After the mutilated physique of Sir William Hay MacNaghten was introduced again to Kolkata from Kabul, he was buried within the Decrease Round Highway Cemetery. After his loss of life it’s mentioned that he’s haunting the place and the close by tree shivers each time somebody tells the story.
On the Decrease Round Highway Cemetery which are continually being crammed up with the Christians in Kolkata, there may be one grave mentioned to accommodate the ghost of Sir William Hay MacNaghten which are mentioned to hang-out the cemetery.
The Decrease Round Highway Cemetery in Kolkata, stands as a silent sentinel to bygone eras because it was established in 1840 through the colonial occasions in Kolkata and could be discovered a brief stroll away from the South Park Road Cemetery.
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This cemetery remains to be in use and this historic burial floor also called Common Episcopal Cemetery serves as a poignant memorial of town’s wealthy and tumultuous previous with over 12 000 graves. Though many have been moved to make means for brand new burials, there may be one grave at The Decrease Round Highway Cemetery left mentioned to be haunted.
And if we’re to consider the tales, there’s a tree in The Decrease Round Highway Cemetery that shakes each time somebody narrates this story, at the very least whereas being near it.
The Barbaric and Bloody First Anglo Afghan Warfare
Legend has it that The Decrease Round Highway Cemetery harbors a spectral presence, none aside from Sir William Hay MacNaghten, a outstanding civil servant through the British colonial period. His premature demise at 48, a grisly affair that despatched shock waves by way of the group, has change into the stuff of native lore.


MacNaghten was additionally a Baronet born in 1793, got here to India at 16 and performed an enormous half within the first Anglo-Afghan Warfare from 1838-1842. The British had efficiently invaded the nation after utilizing an inside dispute of the rulers in Afghanistan to their benefit.
Though an necessary determine in historical past, folks had been shocked by his involvement in warfare. “What? Lord William Bentinck was to exclaim when he heard Macnaghten had launched a military in opposition to Afghanistan. “Lord Auckland and Macnaghten gone to warfare? The final males on the earth I might have anticipated of such folly”.
Macnaghten bought a mansion in Kabul, and introduced his spouse, adorning their dwelling with crystal chandeliers, a wonderful number of French wines, and tons of of servants from India. The act of simply making themselves at dwelling additional enraged the Afghans. If we’re to consider the sources he was not essentially a nicely appreciated man and was identified for his smug manners, and was merely referred to as “the Envoy ” by each the Afghans and the British.
By 1841 the British forces had been depleted and their commanders had been outdated and never up for the duty. The plan was for the British to march again to India below a assure of protected passage from the Afghan tribal elders. Nevertheless, in a final ditch effort, they tried to play the chiefs up in opposition to one another, and MacNaghten met up with Mohammed Akbar Khan, the son of a chief, however one which had no cause to love the British.
Macnaghten introduced Wazir Akbar Khan with a wonderful pair of pistols as a gesture of friendship and good religion on December twenty third. Nevertheless, Wazir Akbar Khan murdered Macnaghten on the spot. If he meant to kill him or if he was killed as a result of he resisted seize is unclear to this present day.
The aftermath of all of it was grotesque for the British, as round 120 was taken prisoners, together with his spouse and a sure Woman Sale who wrote in her diary concerning the homicide: “All reviews agree that each the Envoy’s and Trevor’s our bodies are hanging within the public chouk: the Envoy’s decapitated and a mere trunk; the limbs having been carried in triumph concerning the metropolis”


The truth is, his loss of life was recorded as “one of many basest, foulest, murders that ever stained the web page of historical past” within the autopsy investigations. It’s mentioned that his spouse stumbled upon his lifeless physique, horrifically mutilated and strewn throughout the road. His stays are mentioned to have been recovered from the pit they threw him into and introduced again by his widow.
Terrible because it should have been, it’s fascinating to notice that a lot of the prisoners thought the Afghan kidnappers had been well mannered sufficient, however Woman Macnaghten remembered in a foul mild as she didn’t wish to share any of her garments or sherry.
The Haunting of the Decrease Round Highway Cemetery
Regardless of his mortal stays discovering their resting place throughout the confines of the Decrease Round Highway Cemetery, Sir William’s spirit is claimed to linger among the many tombstones and mausoleums.
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One chilling facet of those ghostly sightings at The Decrease Round Highway Cemetery is the peculiar conduct of a solitary tree that stands all by its lonesome over Sir William’s closing resting place. In accordance with native lore, each time the grotesque particulars of his homicide are recounted, the tree above his tomb begins to shiver as if stirred by an unseen drive, including an eerie environment to the already haunted grounds.
The spectral presence of Sir William MacNaghte will not be the one supply of unease throughout the Decrease Round Highway Cemetery. Late-night guards, tasked with conserving watch over the silent slumber of the lifeless, have reported spine-tingling encounters with inexplicable phenomena. Eerie noises echoing by way of the stillness of the evening, ghostly whispers carried on the breeze, and fleeting glimpses of shadowy figures flitting among the many tombstones have left many a sentry shaken to their core.
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References:
First Anglo-Afghan Warfare – Wikipedia
William Hay Macnaghten (1793-1841) – Discover a Grave Memorial
William Hay Macnaghten – Wikipedia
Decrease Round Highway cemetery – Wikipedia https://www.telegraphindia.com/my-kolkata/locations/drowning-hands-to-headless-bodies-these-haunted-places-in-kolkata-are-filled-with-ghost-stories-pbfhhotogallery/cid/1869126?slide=5
