Kolkata pays its tribute

What struck British Deputy High Commissioner Bruce Bucknell on his visit to the Bhawanipore War Cemetery in Kolkata on Sunday was the age of the fallen soldiers of the First and Second World Wars.
“In most of the war cemeteries I have visited across the world there is one thing common, the age of soldiers…,” Mr. Bucknell said, speaking about the horrors of war on the 100th anniversary of the First World War. The age inscribed on most of the 938 graves clearly points out that most of those died were young men in their twenties and thirties. Of the 938 graves, 617 graves are of the soldiers who laid their lives in the Second World War and about 95 graves are of those who fell in the Great War between 1914-1919. The graves of the soldiers were moved from Fort William, where they were initially buried, to Bhawanipore several decades ago, said Rakhee Mukherjee, the manager of Bhawanipore War Cemetery. In every few weeks there are visitors looking for the graves of their grandfathers or great-grandfathers, Ms. Mukherjee said, pointing at two elderly women, Patricia Campbell and Ann Stringer. Both of them, the daughters of Caption G.A. Campbell of the Gurkha Rifles, who died on 5th May 1945 during the Second World war, are visiting the grave of their grand father for the first time. “We are so happy that we are here on Armistice Day,” Ms. Campbell said.
Mr. Bucknell said that 21,000 people were recruited in the First World War from the northeastern India mostly as manpower to move supplies. “I visited a district Ukhrul in Manipur a few weeks ago. 1,200 people from that district participated in the war and 117 did not return home,” he said. At 11 a.m., a two-minute silence was observed at the Great War Memorial Centotaph, where representatives of different consulates, the Indian Army and common people paid homage to the fallen soldiers.
Source :  https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-life/kolkata-pays-its-tribute/article25471346.ece

About ChinmayaIAS Academy - Current Affairs

Check Also

TROPMET-2020

CONTEXT: The Indian Meteorological Society (IMS) and the North Eastern Space Applications Centre organise a …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get Free Updates to Crack the Exam!
Subscribe to our Newsletter for free daily updates