Canadian Virtual War Memorial

The RANGOON MEMORIAL has been erected in Taukkyan War Cemetery, which is outside Yangon (formerly Rangoon), near the airport and immediately adjoining the village of Taukkyan. It is on the Prome Road, about 35 kilometres north of the city, from which it is easily accessible. The RANGOON MEMORIAL stands in the centre of the Cemetery, surrounded by the graves of more than 6,000 men who fought and died with those whom it commemorates, whose remains were brought from the battlefield cemeteries at Akyab, Mandalay, Meiktila and Sahmaw, and from scattered jungle and roadside graves all over Burma. It is in the form of two long open garden courts flanked by covered walks and joined by an open rotunda. The names of the fallen are carved on the inner faces of broad rectangular piers placed at intervals to form the sides of the covered walks. Through these colonnades can be seen the green lawns of the cemetery and the colourful garden courts. On the frieze inside the rotunda are inscribed in English these words:
1939-1945
Here are recorded the names of Twenty Seven Thousand soldiers of many races united in service to the British Crown who gave their lives in Bhurma and Assam but to whom the fortune of war denied the customary rites accorded to their comrades in death. Also engraved on the rotunda in English, Burmese, Hindi, Urdu and Gurmukhi is the additional inscription:
They died for all free men. The RANGOON MEMORIAL was unveiled on Sunday, 9 February 1958, by General Sir Francis Festing, Commander-in-Chief Far East Land Forces.