Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the Bowring Treaty and the appointment of a British consul, much of the dealings
between Siam and Britain were done through Singapore. In 1851, Butterworth wrote to
the king, pointing out that there was no burial ground for Christians of the Protestant
faith who died in Bangkok. he king himself had been aware of this, and he readily ac-
ceded to Butterworth's request that land be provided. A man named Nai Muang had
owned a site by the river, and had absconded when he got into debt. he land had passed
into the hands of one of his creditors who, although the record isn't clear, appears to have
been related to the Scottish merchant Robert Hunter. The Western community felt the
site would serve their needs perfectly. Measured out by the traditional Siamese units, it
was 5
sen
and 8
wah
long, and with a width of 1
sen
1
wah
and 2
sok
. A
wah
, which is still
used today, is the fingertip-to-fingertip measurement of a man's outstretched arms. A
sen
is equal to 20
wah
, while a
sok
is an elbow length. Converted into metric, the land is 216
x 43 metres (708 x 141 ft). The price was 10
chang
, or 800 baht, and the king paid for the
land out of the royal coffers. The burial ground was presented to the foreign community
on 30
th
July 1853.
Passing through the iron door, the traffic noise dimmed by the high wall, the visitor
is in a peaceful spot that could easily pass for an English churchyard. Administered by
the Protestant Cemetery Committee, with the burial register kept at Christ Church on
Convent Road, the cemetery is maintained entirely by voluntary contributions. A stroll
amongst the graves here will reveal the resting place of many of the earliest foreign set-
tlers. The grave of Dr Daniel Beach Bradley, with its tall obelisk and forbidding black let-
tering, evokes an image of the man himself, who died in 1873 at the age of 69. Next to him
lie his two wives, Emelie and Sarah. his part of the cemetery is in fact given over to the
American missionaries: the Reverend Samuel Jones Smith, John Taylor Jones, John Car-
rington, William Greenstock, the Reverend Cyrus Chilcott, Alanson Reed; names famil-
iar to us from Bradley's own writings. George Bradley McFarland, compiler of the Thai-
English dictionary that is still a standard work today. Jennie Neilson Hays, whose griev-
ing husband built the Neilson Hays Library on Surawong Road in her memory. Hamilton
King, American ambassador, who died in 1912 and has an old-established restaurant in
the Dusit Thani Hotel named after him. There is an impressive tomb for Admiral Sir John
Bush, who died in 1905 at the age of 86, the monument erected by Rama
V
himself. Nearby
lies Bush's son George, buried beneath a large monument with a skull and crossbones re-
lief, also erected by the king. His Majesty was particularly benevolent in commemorating
those of his foreign servants he felt had given a long and devoted service. Henry Alabaster,
who died in 1884, a diplomat who had helped in the surveying and construction of Char-
