Photo Gallery
War
Memorials
Rangoon War Memorial, Burma
See also Taukkyan War Cemetery
Rangoon War Memorial.
Accession Number: KO2913/24
Dedication of the Rangoon War Memorial 9th February 1958.
Accession Number: KO2490/659
Dedication of the Rangoon War Memorial 9th February 1958.
Accession Number: KO2490/660
Dedication of the Rangoon War Memorial 9th February 1958.
Accession Number: KO2490/661
The Rangoon Memorial - Unveiling
The Rangoon Memorial, built by the Imperial War Graves Commission in the
Taukkyan War Cemetery, near Rangoon, was unveiled by General Sir Francis Festing GCB KBE DSO, Commander in Chief, Far East Land Forces, on Sunday
9th February, 1958, in the presence of representatives of the Forces in
which the men whose names the Memorial bears were serving.
The Memorial commemorates twenty-seven thousand men of the Land Forces
of the Commonwealth who perished during the campaign in Burma and Assam
and whose resting place is known only to God. Their comrades, who are
buried in the War Cemeteries at Taukkyan and Rangoon or whose remains
were cremated, are commemorated by individual memorials on the graves or
on a separate memorial in the Taukkyan War Cemetery recording the names
of those cremated.
“It is hoped that a sound recording of the Ceremony will be made and
broadcast by the BBC on the Home Service and that short films of the
Ceremony will be shown on the television programmes for the benefit of
those who are not able to be present themselves.”
The Rangoon Memorial commemorates by name 27,000 officers and men of the
Commonwealth Land Forces who perished during the campaign in Burma and
Assam and to whom the fortune of War denied the rites of burial or
cremation customary to their faith.
The Rangoon Memorial - Description
The Memorial, which has been built by the Imperial War Graves Commission
to the design of Mr H J Brown, ARIBA, stands in the Taukkyan War
Cemetery about 20 miles north of Rangoon.
The Memorial takes the form of two long open garden courts flanked by
covered walks and joined in the middle by an open rotunda. The names of
the fallen are carved on the broad faces of the rectangular piers on the
inner sides of the covered walks. As the Memorial is composed largely of
colonnades it is ‘transparent’ and the green lawns of the Cemetery can
be seen through the colonnades as well as the planting in the garden
courts themselves. On a frieze inside the rotunda are inscribed in
English these words:-
1939-1945
HERE ARE RECORDED
THE NAMES OF TWENTY-SEVEN THOUSAND SOLDIERS OF MANY RACES
UNITED IN SERVICE TO THE BRITISH CROWN
WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN BURMA AND ASSAM
BUT TO WHOM THE FORTUNE OF WAR DENIED
THE CUSTOMARY RITES ACCORDED TO THEIR COMRADES IN DEATH.
An additional inscription THEY DIED FOR ALL FREE MEN is also engraved on
the rotunda in English, Burmese, Hindi, Urdu and Gurmukhi.
6,400 of the comrades of the men in whose honour the Rangoon Memorial
has been built are commemorated on individual memorials on the graves in
the War Cemetery in which it stands. These graves are largely those
concentrated from the battlefield cemeteries at Akyab, Mandalay,
Meiktaila and Sahamaw and recovered more recently from the jungle by the
Army Graves Service.
The names of a further 1,049 officers and men of the Undivided Indian
Army whose remains were cremated, are recorded on their own memorial in
the Cemetery beneath these words:-
IN HONOUR OF THESE OFFICERS AND MEN
WHO DIED IN BATTLE
AND WHOSE MORTAL REMAINS WERE COMMITTED TO FIRE
From Imperial War Graves Commission letter dated 10th December 1957,
sent to a relative of a soldier buried in the cemetery.
Accession Number: KO2913/23
Only a proportion of our collections
are on display at anyone time. Certain items are on loan for display
in other institutions. An appointment is required to consult any of
our collections which are held in store.
