Tales of the Crypts
In 2013, the autumn edition of Chowkidar, a journal published by the British Association of Cemeteries in South Asia, featured the story of one of its readers, Edward Mitchell. Mitchell knew his grandparents were buried in Poona’s St Sepulchre Cemetery and Bombay’s Sewree Cemetery but was unable to find out whether the graves still existed. “I have very little information on these grandparents, and I wondered if the graves themselves could throw light on them through their inscriptions,” Mitchell asked in the journal’s column “Can You Help?”
The column, a fixture in every issue, addresses readers’ queries about family histories or the condition of a relative’s grave. The BACSA—which has been described as “the liveliest Society for the dead”—was founded in October 1976, by Theon Wilkinson, a captain in the
