13a) WHERE WAS ENSIGN WYSE BURIED-MANJERI OR CALICUT (KOZHIKODE)?

In the previous post, I discussed about the burial monument of Ensign Wyse at Manjeri in the Malappuram district. What is odd about this grave is that the epitaph appears to be from a later period. Moreover, it is unusual that the first name of the deceased is not given in the tombstone. Interestingly, an 1879 document (Edward B. Eastwick, Handbook of the Madras presidency-with a notice of the overland route to India, 2nd edition, p. 295) gives the location of Wyse's grave in the English burial ground of Calicut (Kozhikode). In this report, we learn his full name as Robert Anderson Wyse, described as an Ensign who was killed on 28th august, 1849, while leading a detachment of the 43rd Regiment N. I. against some insurgents. Similarly, in the inventory collected by Roberts and Chekkutty (Malabar II Christian Memorials, 2017, pp. 51, 113), Robert Anderson Wyse was buried at the old St. Mary's cemetery in Calicut.  We learn that Wyse was appointed as an Ensign in the 43rd Regiment of the Native Infantry on 27 August, 1844 (East-India Register and Army List, 1849, p. 94). 

Although this burial ground of Calicut is extinct today, a few of the tombstones have survived and are preserved in the compound of St. Mary's CSI church (also known as the English  church) at Nadakkavu, Kozhikode. Fortunately, we have the headstone of Wyse in this precious lot. It is a riddle as to why the tombstone of Wyse is preserved in Calicut, while he was killed and apparently buried at the site of his death in Manjeri. The tombstone in Manjeri clearly states that his remains lie in the grave built over there. Could it be that the monument in Manjeri is only a memorial erected at the site of his death, and the remains were taken to Calicut and buried at the old Christian cemetery there. In the upcoming post, I will be focusing on the tombstones retrieved from the extinct old cemetery of Calicut, which include the headstone of Ensign Robert Anderson Wyse as well. The most famous burial at this lost cemetery was that of Henry Valentine Conolly, who was the Collector and Magistrate of Malabar from 1841 to 1855.