St. Lukes Church is located at

Danapur Cantonment Danapur Cantonment or Danapur Cantt is a cantonment town in Danapur, Patna District in the state of Bihar, India. Danapur is a category II cantonment, established in 1765. The board consists of 14 members including 7 elected members. Danapur ...

Danapur Danapur Nizamat or Danapur is an Indian satellite town and one of six subdivisions (tehsil) in the Patna district of Bihar state.Patna Patna (; , ISO 15919, ISO: ''Paṭanā''), historically known as Pataliputra, Pāṭaliputra, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, ...

in the Indian state of

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

. It is around 10 kilometers from

Jay Prakash Narayan Airport Jay Prakash Narayan Airport is a domestic airport serving Patna, the capital of Bihar, India. It is named after the independence activist and political leader, Jayaprakash Narayan, Jayprakash Narayan. It is the List of busiest airports in Indi ...

. It is more than 200 years old, and has stood on the site through the most turbulent times in Indian history. The building is typical of 19th century British colonial architecture. It is now within the grounds of the Bihar Regimental Centre and is maintained by the Indian Army. Reverend Henry Frank Fulford Williams (1885-1966) served as a chaplain in Bengal from 1913 until 1935, and was chaplain at St. Lukes for part of his tenure.

History

The

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

set up a military station here due to its location on the bank of river

Ganges The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary rive ...

at a junction with other rivers like the

Son River Sone River, also spelt Son River, is a perennial river located in central India. It originates near Amarkantak Hill in Pendra (Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi district), Chhattisgarh and finally merges with the Ganges river near Maner in Patna, Biha ...

from the south and the

Ghaghara The Ghaghara River, also known as the Karnali River in Nepal, Mapcha Tsangpo in Tibet, and as the Sarayu River in the lower Ghaghara of India's Awadh, is a perennial trans-boundary river that originates in the northern slopes of the Himalaya ...

and

Gandaki River The Gandaki River, also known as the Narayani and Gandak, is one of the major rivers in Nepal and a left-bank tributary of the Ganges in India. Its total catchment area is , most of it in Nepal. In the Nepal Himalayas, the Gandaki is notable f ...

from the north. Rivers were important transport routes before railways were built in India. The British built a church at the station to provide for the spiritual needs of its servants and medical aid. The construction of the church started in April 1827 by Captain I Thompson of British Engineers. It was completed in 1830 under the guidance of Captain W Sage of the 48th Native Infantry. It was later named St. Lukes Church of Patna. During the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...

, a number of barracks were constructed around the church to provide shelter for the soldiers. The

belfry The belfry /ˈbɛlfri/ is a structure enclosing bells for ringing as part of a building, usually as part of a bell tower or steeple. It can also refer to the entire tower or building, particularly in continental Europe for such a tower attached ...

was a later addition. It was designed by Frederick William Alexander De Fabeck, an assistant surgeon in the

Bengal Army The Bengal Army was the army of the Bengal Presidency, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire. The presidency armies, like the presidencies themselves, belonged to the East India Company (EIC) until the Gover ...

, and built in 1862. The Bihar Regimental Centre took over responsibility for the building from the

Church of North India The Church of North India (CNI) is the dominant united and uniting churches, united Protestant church in northern India. It was established on 29 November 1970 by bringing together most of the Protestant churches working in northern India. It i ...

in 1947.

References

{{reflist Churches in Bihar Church of North India church buildings