For almost 20 years, a group of dedicated volunteers have been working hard to look after and preserve the history of two of South East London’s Victorian cemeteries, and they have also taken on an important role in connecting families.
The Friends of Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries (FOBLC) formed in July 2007 and is now made up of around 300 volunteers who each play an important part to help improve and protect the cemeteries.
Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries, formerly known as Deptford and Lewisham Cemeteries, opened one month after one another in 1858 and today mark the resting place of thousands of local people.
Some of the cemeteries’ most famous burials include David Jones, a Great War poet, soldier and artist, and Elizabeth Watkins, who is known as the last survivor of the Battle of Waterloo. Elizabeth Colgate, a local anti-war and anti-slavery activist from the Victorian era is also buried there.
The cemeteries are home to around 500 Commonwealth War Graves.
For the past seven years, FOBLC members, Phill Barnes-Warden and Mick Martin have been meeting there every Tuesday as they work together to retrace the lives of those who are buried there. “We are bringing them back to life,” Phill says while taking the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) out on a tour of the cemeteries.
“It’s a privilege to work for the dead”, Mick adds.
Together with Mick, who has been the Friends’ Great War Coordinator for the last 18 years, the pair are able to paint a colourful picture of a person’s life and provide an impressive amount of detail on how they came to die. This includes being able to recall the final poignant moments of a soldier’s life, or knowing the intricate details of a detective who was part of the Jack the Ripper investigations team.
Mick added: “I like telling stories and trying to build pictures in people’s minds so they’ve actually got an idea of what I’m saying. If they can remember 40per cent of what I’ve said then that’s job done.”
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Since joining the FOBLC seven years ago, Phill has been reconnecting families with loved ones through his dedicated ancestry research. Once he takes a photo of a grave, Phill will upload the burial details onto a database which he has created on Ancestry and other genealogy sites which can be accessed by the public.
Phill said: “I came in and started research seven years ago and I haven’t stopped; Mick constantly goes round looking for war graves and he’ll come across some good ones.”
Mick added: “We just want the public to know we’re here, we’re here all year round. It’s so pleasant to walk round during the winter with the snow and the summer, it’s fantastic.”
Phill’s work also involves finding out and sharing the details of those who are buried in graves with other people through Deceased Online, which is a national database containing burial and cremation records.
Dozens of families who are based locally and as far as Canada have got in touch with Phill to thank him for his work and for reuniting them with relatives they did not know were buried at the cemeteries.
Phill’s research has also led him to discover that his own great-great grandfather is buried in a common grave nearby.
He told the LDRS: “At the end of the month, we’ve got an Australian family coming over for a grave which I only just found when I was here last. It’s been on Ancestry for a little while but they’re so chuffed to come over, they’ll be making their way round to take us and we’ll take them to the grave.
“These people are not forgotten, you can see it from all the thank you notices we get from so many people.”
You can find out more about the Friends of Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries on their website.
It’s the work groups of Volunteers, such as these, that keeps this Country together, and civilised.
The unsung heroes, quietly working away for the benefit of others; it’s a great pity some of our Politicians don’t have the same Public Spirit work ethic.