West Derby Cemetery in Lower House Lane, Croxteth has various Grade II listed buildings across the site. The layout of the grounds was undertaken by William Wortley, who had also worked on Kirkdale cemetery, and the original buildings were designed by architect Mr F B Payton of Bradford. Towards the end of the 1870s it was becoming apparent that neighbouring burial boards would no longer be able to accommodate interments for the residents of West Derby. This led to West Derby’s burial board, which also took in Old Swan and parts of Wavertree, purchasing the 151 acres Lower House Farm. Initially only seventy acres were developed as a burial ground, with the remaining land being rented out for agricultural purposes. The opening ceremony took place on the 28th of January 1884 overseen by Protestant, Catholic and Nonconformist ministers. Members of the burial board then lunched in the registrar’s office, the food being provided by the landlord of the nearby Sefton Arms hotel. It has been used for Church of England, Roman Catholic and Jewish burials.
There are a number of graves of servicemen who died after hostilities ceased as there was a worldwide influenza pandemic in 1918/19 that some experts believe could have killed 3% of the total world population. The cemetery contains 108 Commonwealth service war graves of World War 1 and 129 of World War 11, scattered in the different denominational plots. Casualties whose graves could not be marked by CWGC headstones are listed on the two denominational Screen Wall memorials. The CWGC also care for 2 foreign nationals' war graves. Marked war graves from WW11 (within Roman Catholic section) include Czech Battle of Britain veterans Jindrich Bartos and Otto Hanzlíček, two of the three Merseyside Few who are clearly not from Liverpool. Otto made 113 flights totalling over 100 hours for the Armee l’Air for which he was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Silver Star and Bar and the Czechoslovak War Cross. He is buried in section 11 RC grave 392 with a compatriot, Jindrich Bartos a Czechoslovakian pilot who was serving with the Royal Air Force who had fled his homeland when Germany invaded in 1938 and initially settled in France, but escaped from there after it fell to Hitler’s forces. After arriving in Cardiff in August 1940 he joined the RAF and fought in the Battle of Britain. He was killed in February 1941 whilst on a high altitude training flight, the oxygen failing causing his plane to fall into an uncontrollable spin over North Wales. On the 24th of May 1941 Flight Lieutenant Wladyslaw Szulkowski was laid to rest
in West Derby Cemetery by the Reverend Henry Moffat as
befitted a decorated officer who had fought to defend his own country in
the Polish Campaign, fought to defend Great Britain in the Battle of
Britain, and died protecting Liverpool from the threat of German bombers,
he was buried with full military honours.
Champion speedway racer Peter Craven is also buried in the cemetery. Born and raised in Liverpool, he was world champion in 1955 and 1962 but died in a crash at Meadowbank stadium in Edinburgh in 1963. Peter was just 29 years old when he died and his son Robert also went on to become a speedway rider. Perhaps the most notable burial that took place here before the turn of the century in 1897 was when champion diver Tommy Burns was interred. He advertised himself as the 'champion all round athlete of the world', excelling particularly in diving and swimming and was also known to be a life saver and during his lifetime. He is believed to have saved in excess of 40 lives, holding every medal and certificate from the Royal Humane Society. He was thirty years old when he drowned after getting into difficulty when he dived into the sea from Rhyl pier in front of 3,000 spectators. At this time, he was destitute and his coffin was provided by Rhyl Pier while another professional diver helped to raise funds for his widow by diving off the Rhyl Pier as Burns himself had done.
Also here are the graves of Hugh Stowell Brown (http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2022/06/a-liverpool-exemplar-hugh-stowell-brown.html) and that of Freddie Starr (http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2018/11/merseyside-mirth-makers-freddie-starr.html).
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/02/liverpools-dead-interesting-kirkdale.html
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