Scartho Road Cemetery, Grimsby

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The chapels at Scartho Road Cemetery in Grimsby Scartho Road Cemetery chapels.jpg
The chapels at Scartho Road Cemetery in Grimsby

Scartho Road Cemetery is the principal burial ground for the town of Grimsby in Lincolnshire. Opened for burials in 1889 and located on Scartho Road in the town, the cemetery is managed by North East Lincolnshire Council. [1]

Contents

History

Originally known as Grimsby Municipal Cemetery, the first burial in the cemetery was that of William Calvert, a retired pork butcher of Grimsby, who died of dropsy and was buried in Scartho Road Cemetery on the 31st October 1889.

Cemetery buildings

The former Gatekeeper's Lodge Gatekeeper's Lodge Scartho Road Cemetery.jpg
The former Gatekeeper's Lodge
The Grade II listed memorial to Sir Henry Bennett (1827-1895) Sir Henry Bennett memorial Grimsby.jpg
The Grade II listed memorial to Sir Henry Bennett (1827-1895)

Construction of the various cemetery structures began in late 1888 and are all Grade II listed buildings. The Scartho Chapel buildings form a group with the Gatekeeper's Lodge, the former Cemetery Waiting Rooms and toilet block and the inner gateway. The Chapels are in the Gothic revival style and were designed by architect Ernest William Farebrother for the Grimsby Corporation Cemetery Committee. All the cemetery buildings were constructed by local firm J. Thompson Builders of Grimsby and were erected in red brick in an English bond with limestone dressings. The roofs to all the buildings are in distinctive Westmoreland green slate. The listed cemetery gates were restored in 2019. [2]

The Grade II listed former Cemetery Lodge is now a private residence. [3] The memorial to Sir Henry Bennett (1827-1895) is a Grade II listed structure. [4]

Burials from the World Wars

The cemetery's Cross of Sacrifice Cross of Sacrifice Grimsby.jpg
The cemetery's Cross of Sacrifice

The cemetery holds 291 Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) burials from the First World War with the relevant Cross of Sacrifice. [5] These graves are mainly of seamen who died while serving with the Auxiliary Patrol which operated out of Grimsby. In addition, there are a further 261 CWGC graves from World War II, about 200 of which form a war graves plot behind a memorial stone dedicated to their memory. A large number of these are of personnel from the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy and pilots and other servicemen and women of the Royal Air Force. [6] With these are a further 17 war burials of various other nationalities including German prisoners of war from the camp at nearby Weelsby. [7]

The grave of the Drewry sisters in Scartho Road Cemetery Drewry sisters grave Grimsby.jpg
The grave of the Drewry sisters in Scartho Road Cemetery

Buried together in a grave with its distinctive Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) headstone are two sisters, casualties of World War I. These are Harriet Hawkesworth Drewry (1894-1918), a Telephonist serving with the Women's Royal Naval Service [8] and her younger sister Dorothy Marjorie Drewry (1901-1920), of the same rank and service as her sister. Both are commemorated with a plaque beneath a Stations of the Cross designed by Sir Charles Arcbibald Nicholson and located in the church of St Augustine of Hippo in Grimsby. [9]

Notable burials

Grave of Walter Bertram Wood MC and Bar in Scartho Road Cemetery in Grimsby Walter Bertram Wood grave Grimsby.jpg
Grave of Walter Bertram Wood MC and Bar in Scartho Road Cemetery in Grimsby

See also

References

  1. Cemeteries - North East Lincolnshire Council website
  2. Restoration starts at historic cemetery buildings - North East Lincolnshire Council website (2022)
  3. Scartho Cemetery Lodge - PPH Commercial Properties website
  4. Memorial to Sir Henry Bennett, Historic England database
  5. Lives of the First World War, Scartho Road Cemetery, Grimsby - Imperial War Museum website
  6. RAF burials at Scartho Road Cemetery, UK Airfields website
  7. Burials at Scartho Road Cemetery, Commonwealth War Graves Commission website
  8. Harriet Hawkesworth Drewry: Lives of the First World War, Imperial War Museum (IWM) database
  9. Memorial to H H Drewry and D M , War Memorials Register, Imperial War Museum (IWM) database
  10. Shores, Christopher F.; Franks, Norman & Guest, Russell F. Above the Trenches: a Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the British Empire Air Forces 1915–1920, (1990), London, UK: Grub Street. pg 389 ISBN 978-0-948817-19-9.
  11. Riverhead Excavations Grimsby 1989, North East Lincolnshire Council website
  12. Operations in Afghanistan: Warrant Officer Class 1 (RSM) Darren Chant, Sergeant Matthew Telford, Corporal Steven Boote, Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith and Guardsman James Major killed in Afghanistan, Website of the British Government
  13. Sergeant Matthew Telford, British Empire website
  14. Scartho Park renamed in honour of dead soldier, BBC News, 17 November 2013
  15. Dead Royal Navy sailor was probably given heroin, says coroner, The Guardian , 15 June 2016
  16. Police launch investigation after Royal Navy sailor Charles Warrender found dead in Seychelles, The Independent , 2 June 2015