Sherpur Cantonment, or the British Cemetery, is located in

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. The area was a British military camp or

cantonment A cantonment (, , or ) is a type of military base. In South Asia, a ''cantonment'' refers to a permanent military station (a term from the British Raj). In United States military parlance, a cantonment is, essentially, "a permanent residential ...

and the site of the 1879 Siege of the Sherpur Cantonment in the

Second Anglo-Afghan War The Second Anglo-Afghan War (Dari: جنگ دوم افغان و انگلیس, ) was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the latter was ruled by Sher Ali Khan of the Barakzai dy ...

. Now officially called the Christian Cemetery, it is known locally as the ''Kabre Gora'', or the 'foreigners' graveyard'.

Current cemetery and its history

The cemetery was built in 1879 for British soldiers killed in the

, replacing an earlier graveyard for the

First Anglo-Afghan War The First Anglo-Afghan War () was fought between the British Empire and the Emirate of Kabul from 1838 to 1842. The British initially successfully invaded the country taking sides in a succession dispute between emir Dost Mohammad Khan ( Bara ...

, with some graves dating back to that 1842 defeat. Some 160 soldiers from that period are thought to be buried here. It also contains the remains of others, mainly civilians of various nationalities, who died in Kabul between the 19th and 21st centuries, and who required a Christian burial. During the 2000s, ten marble plaques were placed on the cemetery's southern wall, listing the names of British service personnel who died in Afghanistan after 2001. The cemetery is laid out as a garden, with rose bushes and trees and is enclosed by a tall wall, giving it a peaceful atmosphere and an unassuming exterior appearance. It is one of the few foreign historical and Christian landmarks to have survived the first period of Taliban rule that ended in 2001.

Maintaining the cemetery

The caretaker of the cemetery from the 1980s was an Afghan man called Rahimullah, a

shepherd A shepherd is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations; it exists in many parts of the globe, and it is an important part of Pastoralism, pastoralist animal husbandry. ...

who used the cemetery to graze his animals. When he died in 2010, his son Abdul Sami continued to tend the cemetery, telling a reporter that "this place is very nearly not here" and crediting his father's devotion, including during the first period of

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

rule, for the fact that the

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

survived.

Notable burials

Notable burials include: * Major John Cook VC (1843–1879), 5th Gurkha Rifles. *

Aurel Stein Sir Marc Aurel Stein, (; 26 November 1862 – 26 October 1943) was a Hungarian-born British archaeologist, primarily known for his explorations and archaeological discoveries in Central Asia. He was also a professor at Indian universities. ...

(1862–1943), British-Hungarian

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

. * Henning Haslund-Christensen (1896–1948), Danish explorer. * Gayle Williams (1973–2008), British aid worker. There is a grave in Russian script to a Russian Cossack who fled to Kabul in the aftermath of the 1917

Bolshevik revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It was led by Vladimir L ...

Fundraising for the graveyard

The cemetery is not formally recognised by the

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

and is still owned by the city of Kabul. However, Colonel Simon Diggins, the British defence attaché who coordinated

fundraising Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

for the cemetery in 2009, described it as a "labour of love. ... It's very important to us. It would be great to think that in ten years' time, families might be able to come out here and see it and enjoy the tranquillity."{{Cite news, last=Farmer, first=Ben , date=17 August 2009, title=Afghanistan: The corner of Kabul that is forever England , url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/6038841/Afghanistan-The-corner-of-Kabul-that-is-forever-England.html, access-date=11 September 2021, work=The Telegraph, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090821031025/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/6038841/Afghanistan-The-corner-of-Kabul-that-is-forever-England.html , archive-date=2009-08-21

Gallery

Sherpur Cantonment at present

Image:British Cemetery (1 of 1)-2.jpg, Western troops pay their respects Image:British Cemetery (1 of 1)-4.jpg, Memorials inside the cantonment Image:British Cemetery (1 of 1)-8.jpg, Inside the cantonment

Sherpur Cantonment in 1879

File:Afghan-sherpur-assault.jpg, Assault on the Sherpur Cantonment File:Durbar Maidan of Sherpur Cantonment in 1879.jpg, Durbar Maidan in the cantonment File:Bengal Sapper and Miners Bastion, in Sherpur cantonment, Kabul, Second Afghan War, c. 1879.jpg, Bengal Sapper and Miners Bastion in the cantonment

References

Cemeteries in Afghanistan Anglican cemeteries in Asia