Sai Wan (China) memorial

[Drummy]

I note on this war memorial 72 officers and men who died in china and whose graves could no longer be maintained. Does anyone know if any of these soldiers graves still actually exist in China and whether the CWGC can (or does) now maintain them? One for example is Lt. Colonel D.S. Robertson, O.B.E, Royal Scots Fusiliers who died in 1919 whilst Military Attache at Peking and also Commader IAS Hutton, RN., who died in 1921 whilst Naval attache in Pekin. I would imagine that there would have been a British plot somewhere there? Thanks Neil.

[southafricawargraves]

Hi,

I know that the Chinese bulldozed a huge military cemetery (including a VC winner's grave) in Shanghai during its cultural revolution, so I imagine this might be the same in Peking.

[Drummy]

Does anyone have any further info re the Shanghai cemetery ? Many thanks Neil.

[Terry Denham]

Drummy

CWGC do not maintain any graves in China except those in Hong Kong.

Because of the political situation in China, the graves were deemed unmaintainable and the Memorial was erected in Hong Kong to record the names. This is now their official commemoration location.

Whether the actual graves still exist is doubtful - but still possible. I cannot imagine they survived the rigours of the Cultural Revolution but who knows?

If they were to still exist and political permission could be obtained to maintain them, CWGC would consider changing the commemoration locations back to the graves from the Memorial as they did with the graves in Russia. However, I think it unlikely.

[Nick Cooper]

Does anyone have any further info re the Shanghai cemetery ? Many thanks Neil.

Sounds like the Hung-Jao cemetery, which has come up in my researches on the Yangtse Incident, as a number of the naval dead (mostly from HMS Consort and HMS London, but one from HMS Amethyst) were hastily buried there. It was erroneously reported that the whole area had been bulldozed and a factory or school built on top of it, but in actual fact it is now an open public park. The "Foreigner's Cemetery" section within the larger site is marked/fenced off, but presumably intact inside.