crpf news letter 2012-13 - Central Reserve Police Force

The "Ochterlony House"
of recognizing and restoring these
heritage structures.
Chief among them is the Ochterlony
House, built in 1822 as the British
Residency by Sir David Ochterlony,
the 'White Mughal' par excellence,
with his thirteen 'wives'. The splendid
house, not dissimilar to the Residency
at Hyderabad, is now the Officers' Mess
for the Force. It is said that so great
was the respect for this redoubtable
American-born soldier, that his house
was not only left untouched during the
1857 uprising, but that long after his
death in 1825 local Bhil tribes people
would bring garlands to the house
to honour his memory. Ochterlony
also constructed a small fort at
Nimach, surrounded by a moat, with
a drawbridge entrance and within it
Central Reserve Police Force
29
73 Years Central of Reserve Dedicated Glorious Police Existence Service Force
29
73 Years of Glorious Existence
is the grave of Lieutenant Richard RW
Brett, of the Bombay Light Cavalry
'who died of wounds on 22 November
1857 when the fort was besieged:
Other buildings now used by the Force
include the imposing Victoria' Barracks,
the Quarter Guard (built in 1878), the
little Anglican church and the plunge
bath, constructed for the use of British
officers during the tormenting summer
heat. The old cemetery contains many
interesting tombs, reckoned at over
eighty in number and impressive
by"their sheer scale, Here lie the
daughter-in-law (Sarah) and grandson
(Robert Shaw) of Robert Burns, the
poet, who both died in 1821, the
year that the cemetery was opened.
Indeed, they may have been its earliest
inhabitants. Roderick Peregrine
While I was posted
as ADIGP, GC-
CRPF Neemuch in
2004, I came to know
that in London there
is an Organisation
named BACSA
(British Association of
Cemeteries in South
Asia) which looks after
the British cemeteries in
South Asia.
Ochterlony, a natural son of Sir David
followed the Burns to the cemetery
the next year and there was a steady
stream of burials thereafter. Lady
Olive Crofton recorded many of the
inscriptions in the Indian Monumental
series published in 1934, although it is
unclear how much might remain today.
BACSA is indebted to Mr Jasbir Singh
Gill, Director of the CRPF at its Gurgaon
Camp, for bringing this cemetery and
the cantonment's fine old buildings to
our notice.