The South Park Street Cemetery is situated at the Park Street in
Kolkata. It was constructed in 1767 to accommodate the large number of British people who died for their country. There are many heavily inscribed head stones, pyramids, urns and obelisks.
The cemetery contains burials prior to 1890. This old cemetery replaced St. John's Church yard in the ruins of the old fort, in which the founder of Kolkata, Job Charnock and his successors are buried. This area was later renamed Park Street from the private deer park built by Sir Elijah Impey. The cemetery contains the tomb of Colonel Vansittart, whose wife was a descendant of Oliver Cromwell. Other significant graves are those of Lt. Col. Robert Kyd, the distinguished botanist and founder of the East India Company's Botanical Gardens ; Lt.Col. James Lillyman, who supervised the building of Fort William; two sons of Charles Dickens; and many such persons.
