TIMELY effort to save from oblivion the memory of British soldiers who were killed or died of disease in operations against the Taiping rebels in the Shanghai district during the period 1862-65 is being made by the Municipal authorities. Remains of the men buried in the soldiers' cemetery outside the old Chinese City wall in Nantao have been disinterred and are to be reburied in Hungjao Cemetery where a suitable memorial will be erected.
For many years the cemetery at 831 Mingkok Road, Nantao, which was originally backed by a piece of the old city wall, has been almost forgotten, a historical relic difficult to find behind the advertising hoardings built around it. It was once a piece of green sward, where the curious might, walk around and gaze on a long passed chapter in Shanghai's history. Since then rubbish and garbage have.been flung on the site hiding the tombstones whereon faint inscriptions of names of men and regiments who formed the British garrison during that period may still be traced. The cemetery also suffered during the Sino-Japanese hostilities and it is now a part of the Nantao refugee zone.
Working in conjunction, the Public Health Department and the Public Works Department have commenced removing the remains of these defenders of Shanghai from Nantao to Hungjao and many of the tombstones with decipherable inscriptions have also been. taken away to form the basis for a new memorial which will be erected in Hungjao Cemetery.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.