Khejuri British Cemetery, historically known as the Kedgeree burial ground, is a colonial-era cemetery at Khejuri in Purba Medinipur district, West Bengal, India. It developed beside the former anchorage of Kedgeree near the mouth of the Hooghly River, where Europeans connected with shipping, the port and local administration lived or passed through the settlement. Although 1800 has often been given as the cemetery's date, a ship's log records a European burial there in 1785.
Name and background
Khejuri appeared in British records as Kedgeree, Khejri and other variants. The 1885 Imperial Gazetteer described an "old English burial-ground" near the village, dating from the period when deep-draught vessels did not proceed to Calcutta. Kedgeree consequently served as an anchorage for vessels approaching the city.
History The burial ground was in use by 13 May 1785, when East India Company shipwright John Bobin died aboard the Earl of Mansfield. Captain William Fraser's log records that Bobin, aged about 40, was interred in the European burial ground at Kedgeree. The frequently repeated date of 1800 instead appears to relate to the earliest inscription identified in later surveys; uninscribed graves may be older.
By 1842 the ground had deteriorated. An East India Company public-works return described it as a "perfect jungle", without a wall, hedge or fence, and records that its enclosure was sanctioned on 26 April that year.
Historian Mahendranath Karan later recorded 33 graves, of which 21 carried inscriptions. A 2022 report based on local sources gave 32 graves, leaving the exact count uncertain.
Burials
Among the recorded burials was Emilia Maxwell, wife of Edward Maxwell, judge and magistrate of Dinajpur, who died at Khejuri on 26 July 1822 aged 28 years and two months after being brought there in the hope that the sea air would improve her health. John Coverdale, postmaster at Kedgeree, had died there on 29 July 1815 aged 36.
The cemetery also contained the memorial of postmaster J. Botelho, his wife Mary and their son Eugene, who died during the flood and cyclone of 5 October 1864. Their successor later erected a tomb for the family. Other recorded burials included W. A. Chamer, judge and magistrate at Bhagalpur, and Amos West, a Public Works Department supervisor who died on 10 October 1865.
Preservation A BACSA visitor in 2002 found the walled cemetery heavily overgrown, with only a few memorials standing and no readable inscriptions. In 2015, Anandabazar Patrika reported that plaques from all 21 formerly inscribed graves had disappeared and only remnants of brick-and-lime masonry survived. A 2022 report again described the site as neglected and recorded local calls for its preservation.
See also Khejuri South Park Street Cemetery
References