be the oldest grave in the cemetery. The

British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia (BACSA) is an organisation founded in 1977 that seeks to maintain and record for posterity European cemeteries in former Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia territories of the East India Compa ...

has been providing financial aid to the cemetery since 1977.

References

Cemeteries in India 1781 establishments in India {{cemetery-stub