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site of the battery of old guns covering the harbour, was a small renovated folk religion temple. Finally one elderly man explained that a newly rebuilt temple stood some two miles up the coast overlooking the sea. It had been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960s. When eventually we found it we were lucky enough to be guided by another elderly man who we had encountered on the approach track. Before we had time to discuss anything whatsoever he asked who we were and on hearing that we were English he immediately volunteered the fact that the English had been to that spot before, to that very temple, which they had attacked. He added that the English 'general' had been killed during the battle and had been buried on the hillside and he pointed out roughly where the grave had been. He explained that it had been plainly visible until 1949 when the Communists had taken over and had had the hillside planted with young trees which had obliterated the grave.
Extremely interesting though this piece of folk memory was, it did not tie in with the sketch map provided by an officer, Lieutenant Ouchterlony of the Madras Engineers, who was present in Chapu during the landings and the subsequent battle. The Left Column and the Right Column both had landed in the bay at the point where the present rebuilt temple stands, and therefore our informant was right to claim that the English had been there. However, whoever had been buried on the hillside at that spot was certainly not Colonel Tomlinson who fell at the joss house marked on Ouchterlony's map much nearer to Chapu. The site of the Joss house marked on the map, where Tomlinson fell, is within a very short distance from the harbour where the battery of old guns now stands and where the local inhabitants were quite certain that no temple had been there within living memory.
The fallibility of folk memory is well known and it is not too difficult to understand how over the century and a half since the battle took place the scene of the attack on the temple had been transferred to the other temple where a grave, presumably of a foreigner, was accepted as that of the British senior officer who fell that day.
Plates and photographs accompanying this article will be published in a future edition of the Journal - Editor]
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site of the battery of old guns covering the harbour, was a small renovated folk religion temple. Finally one elderly man explained that a newly rebuilt temple stood some two miles up the coast overlooking the sea It had been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960s. When eventually we found it we were lucky enough to be guided by another elderly man who we had encountered on the approach track. Before we had time to discuss anything whatsoever he asked who we were and on hearing that we were English he immediately volunteered the fact that the English had been to that spot before, to that very temple, which they had attacked He added that the English 'general' had been killed during the battle and had been buried on the hillside and he pointed out roughly where the grave had been. He explained that it had been plainly visible until 1949 when the Communists had taken over and had had the hillside planted with young trees which had obliterated the grave.
Extremely interesting though this piece of folk memory was, it did not tie in with the sketch map provided by an officer, Lieutenant Ouchterlony of the Madras Engineers, who was present in Chapu during the landings and the subsequent battle. The Left Column and the Right Column both had landed in the bay at the point where the present rebuilt temple stands, and therefore our informant was right to claim that the English had been there. However, whoever had been buried on the hillside at that spot was certainly not Colonel Tomlinson who fell at the joss house marked on Ouchterlony's map much nearer to Chapu. The site of the Joss house marked on the map, where Tomlinson fell, is within a very short distance from the harbour where the battery of old guns now stands and where the local mhabitants were quite certain that no temple had been there within living memory.
The fallibility of folk memory is well known and it is not too difficult to understand how over the century and a half since the battle took place the scene of the attack on the temple had been transferred to the other temple where a grave, presumably of a foreigner, was accepted as that of the British senior officer who fell that day.
Plates and photographs accompanying thus article will be published in a tuture edition of the Journal - Editor]
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