Lowestoft Cemetery

The Cemetery Lodge and lychgate at Lowestoft Cemetery

Lowestoft Cemetery(also known asLowestoft Municipal Cemetery) is a burial ground in the town ofLowestoftinSuffolk.It is best known for its large number ofRoyal Navyburials fromWorld War IandWorld War II;these are maintained by theCommonwealth War Graves Commission.Thomas Crisp,who was posthumously awarded theVictoria Crossin 1917 is commemorated here on his wife's headstone. Buried here isRobert William Hook,coxswain atRNLILowestoft from 1853 to 1883 and who has been credited with saving more than 600 lives. The cemetery is managed byWaveney District Council.

Located on Normanston Drive, Lowestoft Cemetery received its first burial in 1885.

History

The cemetery was first put into use in 1885 and occupied a large section of the former medieval West South Field, which had been purchased by the Town Authorities to cope with the growing local population during the 1840s resulting from the innovations in the town caused bySamuel Morton Peto's Lowestoft Railway and Harbour Company which ran the first railway into the town.St. Margaret’schurchyard had been greatly expanded – to the east, particularly – but was no longer able to cope with the number of burials required.

The finemock Tudorcemetery lodge and its accompanyinglychgatewere designed by Irish architect William Doubleday. The lychgate obviously had its entry bricked up at some stage, the simple stretcher bond used contrasting noticeably with the more complex Flemish and English bond variants of the Lodge itself and of the curving boundary wall.

Military cemetery

TheCross of Sacrificein Lowestoft Cemetery

DuringWorld War ILowestoft was a trawler base with a PortMinesweepingOfficer in command; duringWorld War IIit was the central Depot for theRoyal Naval Patrol Service,hence the large number of burials from theRoyal Navy.

The World War I burials are mainly located in Plots 12, 13 and 14 on the cemetery's west side. After the war aCross of Sacrificewas built near to these plots to commemorate the servicemen buried there. Most of theWorld War IIgraves are in one or other of four War Graves Plots, three of which are in the western part of the cemetery and one to the east of the main entrance. The rest can be found throughout the cemetery.

The cemetery holds 95 Commonwealth burials fromWorld War Iand 122 fromWorld War II,including 11 unknown seamen from theMerchant Navy,most of whose bodies were washed up in the area. Lowestoft Cemetery also holds 11 German war burials including an unidentified airman whose body was washed up at Gunton in 1943 and two non-war service burials, giving it the largest group of World War II German graves in Suffolk. Many other German burials were exhumed from the cemetery in the 1960s and transferred to theGerman Military CemeteryatCannock ChaseinStaffordshire.

Burials

The grave of Fiona Anderson

The grave of Addy, Levina and Kayden McLelland

Here in separate graves are buried Fiona Anderson (aged 23) and her four children, Levina (aged 3), Addy (aged 2), and Kayden McLelland (aged 11 months) as well as her unborn daughter, Evalie, in a case that made national headlines. After a violent dispute with the children's father, Miss Anderson became increasingly disturbed and drowned her three children in the bath at their London Road South home inLowestoftbefore jumping to her death from amulti-storey car parkin the town centre on 15 April 2013, at the same time killing her unborn daughter. When police officers visited Miss Anderson's home, they found the bodies of her three children in her double bed and messages that she had written on the walls using a green marker pen. One of these requested that she be buried with her children.

Despite a public appeal from Anderson's parents for her to be buried with her children, their father, Miss Anderson's former partner Craig McLelland, refused permission.The funeral service for Addy, Levina and Kayden McLelland was held at the Church of St Peter and St John inKirkleyon 5 June 2013.

Notable burials

Thomas Crisp VCis commemorated on his wife's grave

• Thomas Crisp,VC,DSC,killed in actionduring the defence of his vessel, the armed navalsmackHis Majesty's SmackNelson,in theNorth Seain anAction of 15 August 1917against an attack from a Germansubmarine.His body went down with his ship. He is commemorated on his wife's grave.
• Robert William Hook(1828–1911),coxswainatRNLILowestoft from 1853 to 1883 and who has been credited with saving more than 600 lives during his career, both with Lowestoft RNLI and with private companies. His obituary in theLowestoft Journaldescribed him as ‘Lowestoft’s great lifeboat hero… the gnarled, weather-beaten old sea warrior, of giant frame – he stood over 6ft 3 ins and was of immense strength.’

Gallery

• 
  The Chapel at Lowestoft Cemetery
• 
  ACommonwealth War Graves Commissionenclosure
• 
  German burials in the cemetery
• 
  Royal Navygraves in Lowestoft Cemetery
• 
  The grave ofRobert William Hook

See also

• Kirkley Cemetery

External links

• Lowestoft CemeteryatFind a Grave
• Lowestoft Cemeteryon theWaveney District Councilwebsite
• List of burials at Lowestoft CemeteryonInterment.net