Police Funeral

Police Sergeants act as Pall Bearers at the funeral of an unknown police officer. Was he of high rank or merely a constable? Was he murdered by a criminal? We will probably never know, unless someone recognises the Graveyard?

Early In Memoriam Card

I found this In Memoriam Card in with some vintage postcards yesterday. It marks the passing of Mary Ann Watson, aged seven years, in 1850.

Winnie Mitchell's Grave

In 1913, Dorset rabbit trapper Bill Burton was, according to contemporary accounts, described as a lady killer [womaniser] - an apt description to which he would live up to.

He seduced Winnie Mitchell and, after she revealed she was pregnant, said he would elope with her. Burton changed his mind and Winnie threatened to go public. Two day's later, he lured her to Sovel Plantation and shot her in the head with a shotgun, burying her body in a shallow grave.

Police discovered fragments of Winnie's shattered teeth in the wood and discovered her grave nearby. Arrested and confessed, he faced a jury at Dorset Assizes who took only 19 minutes to find him guilty. On midsummer's day 1913, he was hanged by Britain's best known executioner, Thomas Pierrepoint. A post-mortem revealed that Winnie was not pregnant when she died.

Photographers, at the time, were quick to make a profit from accidents or sensational murders and one photographed the empty shallow grave where she was discovered. His name or the price he charged are unknown. As he scratched the caption on the reverse of the glass plate negative, the difficulty of writing the wrong way round is revealed by his use of back-to-front Ns in her Christian name.

Julia's Lamb

Julia's Lamb
Originally uploaded by Mr. Ducke

A beautiful photo by Matt aka Mr Ducke. If you like cats, visit his photostream on flickr.

Mary's Pain

Mary's Pain
Originally uploaded by jagr1957

I was browsing on flickr this evening and saw this sorrowful image by Julie Rentsch. It was taken in Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio.

Poignant Grave 1

Last weekend, I visited a churchyard in Kirkham, Lancashire. Here I noticed a gravestone which contained a beautiful representation of a lamb. Around this were the words: Follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. An inscription records: Here rests the body of Mary Butterworth who departed this life October 12 1856 aged 6 years.

There were inscriptions on both edge stones. On the left is recorded the details of a family member - a soldier who died in 1941. On the right is the sad statement: Also those children who died in infancy.

Football Fatality

I saw this grave with a stone football at the foot of it in my local churchyard in Radstock. It marks the grave of Ernest Joseph Hyman who died on 7 January 1927 from injuries received in a football match between the Somerset towns of Taunton and Yeovil on Boxing Day 1926. His headstone records that: "He always played the Game".

xx