The hunt for Jessie's grave...in Pune

While we were in Pune, having heard from UK sources holding Jessie's death certificate, that she died in Pune we attempted to find Jessie's grave in the St Sepulchre Cemetery in Sholapur Road.

This cemetery is divided into two parts, the Indian burials on one side of the road and European on the other, which is then also in two parts, pre 1900 and post 1900.  It was with some difficulty that we negotiated our way to the correct part of the cemetery.

Unfortunately the cemetery is in a state of disrepair with people living amongst the grave stones at the entry, and making market gardens towards the rear of the cemetery.  Many of the gravestones have collapsed and lie amongst dense foliage.  Having unsuccessfully tried to source records for the cemetery we decided to chance it and see if we could find Jessie's grave.

It was while we were scrambling through the bushes and long grass reading the gravestones that mother said "do you know if India has snakes?".  "I don't know" I replied, and we carried on.  Turns out India has 38 species of snake, 18 of them of the unpleasant variety.  Apparently they don't come out in the heat of the day, and we were searching in the heat of the day...thankfully.

Despite our best efforts, and some very interesting reading, we were unable to find Jessie, or the graves of any other missionaries.

St Sepulchre Cemetery (East) where we concentrated our efforts

Lonely sentinel

Gravestones in varying states of neglect

To hedge our bets while we were in Pune, we went to St Andrews, which in a former life was a Church of Scotland church.  We were informed that it had never had a graveyard and now belonged to the Hindustani Christian Church. They were very welcoming and let us look through the old stone church, which was being renovated inside after a catastrophic fire in November last year which destroyed the stained glass windows and the original seating, and furniture.

Situated just down the road from the PIVM headquarters at Napier Road, it is likely that Jessie would have attended some services here.