Rawalpindi War Cemetery

Rawalpindi, a British cantonment, locally known as Pindi, is a bustling city strategically located between the Punjab and Azad Kashmir. Many tourists use the city as a stop before traveling towards the northern areas. Not a city boasting many old architectural wonders but still having lots to offer the foreign tourist who cares to look past the recent construction boom of the city.

Rawalpindi has played an important role in the history of the subcontinent which often goes unnoticed. Following the British invasion of the region and their occupation of Rawalpindi in 1849, the city became a permanent garrison of the British army in 1851. In the 1880s a railway line to Rawalpindi was laid, and train service was inaugurated on 1 January 1886. The need for a railway link arose after Lord Dalhousie made Rawalpindi the headquarters of the Northern Command and the city became the largest British military garrison in British India. On the introduction of British rule, Rawalpindi became the site of a cantonment and, shortly afterward, the headquarters of2nd (Rawalpindi) Division. Its connection with the main railway system by the extension of the North-Western Railway to Peshawar immensely developed its size and commercial importance. The municipality was created in 1867.

The cantonment, with a population in 1901 of 40,611, was the most important in all of British South Asia. It contained one battery of horse and one of field artillery, one mountain battery, one company of garrison artillery, and one ammunition column of field artillery; one regiment of British and one of Native cavalry; two of British and two of Native infantry; and two companies of sappers and miners, with a balloon section. It was the winter headquarters of the Northern Command and of the Rawalpindi military division. An arsenal was established here in 1883. Rawalpindi cantonment played an important role in the ensuing melee of both the world wars as the last resting place of the fallen soldiers who fought for the greater good of the British Empire on foreign soil.

A corner of the Gora Qabristan on Harley Street, Rawalpindi, bears testimony to the fact of the role played by the subcontinent in the two world wars. Agreed that there are no graves of the locals but it serves as the last resting place of soldiers of the Great Allied forces who died on foreign soil but rest in peace in these peaceful and tranquil surroundings. In both these wars the Army of undivided India, the second largest in the Commonwealth and the largest voluntary army in the world took an important part. Its peacetime strength was .2 million which was expanded to 1.5 million in WWI and up to 2.5 million in WWII, sending expeditionary forces to three continents. Close to 700,000 men were sent to campaign in Iraq during the First World War, where the Indian Army played a major role. 140,000 went to France and Belgium where their timely arrival helped the hard-pressed allies hold off the German advance, while 144,000 men went to the Middle East.

During the Second World War the Indian Army was a major force in the East African campaign, where there were no fewer than two divisions in the North African war, while two fought in Italy. But the most memorable feat achieved by the Army was in Burma in 1942-1945, initially defending the eastern frontier it went on to win one of its greatest victories.

The Army of undivided India played an important role in protecting the Suez Canal from the Turkish advance from the east during the First World War and from the German and Italian onslaught during the Second. It also played an important role in protecting the Iraqi and Iranian Oilfields. Thus these brave soldiers fought and died on foreign land, commemorated in death by headstones, special memorials which are an acknowledgement of their efforts by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Side by side they lay; comrades in life as well as in death, a multitude of men and women, of diverse faiths and races, who fought for a common cause.

The Rawalpindi War Cemetery contains the burials of 357 dead of both wars, including the period after the First World War until 1921 while the operations continued on the north-west frontier. Interestingly not all these soldiers died in action but quite a few were victims of heatstroke, sickness, influenza, malaria and other local ailments during leave or while on training. Fatalities due to heatstroke were a common occurrence, but these soldiers were accorded the proper committal rites by their comrades and kinsmen, according to their faiths. There is a lone headstone proudly proclaiming the role of women in these wars, not on the battle front but behind the battle lines nursing the wounded. Nurse Ruth Mary Nodder, aged 33 years is representative of the fact that women too were not behind their male comrades in playing an important role in both the wars.

Similarly the war memorial in Karachi commemorates the burials of 568, who died during WWI, and the names of 25,200 soldiers and 700 airmen are recorded by the WWII memorial in the cemetery.

The Common wealth War Graves Commission, which oversees the upkeep and maintenance of these war cemeteries all over the world, was established in 1917 by Royal Charter, paying tribute to 1,70,000 men and women of the Common wealth forces who died in the two world wars. Its founder was Sir Fabian Ware. Since its inception, the Commission has constructed 2,500 war cemeteries and plots, erecting headstones over graves and, in instances where the remains are missing, inscribing the names of the dead on permanent memorials. Over one million casualties are now commemorated at military and civil sites in some 150 countries. The principles of the commission are:

• Each of the dead should be commemorated by name on the headstone or memorial.
• Headstones and memorials should be permanent.\
• Headstones should be uniform.
• There should be no distinction made on account of military or civil rank, race or creed.

Visiting these war cemeteries one can see for oneself how well kept these graves are. While I was photographing the headstones I noticed a couple of graves without the trademark headstones, on enquiry the caretaker told me that while laying an underground beam, these headstones broke and were sent to the Commissions headquarters for repairs.

Searching the web for information on war cemeteries I came across the War Graves Photographic Project. Initially started as a private venture to photograph every war grave, individual memorial, MoD grave and family memorial of serving military personnel from WWI to the present day and make these available within a searchable database, it is now recognized by CWGC. It is a daunting task to be under taken but people are there who want to bring solace and closure to the countless bereaved that lost their loved ones fighting on foreign lands.

The CWGC has tried to maintain all the different graveyards in different parts of the world following a single pattern. This fact struck me while I was going through photographs of other graveyards on the web. The cemetery should be visited to see how the dead are honored by their countrymen in a far-off land.

Rawalpindi was and always will remain a city which is bound to the core by its military traditions and sacrifices. Be it the British Army of yore or the Pakistani Armed forces of today Rawalpindi is a typical army town.

http://www.twgpp.org/volunteers.php?volunteer=964&start=0&cid=66