Liverpool's Dead Interesting - Kirkdale Cemetery

 
In 1878 the Kirkdale burial board purchased 32 acres of the Warbreck estate for a sum of £30,000 which would be equivalent to over £3 million today. There was some criticism that such a large area had been bought, but the board responded by saying it was looking far into the future as at the time Kirkdale had a population of 50,000 and was not part of Liverpool, although it is now is situated in the north Liverpool suburb of Fazakerley and is one of six that are administered by Liverpool city council. With burial provision at St Mary’s cemetery in Walton reaching full capacity and the Liverpool burial board refusing to accommodate any burials in Anfield cemetery from outlying townships, a new cemetery was required. The cemetery layout was designed by Walton landscaper William Wortley with Church of England, Non-conformist and Roman Catholic denominations each having sections of equal size. The architect for the three chapels was William Duckworth, who sited the Church of England and Nonconformist chapels within one large building while the Roman Catholic chapel was about thirty yards away. All of these are no longer in existence.

On the 22nd of March 1881, the Bishop of Liverpool, Dr Ryle, consecrated the Church of England sections, while the following day the Roman Catholic sections were solemnly blessed by Dr O'Reilly. Local newspapers advertised that the cemetery would be open to interments from the 24th of March and enquiries should be made to the registrar’s office next to the gates, or to the burial board at 152 Stanley Road. The cemetery was soon paying for itself and further improvements were made within two years, including additional fencing and a palisade. There was a tragedy in May 1885 when the body of a marine engineer named Peter Robinson was found lying on a grave. Next to the body was a bottle containing laudanum and carbolic acid. In the the clothing was a note to Peter's brother saying he had wanted to die at the grave of his daughter, who herself had committed suicide a few months earlier. In May 1893 a mass burial took place but very little attention was given to it. The reason was that the 66 coffins interred held the remains of prisoners who had been executed at Kirkdale goal. With the gaol facing demolition, all the bodies were exhumed and re-interred at the cemetery.

In December 1914, Liverpool became one of the 21 Auxiliary Patrol Bases and in February 1915, the base of the 10th Cruiser Squadron. During the Second World War, Liverpool was also headquarters of Western Approaches Command and a manning depot for officers and men of the Merchant Navy who agreed to serve with the Royal Navy for the duration of the war. A large Canadian hospital, which became No. 5 Canadian General Hospital, opened at Westminster Road, Kirkdale in July 1917 and of the 391 First World War burials in Kirkdale Cemetery, more than 100 are Canadian and of the remainder, 82 are of officers and men of the King's (Liverpool) Regiment. About half of the graves from this period are scattered throughout the cemetery and the rest are contained in two war graves plots, where the names of the dead are recorded on Screen Wall panels. There are also 115 Second World War burials here, nine of them in one of the First World War plots, the rest scattered. The cemetery also contains nine war graves of other nationalities. Originally, there were many more, including American and German from the First World War and Belgian from both wars, but these were later removed to other national cemeteries in the United Kingdom or repatriated to their home country. One of the greatest tragedies of this war was the sinking of the passenger liner Lusitania, which was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland en route from New York to Liverpool. More than 1,100 lives were lost and some of the crew members are buried in Kirkdale, including chief officer John Piper. Another notable victim of the 1941 May Blitz is buried in Kirkdale too. Mary Lawson was a stage and film actress who was once a lover of tennis star Fred Perry. She was staying with a friend in Toxteth when she and her husband, Francis William Lionel Collings Beaumont, son of the Dame of Sark, were killed in an air raid, having opted against going to a shelter.

In 2015 a memorial stone was placed on the grave of a hero of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 by Joe Anderson, the Mayor of Liverpool who laid a wreath at a service which was attended by standard bearers from the Royal Artillery. During the ceremony the Mayor presented representatives of the Royal Artillery with a replica Victoria Cross in memory of Mr William Connolly who was born in Liverpool in May 1817 and lived in Oakes Street, off London Road. He had worked as a stableman and groom before enlisting in the Bengal Army of the Honourable East India Company as a gunner, 1st Troop, 3rd Bengal Horse Artillery. He won his VC for his bravery at Jhelum on the 7th of July 1857 when, despite sustaining three wounds to his legs through musket balls, he would not leave his post until he collapsed through loss of blood and was placed on a wagon and taken away for treatment. At one point his commanding officer ordered that he be removed from the action but, he reported "this brave man hearing me, staggered to his feet, and said, 'No, Sir, I’ll not go there, whilst I can work here'." He returned to Liverpool in 1859 living with relations before moving into lodgings off Netherfield Road. His later life was spent in poverty and his VC was auctioned in 1886 for £10. William spent some time in a workhouse in Rice Lane before moving to 14 Westminster Road, Kirkdale and died on the 31st of December 1891, and was buried on the 4th of January 1892 in an unmarked pauper's grave. His interment at the cemetery had been marked by a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone at the entrance but when the matter was brought to Kirkdale councillor Joe Hanson’s attention, a flat stone memorial plaque now marks his grave.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/02/liverpools-dead-interesting-allerton.html