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A handbook for IRISH WAR GRAVES in INDIA BURMA & BEYOND 1914-45

Compiled by EILEEN HEWSON

This handbook is a collection of over 650 memorial inscriptions dedicated to Irish military personnel who lost their lives in Asia during two world wars. As the book is intended to be a guide for the family historian, many biographical details are included. The graves were found in cemetery surveys undertaken in India and from other written sources.

In 1917 the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) was commissioned by a Royal Charter to maintain all war graves. With the exception of the New Delhi War Memorial which commemorates the soldiers during the Afghan War of 1919, all the cemeteries featured are under the auspices of the CWGC. The Kirkee War Memorial near Poona, commemorates the soldiers who died throughout India from 1914-20 including four soldiers from the lst Battalion Connaught Rangers who took part and died in the mutiny of July 1920.

The World War II cemeteries are found in Assa:, Kohima and Imphal, on the Indian-Burmese border and Burma, with a few graves in Java and Malaya. The majority of casualties are from the lst Battalion of the Enniskillen Fusiliers which sustained heavy losses against the Japanese. Although many of the regiments have passed into history, it is hoped that the names of the fallen will be remembered, especially this year, on the 60th Anniversary of VJ Day.

92 pages; 5 illustrations ; A5, paperback ;