Taking the exit towards gate number 4, leads you to a place with a big iron gate, supposedly being a protected area by the government, which is a cemetery meant only for British officials. The cemetery was later called as Nicholson’s cemetery, just a few steps ahead on your right from the metro station. An active burial ground, the cemetery is named after one of the most celebrated British heroes of 1857, Brigadier General John Nicholson. Walk inside from the Iron gate, leads to the small dingy rooms where the caretakers and his family lives. A path which leads to the left is Nicholson’s cemetery. But why is Nicholson a hero of the revolt of 1857?
John Nicholson was the man who breached the defenses of rebels who were controlling the walled city of Shahjahanabad in process lost his life. A great swordsman and a military commander who enjoyed the loyalty of his troops, he was definitely a much celebrated man during the revolt. Shot while attacking the Lahore Gate, he was carried back to the British camp and remained in agony which resulted in a slow death. After his death there was a religious cult which developed around him which considered him an incarnation of the Hindu God Vishnu. It was believed that the soldiers who served under Nicholson had given up fighting once their commander had died. As a part of their memory with Nicholson they picked up flowers from his grave and returned back to their homelands.
The marble slab of cenotaph was looted from Mehtab Bagh, literally the Mughal Garden in Delhi. The thorny bushy entrance to the cemetery is a living example of how some celebrated British officials who also had a religious cult around them, are fading away with time. The inscription right in front of the cemetery not quite discernible but engraved with the alphabets which reads: “In ever loving Memory of Arthur Thomas William”.

The whole Kashmere Gate area is sloped in history, right from when the British had come, settled, tillt he bloody revolt of 1857, and subsequently towns coming up in other parts of North, notably the Civil Lines area. Layered in history, most of the tombs and cenotaphs belong to British origin subjects who left their cold island nation to serve the Jewel of the Crown colony.
Right outside the cemetery is a whole new world of a different century, fast paced life, and a bustling city is what you will experience. Right across the street is the famous Bus Terminal, the ever honking cars rushing through each other, and the sounds of metro trains gushing through each other.
While many commuters must be seeing the cemetery when they are travelling from Kashmere Gate, not many know about the relevance of Nicholson in our historical legacy! A dry leaves laiden path leads to many graves, which are still not known by people.