Memorial only. The inscription reads : "Lieutenant Walter Landor, second son of Charles and Catherine Dickens. Born 8th. February 1841, died at Calcutta 31st. December 1863." On the day after the birth of his fourth child, but second son, Charles Dickens wrote : "I mean to call the boy Edgar ; a good honest Saxon name, I think." A few days after that, however, he changed his mind, upon asking Walter Savage Landor (q.v.) to be the godfather. Walter Dickens showed signs of following his father's profession, but his tutor was instructed to press him not to write. "The less he is encouraged to write the better, and the happier, he will be." Instead, through the influence of Angela Burdett-Coutts, he obtained a cadetship in the East India Company and, in 1857, left England, never to return. He reached the rank of Lieutenant in the 26th. Native Infantry Regiment, and had been doing duty with the 26th. Highlanders, when he fell into debt and his health broke down. He was invalided back home but, on the way, died on New Year's Eve at the Officers' Hospital in Calcutta where he is, presumably, buried. The news did not reach Dickens until his own birthday on the 7th. February. Later, Walter's unpaid bills were passed on to his father. The grave in War Cemetery, along with Walter's name, a memorial to his brother Sydney, who died and was buried at sea. His sister, Dora, and his mother, Catherine, are buried therein.
Submitted by Ian
--------------------
When I was in Calcutta in 1991 myself and Henrietta Rutherford-Jones discovered that the second son of Charles Dickens, Walter Landor Dickens, was lying in an unmarked grave in a "pauper's cemetery". We found this out because a university had moved the gravestone to the more upmarket South Park Street Cemetery leaving Walter's remains in an unmarked grave in Bhowanipore Cemetery. We went in search of the unmarked grave in Bhowanipore Cemetery and we arranged for a small stone to be made. When it was ready we took the stone to Bhowanipore Cemetery where we laid it on Walter's grave and held a short service in his memory.
Submitted by contributor Shelagh McKay Jones
Submitted by Ian
--------------------
When I was in Calcutta in 1991 myself and Henrietta Rutherford-Jones discovered that the second son of Charles Dickens, Walter Landor Dickens, was lying in an unmarked grave in a "pauper's cemetery". We found this out because a university had moved the gravestone to the more upmarket South Park Street Cemetery leaving Walter's remains in an unmarked grave in Bhowanipore Cemetery. We went in search of the unmarked grave in Bhowanipore Cemetery and we arranged for a small stone to be made. When it was ready we took the stone to Bhowanipore Cemetery where we laid it on Walter's grave and held a short service in his memory.
Submitted by contributor Shelagh McKay Jones
Memorial only. The inscription reads : "Lieutenant Walter Landor, second son of Charles and Catherine Dickens. Born 8th. February 1841, died at Calcutta 31st. December 1863." On the day after the birth of his fourth child, but second son, Charles Dickens wrote : "I mean to call the boy Edgar ; a good honest Saxon name, I think." A few days after that, however, he changed his mind, upon asking Walter Savage Landor (q.v.) to be the godfather. Walter Dickens showed signs of following his father's profession, but his tutor was instructed to press him not to write. "The less he is encouraged to write the better, and the happier, he will be." Instead, through the influence of Angela Burdett-Coutts, he obtained a cadetship in the East India Company and, in 1857, left England, never to return. He reached the rank of Lieutenant in the 26th. Native Infantry Regiment, and had been doing duty with the 26th. Highlanders, when he fell into debt and his health broke down. He was invalided back home but, on the way, died on New Year's Eve at the Officers' Hospital in Calcutta where he is, presumably, buried. The news did not reach Dickens until his own birthday on the 7th. February. Later, Walter's unpaid bills were passed on to his father. The grave in War Cemetery, along with Walter's name, a memorial to his brother Sydney, who died and was buried at sea. His sister, Dora, and his mother, Catherine, are buried therein.
Submitted by Ian
--------------------
When I was in Calcutta in 1991 myself and Henrietta Rutherford-Jones discovered that the second son of Charles Dickens, Walter Landor Dickens, was lying in an unmarked grave in a "pauper's cemetery". We found this out because a university had moved the gravestone to the more upmarket South Park Street Cemetery leaving Walter's remains in an unmarked grave in Bhowanipore Cemetery. We went in search of the unmarked grave in Bhowanipore Cemetery and we arranged for a small stone to be made. When it was ready we took the stone to Bhowanipore Cemetery where we laid it on Walter's grave and held a short service in his memory.
Submitted by contributor Shelagh McKay Jones
Submitted by Ian
--------------------
When I was in Calcutta in 1991 myself and Henrietta Rutherford-Jones discovered that the second son of Charles Dickens, Walter Landor Dickens, was lying in an unmarked grave in a "pauper's cemetery". We found this out because a university had moved the gravestone to the more upmarket South Park Street Cemetery leaving Walter's remains in an unmarked grave in Bhowanipore Cemetery. We went in search of the unmarked grave in Bhowanipore Cemetery and we arranged for a small stone to be made. When it was ready we took the stone to Bhowanipore Cemetery where we laid it on Walter's grave and held a short service in his memory.
Submitted by contributor Shelagh McKay Jones
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