North End Defense Force Memorial

One of the things I discovered while in North End Cemetery is a Defense Force Memorial remembering soldiers who died in service of their country during the first and second World Wars.  According to the main plaque the memorial stones commemorate soldiers that were buried elsewhere but who's glory won't be forgotten.

The Jewish Cemetery at North End

One of the things that really interested me when I visited the North End Cemetery the other day was the walled off Jewish Cemetery.  I didn't get to explore it though as the sign by the entrance says, "Code of Conduct. Please note that all visitors to the cemetery must wear appropriate dress. Men and women must cover their heads".  Turned out I didn't even have a cap in my car so I went no further than the door.  I did do a bit of a search on the net for more info and found some interesting info.  

The first interesting tidbit I discovered was that the cemetery was referred to as the Creek Jewish Cemetery.  Looking at an early layout diagram of the cemetery the creek next to it is quite prominently indicated.  Now I'm wondering, was the North End Cemetery not perhaps referred to as the Creek Cemetery in the early days?  Something to look into a bit more.

Land for the North End Cemetery was set aside in 1861 and the cemetery was laid out in 1863.  As early as 31 July 1861 the Council received a letter of application for a piece of land in the newly granted North End Cemetery.  At that stage the Jewish community had to go to great expense to convey bodies to Grahamstown for burial in the Jewish Cemetery there.  

A report in the "Eastern Province Herald" dated 31 July 1863 states: "The Jewish Burial Ground at Creek has been used for the first time on the occasion of the burial of the child of Mr. E.H. Solomon on Wednesday, 29 July 1863." The grave of this child, Aaron Solomon aged 8 years, is to be found in Row 4 of Section A. The other graves in that row cover the period up to 1871 and include one for 1903. This indicates that burials did not take place in a specific order and that they seem to have worked from the "center" out which is usual for all cemeteries of that period. 

The history of North End Cemetery

Over the years my interest in cemeteries has taken me to most of the cemeteries around town with the notable exception being the North End Cemetery.  Not because I didn't want to but rather a case of never really being in that part of town with time to go.  A week or two ago I found myself there though in search of information I needed as part of a Geocache multi cache put together by Commaille.  I was really surprised at how well maintained and neat the cemetery is plus I didn't feel unsafe at all.  My quest for the necessary information took me, among others, to the pauper section of the cemetery.  A section that stands in stark contrast to the rest of the cemetery.

I found the following about the history of the cemetery. With the exception of the individually walled and accessed Jewish and Muslim sections at North End, only interior carriageways separated the various Christian denominations.  Subsequent extensions to the North End Cemetery made provision for the members of the Dutch Reformed Church and the Chinese community in the early twentieth century, as members of the two groups migrated to the town. The arrival of the Indian community, late in the nineteenth century, necessitated comparatively little adjustment, as the majority were Hindus. A crematorium for their use was duly built at North End on the seashore. The unused Moslem section of the cemetery was then adopted as the site for scattering ashes. Indian members of the Christian and Moslem faiths joined their co-religionists in death. A special isolation cemetery was laid out at the Infectious Diseases Hospital in the 1890s and named after the bubonic plague outbreak of 1901.  These days the crematorium is no more with only foundations and a concrete slab remaining.

Russell Road Cemetery

The Russell Road Cemetery is another of Port Elizabeth's historic grave yards dating back to the early days of Port Elizabeth.  As the town grew the increased demands on the St Mary's Cemetery next to the Baakens River became too much and a solution had to be found, not just for another cemetery but also to accommodate the different religious affiliations.  Small pieces of land was allocated to the various Christian denominations on the town margins in the late 1830's and 1840's with the Wesleyan Methodists, Catholics and Congregationalists each getting their own burial grounds to the north west of the settlement in what became known as Burial Kloof.  This kloof, a rocky area which created a natural stream when it rained, is the kloof down which Russell Road runs today.  Back then the three cemeteries were adjacent to one another and were separated by walls with each church having their own entrance.

Today there isn't much left in the Russell Road Cemetery.  The cemetery became very run down many years ago, and most of the graves were badly vandalised.  In an effort to preserve as much of the remaining stones as they can, the municipality laid them flat and cemented them to the ground.

One grave stands out from the rest.  The white grave in the centre of the cemetery belongs to James Langley Dalton who was a survivor of the Battle of Rorkes Drift and the recipient of a Victoria Cross. Unfortunately Dalton dies while visiting a friend in Port Elizabeth and was buried in this cemetery.

St Mary's and St Peter's

St Mary's Cemetery at the bottom of the Baakens Valley dates back to as early as 1799 when it was a military cemetery.  This changed with the arrival of the 1820 British Settlers and you can still find graves of some of the original Settlers in the grave yard.  On the hill above the cemetery stands the ruins of the St Peter's Church.  The church was built in 1877 and after the people of South End were forcibly removed in the mid 1960's, the church was demolished to stop the congregation from returning to worship there.

The Scottish Cemetery at St George's Park

In the early days of Port Elizabeth the St Mary's Cemetery was used, first by the military based at Fort Frederick, and later for civilians with the cemetery being under the control of St Mary's Church.  As the town grew more burial areas were required by the various Christian denominations and in the 1830's and 1840's the various churches were granted small pieces of land adjacent to each other on the edge of town where Russell Road is today.  A further Nonconformist cemetery, mainly for the Church of Scotland, was also set aside in 1854 on the western edge of town, which was later incorporated into the extensive St George's Park.

Last week I stopped by the Scottish Cemetery to collect some information needed for a Geocache I'm doing and was glad to see that the municipality has cleaned up most of the creeper plants that has been covering a big part of the cemetery.

Cemetery fence at St Georges

The old Scottish Cemetery at St George's Park was established way back in 1854 on what was the western edge of town back then.  These days the western edge of town is all the way over at Baywest.

Shipwreck memorial in South End Cemetery

Probably the biggest maritime disaster that ever took place on the Port Elizabeth coastline happened way back during the Great Gale of 1902.  On Sunday, 31 August 1902 there were 38 ships at anchor along the then North End Beach.  Rain and a south-easterly wind started to lash the bay and by midnight the storm turned into a hurricane.  By the end of the storm on 2 September 1902, 18 of the ships had been stranded on the beach, while the rest all had major damage.  The dead were buried in the South End Cemetery and thousands lined the route to the cemetery as the funeral processions went by with surviving ship-mates carrying the coffins of those that died during the storm.  A memorial stands in the South End Cemetery with all the names of those who died during the storm.

South End Cemetery in sepia

I stopped by the South End Cemetery last week to check up on my Geocaches in the area and took a slow drive around the cemetery.  It's really sad to see how much vandalism has taken place in the cemetery.  Pity the municipality can't put aside a bit of budget to restore a lot of these pushed over and broken historic grave stones.  Anyhow, I was looking for an interesting angle to photograph and settled on this one, converted to sepia.

The sad angel

This past week I posted two posts featuring the historic St Mary's Cemetery at the bottom of the Baakens Valley.  There are so many interesting bits to photograph in a cemetery like this one of what looks like such a sad angel.

Another view of St Mary's Cemetery

Yesterday I posted a photo of the St Mary's Cemetery along with the grave yard's history.  I decided to follow it up with another photo of the cemetery but from a totally different angle.  This one is standing at the bottom and looking away from the road and up the terraces. 

The history of St Mary's Cemetery

I got to attend Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism's launch of Tourism Month at the newly refurbished Tramways Buildings a week or two ago and had some time on my hands before the event began so went for a walk through St Mary's Cemetery.  It's really sad to see the state the cemetery is in specially seeing the historic value and position it has.  I went scratching for the history around the cemetery and this is what I cam up with.

In 1799 when Fort Frederick was being built, the military authorities laid out a burial ground to the south of the Baakens River.  After the foundation of the town which was to become Port Elizabeth, civilian burials appear to have taken place on a site to the north of the settlement.  After the arrival of the 1820 British Settlers which brought an influx of people into the town, arrangements were made for civilians to share the military cemetery.  Control of the cemetery was assigned to the colonial state church, the Church of England, in the charge of St Mary's Collegiate Church, and for several years also accommodated other Christian denominations within its walls.  The one major group which could not be included was the Cape Malay community, whose members were Moslems.  Thus adjacent to the Anglican cemetery a separate Muslem cemetery was laid out with a orientation facing Mecca.  The precedent for the separation of place of worship from place of burial once established, was to be followed virtually throughout the city's history.

The growth of the town and the diverse religious affiliations of the inhabitants were such that increased demands were placed upon St Mary's Cemetery. The solution was found in the allocation of small pieces of land on the town margins to accommodate the various Christian denominations.  In the late 1830's and 1840's the Wesleyan Methodists, Roman Catholics and Congregationalists were all granted their own burial grounds to the north-west of the settlement.

A stolen grave fence

The very first Geocache I placed was in the historic South End Cemetery.  I found a nice little spot on the gate section of a fence around a grave that dates back to the late 1800's.  Placing this cache was my way of showing other people this historic gem.  On Saturday evening at my birthday event a couple of visiting Johannesburg cachers mentioned that they couldn't find it and that the fence was gone.  I just thought they were looking in the wrong place but decided to check up on it this morning. To my shock their observation was correct.  The whole fence around the grave has been forcefully removed from the cement base and stolen.  I don't know what to say...

Historic South End Cemetery

I find a certain calmness when I get to stroll through a historic cemetery.  Its not quite the same soul soothing feeling I get when I am in a forest, but it is better than the hustle and bustle of the city.  South End Cemetery was established in 1882 and was one of two large multi-denominational and multi-ethnic cemeteries laid out in Port Elizabeth at the time.  The other was North End Cemetery in 1863.  At South End a simple fourfold division between the Church of England, Nonconformist, Roman Catholic, and Muslim was adopted.  This pattern was retained until the 1990's when "activity" (at a loss for a better word) was moved to Forest Hill Cemetery.

The Great Gale Memorial in South End Cemetery

"Never before in its history has this port suffered under such overwhelming disaster as we record today. On Sunday morning some 38 craft rode at anchor under the leaden sky. Heavy rains had fallen and the wind gradually rose until, as the shadows of evening hid the shipping from view, a fresh gale was blowing in from the south-east, which, as the midnight hour was reached, had developed in to a hurricane. As the turmoil of wind and wave continued, so the toll of ships mounted, until 18 vessels were aground, with a raging sea adding a high toll of human lives.” - The Eastern Province Herald, 2 September 1902

 

These were the words in the Herald newspaper the day after the Great Gale of 1901.  A storm during which 18 ships were wrecked and 38 people killed.  Although the event is fairly well known amongst those who know something of the history of Port Elizabeth, I'm sure very few actually know that there is a monument to those who died in the South End Cemetery.

Looking at the monument, the names of those who died are divided into groups.  Here are the names of Captains, Officers and Crew as well as Rescuers who died during the operation.

South End Angels

South End Cemetery - A City of Angels

South End Cemetery graves

If you go back through my blogs (or is a regular follower), you may notice that for some strange reason I have a peculiar interest in historic graves and cemeteries.  I used to work very close to the South End Cemetery and placed a Geocache there so I visited it quite often to check up on the container.  Since changing jobs a year ago I haven't been back that often but stopped by last week and took a stroll through it with my camera again.  The one thing that always get to me is seeing graves of infants which is unfortunately something a bit more common dating from the 1800's than it is today.  I tried cutting out the names on the stone from the picture but just had to snap this pic.  

 

The South End Cemetery came into existence in 1882.  At that stage each of the other cemeteries in town had been for a specific church or religion, while South End was meant for (just about) everybody.  A simple fourfold division between Church of England, Nonconformist, Roman Catholic, and Muslim was adopted and this spatial pattern was retained in subsequent cemetery planning until the 1990s when the cemetery was full.

The Grave of Joseph Crowe in Uitenhage

Making my rounds through Uitenhage on a Geocaching expedition a week or so ago I got to visit the MOTH garden for the first time.  The garden is where the grave of Joseph Crow is located.

Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Petrus Hendrik Crowe VC (12 January 1826 – 12 April 1876) was the first South African-born recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.  He was however the second South African recipient of the Victoria Cross, since the first recipient was born abroad and arrived in South Africa as a young child.  He was 31 years old, and a lieutenant in the 78th Regiment of Foot, British Army during the Indian Mutiny when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.  On 12 August 1857 at Boursekee Chowkee, the entrenched village in front of Busherutgunge, India, the redoubt was occupied by the enemy who were causing heavy casualties among the 18th Regiment.  It was decided to take the place by storm, and the Highlanders dashed forward, Lieutenant Crowe being the first in, followed by his men.  In less than a minute the redoubt was captured.  On 23 October 1875 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel commanding the 1st Battalion of Foot. He was due to return home to South Africa in 1876 and contracted a chill while snipe shooting in the Irish bogs.  He died on 12 April 1876 in Penge, Surrey and was interred in the West Norwood Cemetery in a non-descript grave. In 1957 his overgrown grave was found and in August 1976 his remains were exhumed.  A grand return was planned and on 5 Feb 1977, following a quasi-military ceremony in St Katherine's Anglican Church, his casket was carried on a gun carriage, followed by descendants of his sisters, to the MOTH Garden of Remembrance, Uitenhage, where his remains were reinterred.  At his death his eldest sister Maria Margaret Lister inherited his medals and another sister, Dorothya Susanna Lovemore inherited his sword.  Margaret stored his medals in a wall cupboard in her home, "Firlands", Rondebosch, but unfortunately they were forever lost when the home was destroyed by fire. The medals were unable to be recovered, but fortunately the sword has remained in the Lovemore family.  

Scottish Cemetery for Halloween

Seeing that today is Halloween I wanted to post a scary or Halloween type photo but alas, I haven't done any pictures like that lately.  Clearly I need to spend some time doing some creative shots again.  I do have a picture of old grave stones in the historic Scottish Cemetery in St Georges Park though so it will have to do.

 

St Mary's Cemetery used to be the only cemetery in Port Elizabeth in the 1820s, but an influx of people to the town started to put strain on the little grave yard next.  In the 1830s and 1840s small pieces of land was then given to the various Christian churches on the outskirts of town.  One such piece of land was given to the Church of Scotland in 1854 on the western edge of town in part of what is today St Georges Park.  The cemetery holds the graves of a number of prominent

One of the Lovemore family graveyards

he Lovemore surname is closely linked to Port Elizabeth and it's early history, specially out in the western side of the city.  This is all thanks to one Henry LOVEMORE who left England to settle in Port Elizabeth in 1820.  Although he came at the time of the British Settlers who settled east of the city around Grahamstown and Bathurst, Lovemore paid for his passage and purchased Bushy Park, then known as Klaas Kraal, for the princely sum of one thousand pounds.

Lore has it that Henry was the illegitimate son of George III but this is said to have been disproven.  Henry's riches weren't royal at all but came from many taverns he owned in around Fleet Street, area of London.  Blue blood or not, Henry did leave a huge legacy in the form of ten children from three of his four marriages.

Land owned by the Lovemore family included the present day suburbs of Lovemore Heights, Charlo and Heatherbank.  The family graveyards are at the three main Lovemore homesteads being at Bushy Park, Benmore off Circular Drive in Charlo and Preston Park in Paterson.  There is another one in Lovemore Heights where a number of family graves can also be found and it was this one where I took the picture above.