Delhi’s oldest church is a quiet, yellow-and-white building near the historic Kashmiri Gate. St James’ Church is a lovely old monument, recently restored by conservation architects. And it’s not just the building that’s interesting - there are many other churches across India that are as (if not more) historic, beautiful, and famous. What sets St James’ apart is the colourful story of the man who built it.
Colonel James H Skinner, CB, (1778-1841) was the illegitimate son of a Scottish officer, Lieutenant Colonel Hercules Skinner and a Rajput woman. James Skinner worked as a printer’s apprentice and at a law firm before finally managing to do what he really wanted - join the army. The British Indian Army sniffed deprecatingly at Skinner’s less-than-immaculate antecedents and rejected him, but Skinner managed to get into the French forces in India and served as an ensign for 8 years.
During his stint with the French, Skinner was badly wounded at the Battle of Uniara. Lying close to death, he made a vow that if he were to survive, he would build a church in gratitude to God. Eventually rescued by a poor low-caste old woman (whom he generously rewarded later), Skinner went on to create a cavalry corps of irregulars, known as Sikandar Sahib’s Yellow Boys (they went into battle clothed partly in yellow). The corps, which was officially named the 1st Duke of York’s own Lancers, was more commonly known as Skinner’s Horse and went on to become easily the finest cavalry regiment in the Indian Army. After Independence, it was retained as the 1st Horse Regiment.
The building of St James’ Church, a votive undertaking that owed its origin to Skinner’s near-death experience at Uniara, cost all of £20,000. The church, topped by a dome, is built in the classical design of a Greek cross plan, with porticoes on three arms of the cross. Outside, a wide gravel pathway shaded by trees leads past the cemetery (many tombstones here are of the Skinner family) to the church. Inside, the church is dominated by a pair of lovely stained-glass windows, rows of mango wood pews, and 19th-century fixtures. It’s all very colonial, and as you walk through the church, you’ll actually be walking over Skinner’s grave - he specifically instructed that he be buried under the floor.
That may sound like the ultimate in humility, but it was fairly uncharacteristic of Skinner, who was, if anything, pretty sure of his own importance. Interestingly enough, Skinner was not "officially" a Christian until 1836, when St James’ was consecrated. He was baptised when the church was consecrated. For the occasion of the consecration, the bishop of Calcutta had sent Skinner a beautifully embroidered altar cloth with the letters IHS (a contraction of Iesus Hominum Salvator - "Jesus Saviour of Men" on it. Skinner, in a gentle aside to the Bishop of Calcutta, said, "Your tailor’s made a mistake, you know. My initials are JHS, not IHS".