For one and a half years, searches were carried out for the burial place of 2 Russian sailors who died in the Siam march of the legendary cruiser Aurora in early December 1911 in the city of Bangkok. It was sequentially possible to identify first the necropolis - the Protestant cemetery of Bangkok, then the site - block G, and in the end two abandoned graves with destroyed monuments without inscriptions. Below we describe in detail the history of the identification of these graves.
In confirmation of our words, we can add that in April 2019 in the town of Menton (France), the grave of Lieutenant Guards Crew Alexander Vladimirovich Shiryayev, who died on February 18, 1912 on the Aurora cruiser when returning from Bangkok, was revealed at the Trabuke cemetery.
Thus, it was possible to establish the names and burial sites of all Russian sailors who died in the line of duty during the Siamese cruise of the Aurora cruiser in 1911-1912.
Search results for the graves of 2 Russian naval sailors who perished during the Siamese march of the legendary cruiser Aurora in 1911 in the Kingdom of Thailand.
During the audit of information about Russian naval graves abroad, it became known that in September 1911, the 1st rank cruiser of the Baltic Fleet “Aurora” left Kronstadt for the Kingdom of Siam to participate in the coronation celebrations of His Majesty King Wadzhiravud in the capital of the Kingdom Bangkok. In Naples, the cruiser took on board the Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich with his retinue and servants. From 16 to 29 November 1911 (old style) "Aurora" was stationed in Bangkok.
A dozen sailors "Aurora", who were on the shore, received acute food poisoning, two of them died and were buried in a cemetery in Bangkok.
In December 2017, we sent an appeal to the Committee on External Relations of St. Petersburg with a request to help identify the graves of 2 Russian sailors who died during the Siam march of the legendary cruiser Aurora in 1911 in the Kingdom of Thailand and were buried in the cemetery in Bangkok. The Committee on External Relations of St. Petersburg, in turn, sent inquiries to interested parties in the Kingdom of Thailand.
In December 2018, a reply was received from the Committee on Religion, Arts, Culture and Tourism of the National Legislative Assembly of the Kingdom of Thailand, where it was reported that two Russian military sailors were buried in the Protestant cemetery of Bangkok in graves No. 833 and No. 834 in December 1911, but the exact burial site is not known today. The source cited the publication “Bangkok: Protestant Cemetery”, Justin Corfield, London, 1997, the original of which we managed to get in a second-hand bookstore in London (United Kingdom).
At our request, in the spring of 2019, a resident of Bangkok, Yanina Zaluzhnaya (Yana Zaluzhnaya), repeatedly examined the Protestant cemetery of Bangkok.
The experts of IAC “We Remember All By Name” studied the following information:
1. Letter of the National Legislative Assembly of the Kingdom of Thailand No. 0019 (NLA) / 4839 dated 11/30/2018;
2. Bangkok: Protestant Cemetery, Justin Corfield, London 1997;
3. Logbook of the cruiser “Aurora” of 1911 (RGAVMF, fund 870, inventory 1, case 45568) - extracts from the magazine are provided by Sergey Teleshov;
4. Data provided by the administration of the Protestant cemetery of Bangkok and posted on the official website of the cemetery;
5. Photo and video materials obtained during repeated surveys of the Protestant cemetery of Bangkok in the spring of 2019 - provided by Yanina Zaluzhnaya (Yana Zaluzhnaya).
As a result of the work done, it was possible to clarify the names of the dead Russian military sailors:
1. Tunyakin Fedor, deceased in November 22, 1911, 26 years old, sailor of the 1st article, musician, born in Voronezh; buried on the day of death (described as Th. Tanniakin, died 12/05/1911 in a new style);
2. Tymin Yakov, deceased in November 27, 1911, 23 years old, sailor of the 2nd article; buried the day after his death (described as J. Finin, died December 10, 1911 in a new style).
Thanks to the archival data, important details of mourning events became known - the cemetery is located on the river bank, and therefore the procession did not have to go through the city, the gunboat approached the pier at the far end of the cemetery and the bodies of the dead were buried with appropriate honors. At the funeral by order of the Siamese Maritime Minister, a Siamese naval officer was sent, who laid a wreath of fresh flowers on the grave.
In total, in 1911, 22 people were buried at the indicated cemetery. To date, 12 monuments of this year are described on the cemetery site, almost all of them are located on sites B (8 sites) and A (3 sites), one on site E2 according to the scheme attached (below). Here, on section B, is the grave of E. W. Polhaus, buried on December 7, 1911, that is, on the same days as the sailors of the Aurora.
In the spring of 2019, all areas of the cemetery on the left side were examined: A, B, C, D, E1, E2, F, G and H.
At the first stage, in order to identify two single graves with poorly readable inscriptions, repeated inspection of sections B and A around the grave of E. W. Polhaus was carried out. The sites themselves are located to the left of the central entrance to the cemetery from the side of the city.
To read poorly readable inscriptions, a rubbing method was used - shading a sheet of thin paper tightly attached to the surface of a monument with a pencil. As a result, it was possible to read the inscriptions on two monuments that were previously not known:
1. David Mc Cormack (in the cemetery database, only the last name was mistakenly indicated - Mcgormack, died 09/25/1911; native of Scotland (Great Britain), grave No. 1110 to the right of Polhaus.
2. Adolf Kampe, died 30/04/1913; 55 years old, native of Magdeburg (Germany), grave No. 1129 in the next row, to the right of Polhaus.
The analysis showed that all the graves in these areas have numbers 1100 and higher, this made it possible to exclude the possibility of finding the wanted graves (No. 833 and No. 834) in sections B and A. The numbering of the graves inside the sections was carried out not according to the position in the row, but according to the burials, i.e. chaotically.
At the second stage, section G was surveyed, where the preserved grave is located under No. 831 "Isobel Barton-West died 28th June 1910". Grave number 831 itself is located in the 6th row from the central alley, and behind it in the 9th row, right next to the fence of the cemetery, two single graves were found with dilapidated monuments of the same type without inscriptions. Graves with similar type of monuments and from the same material at the Protestant cemetery are no longer found.
Given that the identified two single graves with dilapidated monuments are located in section G, not far from the pier at the far entrance from the river, through which in December 1911 the bodies of the departed Russian sailors were delivered to the cemetery, it can be argued that these are the graves of the 2 Russian sailors of the legendary cruiser Aurora.
St. Petersburg architect Rafael Dayanov developed a draft of a monument for the sailors of the cruiser Aurora, buried in the Protestant cemetery of Bangkok in 1911. The memorial structure is a vertical marble slab mounted on a marble pedestal, symbolizing the silhouette of the ship. The monument is located in the center of the landscaped area and is competed in the style of "Modern", typical for the described historical period.
On the front side of the vertical marble slab, in English, are the personal data of the deceased, and on the reverse – the epitaph. The height of the structure is 1.15 m, weighing about 1 ton.
The monument will be made on the donations of those who are not indifferent, without the involvement of budgetary funds, and will be installed at the Protestant cemetery of Bangkok after the approval.
We want to express our sincere gratitude to everyone who took part in the search for the graves of our compatriots at the Protestant cemetery of Bangkok.
Information and analysis centre “We remember everyone by name”,
April 16, 2019 St. Petersburg
2019.05.30, 78 news:
