"Perhaps the least known, but most attractive, of the great Victorian Cemeteries of London. Consecrated in 1840, it is one of the seven great Victorian cemeteries established in a ring around the outskirts of London. It contains examples of the magnificent monuments erected in memory of the most eminent citizens of the day, which contrast sharply with the small, simple headstones marking common, or public, burials. Its formal avenue of towering limes and the Gothic gloom of the original Victorian planting gives way to paths which recall the country lanes of a bygone era."
That from the Friends of Nunhead Cemetery website. Wikipedia says
It features in Section 11 of the Green Chain
We went in, randomly and unplanned, having spotted it as we were passing. Really very different from how I imagine cemeteries to be. What a nice place to visit, and what a lovely place to walk around. The Gothic menace from outside belies the tranquility and splendour of an overgrown nature reserve, replete with graves and mausoleums in disrepair. It was opened in 1840, but by the middle of the last century the cemetery was nearly full. A lack of care and cash surrendered the graves to the ravages of nature and vandalism, and it was not until the early 1980s that a group emerged to champion the graveyard.
Entering from the parking layby on Linden Grove, you walk up a short drive lined with aging gravestones and monuments, including one in Braille from 1876
At the end of the drive is an Anglican chapel, once obviously grandiose, now a haunting shell - it fell victim to arson in the 1970s, and was partially restored with funding from the Lottery and Southwark Council.
So many interesting graves, from different eras. Interesting to think of the stories behind them. There's a Moslem section. This commemorates a Mathematician and Mother.
The story of the 2nd Walworth Scouts, drowned almost a hundred years ago is a sad tale.
At 4am they set off and were in sight of the camp when, 2 miles off the coast, a sudden gale caught them and the boat capsized. The local lifeboat was launched and found a shocking scene.
Due to several acts of selfless heroism ,especially by their Scoutmaster Sydney Marsh, many lives were saved. But 8 scouts and Frank Masters from the training ship Arethusa had drowned.1 million people watched as the coffins, draped in Union Jacks and Scouts staves entwined with flowers, passed by on their way to Nunhead Cemetery
"This was the generation that, just a couple of years after the boys' funeral, would become numbed by the deaths of millions of boys not much older, than these lads in the trenches of the First World War.
The best explanation is that these boys represented something special, the real effort that was being made at that time to make life better for boys like these, to give them the opportunities and unlock the potential that was often buried by the poverty of their families.
To have a tragedy like this happen at the very moment when they and their Scoutmaster were doing their best to make something of themselves touched the national consciousness very deeply."...
...Another family lost their 12-year-old boy, William, who was a talented scholar. His family were devastated, but their two other boys came home. They were John and Edward Beckham. If Edward had not been saved his great-grandson - England football captain David - would never have been born:
I was particularly struck by Private Hovell (and the internet suggests I am not alone)
It was a pointless enough war for my English working- and middle-class ancestors and relatives. More so for the Empire descendants of Brits. But for Private Hovell - why did an 18 year old Maori boy get slaughtered in the petty squabbles of the European ruling class, who woud not normally have given him the time of day?
With thanks to @DavidUnderdown9, we can know a little more about Private Hovell.
The New Zealand (Māori) Pioneer Battalionwas first raised in 1915 and served at Gallipoli and the Western Front and largely served as pioneers. "Of these by the end of the war, 2227 Maori and 458 Pacific Islanders had served in what became known as the Maori Pioneer Battalion. Of these, 336 died on active service and 734 were wounded. Other Maori enlisted (and died) in other battalions as well."
He served at Gallipoli and disembarked in Malta on 30 September 'slightly sick' and died of thigh wounds on 20 October. He appears to have died in King George's hospital on Stamford Street. There is a conflicting report that he died en route from Gallipoli, but David says, if so, he would have been buried at sea.
NZ casualties highest as % of population of any British Empire force. With memories of Maori wars fresh, many in authority did not want to arm and train Maori, in WWI they served as pioneers. Maori Units of the NZEF
Scarletfinders website run by very useful for understanding medical side of war
See Auckland Museum for background on Pte Hovell, and link to digitised service record. He was one of the original Native Contgt
his individual CWGC record
Kiwis and Aussies easiest to research, all their records survive and largely digitised. UK records 60-70% destroyed by Luftwaffe
looks like he lied about his age. Record states born 28/1/1895, which would have made him 20. Grave says 18 (details from family)
looks like 16/548 Charles Harry Pirika Hovell was his brother - survived with rank of Sgt, and Mentioned in Despatches. Record not dig
I don't know what he died for. I wonder if he knew what he was fighting for.
Another grave that drew my attention was Siegfried Reihl. He died in 1918 aged 21. To me, the name seems German, although perhaps no more so than the great English war poet Siegfried Sassoon, who was named for his mother's love of Wagner.
All visitors to Nunhead seem to love the grave of Calvin G Simpson, a rare actor. He seems to have appeared in an episode of The Bill.
We walked past more graves, old and new:
and came to an avenue of mausoeums. All of them showed signs of damage. I wondered whether it was the result of subsidence, but Jummy said they had all been broken into. Perhaps when the cemetery lay derelict, or maybe decades ago.
At the end of the circuit, close to the entrance, is the monument to the Scottish Martyrs
This is a memorial to five men, three of them English, who were imprisoned for campaigning for parliamentary reform in the late 18th century under the influence of the ideals of the French Revolution. The five were accused of sedition in a series of trials and transported to Australia in 1794 and 1795. The Wikipedia article describes the monument on Calton Hill in Edinburgh but states "In February 1852, a second Monument, initiated by Hume, to the Scottish Political Martyrs was unveiled at Nunhead Cemetery, London. This monument stands at 33 feet high."
A little more on Transpontine blog
More blogposts:
The delightfully dead Nunhead Cemetery is buried alive
