Military Memorials in Gibraltar

Four different styles of Military headstones/memorials, spanning 1800 to 1918, photographed in Gibraltar

TB96 in collision with SS Tringa. Tringa torpedoes and sunk by U33, three week later

Ship sunk by U34 22 mile north of Alboran Island, Morrocco - eight killed

Wartime Memorial

This is a rather unusual memorial in Kensal Green cemetery. It commemorates those interred whose graves and monuments were totally destroyed  in the London Blitz. The second image is one of a number taken by the excellent photographer Fin Fahey showing bomb damaged memorials at Kensal Green. More of his work can be found HERE

Copyright Fin Fahey

Gibraltar North Front Cemetery 2

Here are three more views of Gibraltar's North Front Cemetery. The markings on the slides indicate my visit for 1991. Looking through more of the slides revealed I had taken a photograph looking down from the Rock and got a colleague to photography me standing among the graves. Note how close the cemetery is to the runway of Gibraltar Airport. I recall shooting one roll of colour transparency film and another of black and white. If I went there, today, with a camera equipped with a 16GB memory car, I would take hundreds of images - a great advance in technology, sadly unavailable to me at the time of my visit!

Gibraltar North Front Cemetery

Gibraltar's North Front Cemetery is the only graveyard still in use on the Rock. It was established in 1756 and is very large. I had an hour to kill before having to report for my flight at the adjacent airport and my host's very kindly took me to the cemetery. The last photograph in this post is taken from the Rock above and shows the extent of it. Oh, that I had known but time was pressing and I concentrated on recording many of the recumbent war graves. A few large memorials caught my eye and I ended up below ground in a small crypt that had just been emptied ready for reuse but that's another story!

Wikipedia's description is well worth reading and I wish I had known more about the cemetery before I went there. Details can be found HERE

Published under Creative Commons - thanks to Magnus Manske

Apprentice Stonemasons

Here is a photograph of apprentice stonemasons in Treorchy, Wales. Note the tools of their trade being held in their hands:

Trafalgar Casualty

Trafalgar Cemetery in Gibraltar - Lt William Forster died of wounds he received at the Battle of Trafalgar. He was just 20 years of age. His is one of only two relating to the battle. The others buried there are from other battles or victims of the many Yellow Fever outbreaks in Gibraltar.

Kensal Green Catacombs

Some views of the coffins within one of the Kensal Green catacombs. Metal work is corroding as is any fabric on the sides of the coffins. The first image shows a glass fronted case from which you can just make out one fabric bloom which like the others is in a state of decay.