Calcutta :

Sleepy, leafy South Park Street Cemetery could have turned into a scene from the TV series Downton Abbey on Thursday morning as a small group of Englishmen and women gathered at the twin graves of Lady Anne Monson and her second husband, Colonel George Monson, for a quiet and solemn ceremony as a chorus of koels sang incessantly.

The frail, behatted Lady Emma Monson was with her granddaughter Isabella, her friend, the youthful Michael Dorrien Smith, a descendant of Lord Clive – Lady Emma Windsor-Clive – and two friends, architectural historian J.M. Robinson and art historian James Miller.

Lord Clive was a British officer who defeated Siraj-ud-Doula in the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and consolidated the East India Company’s rule.

Lady Emma was there to dedicate a tombstone inscription to her ancestor, Lady Anne Monson, who was a botanist, an exceptional figure in the 18th century, and great granddaughter of King Charles II.

Charles II, king of Great Britain and Ireland (1660-85), was restored to the throne after years of exile during the Puritan Commonwealth, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. The years of his reign are known in English history as the Restoration period.

The genus Mansonia was named by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in honour of Lady Anne. Colonel Monson was a member of the Supreme Council of Calcutta and an enemy of Warren Hastings. He died six months after his wife in September 1776. An inscription above his tomb was erected in 1908 by the Calcutta Historical Society. But Lady Anne’s tomb remained without an inscription. Both graves are quite nondescript by the monumental standards of this cemetery.

A wreath was laid on the spruced-up grave and newly inscribed tombstone by Ranajoy Bose, executive member, Christian Burial Board, with Ash Kapur, president of the Association for the Preservation of Historical Cemeteries in India, Bertie Da Silva, vice-principal of St. Xavier’s College, and Christina Mirza, who heads the English department of the college. Lady Emma said in her address that when she first visited Calcutta in 2012, both graves were in ruins and she wished to restore them. So she got in touch with the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia (BACSA).

She thanked all concerned for refurbishing them. Both graves have been restored by an accredited architect and its surroundings have been cleared and neatly marked with brick dust. The service was conducted by Reverend Nigel Pope, vicar of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta / Front Page> North Bengal> Story / A Staff Reporter / Saturday – February 14th, 2015