The Kaj Schmidt Memorial on the Elliots Beach at Tiruvanmiyur, Chennai, commemorates the gallantry of a Dane, Kaj Erik Gjolstad Schmidt.
Some light has now been shed on the story of Schmidt, which has remained a mystery in Chennai, though stories of the young man’s heroism have been doing the rounds for decades. Per Kristian Madsen, Director General of the Danish Maritime Museum has come up with significant information sourced from The Maritime Museum of Denmark. This was after some intensive research.
‘Kaj Schmidt was certainly a brave man who unfortunately lost his life trying to rescue other persons, so there is every good reason to maintain his memory and his memorial’.
According to Benjamin Asmussen, curator, The Maritime Museum of Denmark, Kaj Erik Gjolstad Schmidt was born in Denmark in 1901. In 1921 he became employed by the Danish company EAC- the East Asiatic Company. The EAC was founded in Copenhagen in 1897 with the purpose of trading and transporting especially teak wood from South East Asia. Later the company expanded to include trade and shipping all over the world.
Schmidt was sent by the EAC to its new office in Madras in 1929. The office had been established in November 1928 to export peanuts as well as open the market for Danish products such as cement and milk. The office was the first representation of the EAC in India.
According to the newspaper The Aberdeen Journal from 1931, Kaj Schmidt went bathing at Elliot’s Beach on the second-last day of 1930, along with four co-workers from the EAC. Towards the end of their visit to the beach, Kaj Schmidt and his colleague Werner Nielsen noticed three swimmers in peril in the water and immediately came to their rescue, and were later joined by two other colleagues. The strong current endangered all seven people in the water, but the last remaining EAC employee, A Kragh found a rope and local fishermen to help. Together they managed to bring everyone back onto the beach except Kaj Schmidt, who was too exhausted to grab the rope and sank beneath the waves. His body was later recovered by the fishermen.
Werner Nielsen later became the CEO of the Danish East Asiatic Company.
Moved by Schmidt’s act of sacrifice, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir George Frederick Stanley, Governor of Madras, ordered the construction of a memorial in his honour.
The memorial unveiled on 29 November 1931 has stood for over 80 years braving the elements and the tsunami of 2004. Due to the ravages of cyclones, the memorial is in a dilapidated condition. With the active involvement of the residents of Besant Nagar, the Corporation of Chennai has initiated action to restore the memorial. The Royal Danish Consulate in Chennai is in talks with interested groups including the Corporation of Chennai to create a landscape around the memorial and for its proper upkeep to attract visitors.
Inscription in the tablet
"To commemorate the gallantry of Kaj Schmidt who was drowned near this spot on Dec 30 - 1930 in helping to save the lives of others". |