THE ST. JOHN’S CHURCH, MEERUT
The construction of the Church began in 1819 and it was complete in 1822.
It is a protestant church and was the main church of Meerut all through the British colonial era, serving officers, soldiers as well as the civil European population of the station.
St. John’s Church holds the distinction of being the oldest church made by the British in North India – a fact substantiated by the tablet near its entrance, that says, ‘This church, the first erected in the provinces of India, was founded in 1819 and completed in 1822’.
Mrs. Jean Thomas informs that the church was established by Rev. Henry Fisher in 1819 on behalf of the East India Company. It was built of brick and stucco, by private subscription and partly by government grant at a cost of Rs. 56,000. One of its subscribers was Begum Samroo. It has a length of 150 feet length and width of 84 feet with space enough to accommodate 1,500 people.
The church was consecrated on December 19, 1824 by the Mitred Minstrel Reginald Heber, the Bishop of Calcutta, who travelled on an elephant from Calcutta to Meerut taking more than three months to arrive in good time.
The church today stands tall in all its splendor within the heart of the cantonment. Though it has a simple exterior, its interior is filled with history all around in the form of innumerable tablets all along its walls as well as the beautiful woodwork within it which is as old as the church itself, standing the vagaries of time and imparting to it the feel of an age gone by.
