Cathays Cemetery World Tour
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CATHAYS CEMETERY WORLD TOUR The Friends of Cathays Cemetery 2 FORWARD Background At school I loved geography but hated history and have since learnt that history just lacked a physical context. I found that it helped if there was an interesting “human” story attached. It often only took a small trigger to set off my interest and Cathays Cemetery certainly throws up many triggers. From Triggers to World Tour Britain is a major maritime nation and Cardiff played a large part in its development. Place names on many memorials often act as a trigger to investigation, while on others, world links only emerge from further research about a person. Even more links come from the exotic planting in Cathays Cemetery and act as convenient hanger for unrelated stories! To give some structure to unrelated tales My Aim in this book is to head westwards around the world. Unashamedly picking some of my own favourite subjects. I also wanted to start with a bang, so our first stop is Halifax, Nova Scotia. Gordon Hindress Cardiff 2015 3 INDEX Page 1. Rich Family Memorial 7 2. Davey/Casey Cross 10 3. General Mite (John Dempster Simpson) 12 4. William Llewellyn Rhys Memorial 15 5. Captain Charles Bliault Memorial 16 6. The Monkey Puzzle Tree 18 7. John Batchelor Memorial 20 8. Charles McConochie Memorial 22 9. Chinese War Memorial 23 10. The Foxglove Tree 26 11. Farge's Catalpa (Bean Tree) 28 12. The Tulip Tree 29 13. Larcombe Memorial - Boxer Uprising 30 14. Evans Family Memorial 33 15. Australian WW1 War Graves 35 16. Captain Charles Bliault Memorial 37 17. R G Thomas and The Cemetery Chapels 38 18. Larcombe Memorial - Atlantic Ocean 40 19. Trevor Williams Memorial 41 20. Francis Memorial 42 21. Edmund Savage Memorial 44 22. Joseph Fish Memorial 46 23. Larcombe Memorial - Mafeking 48 24. Deere Memorial 52 25. Larcombe Memorial - Egypt and the Holy Land 53 26. Thomas Phillips Memorial 53 27. Larcombe Memorial - Foreign Legion 56 4 5 6 1. Rich Family Memorial [Section 0] 7 Before and after workday shrubbery clearance The blast was the largest man-made explosion prior to the development of nuclear weapons and became the standard by which all large blasts were measured. Indeed, a report on the bombing of Hiroshima, described the explosive power of the Little Boy bomb as seven times that of the Halifax Explosion. The 8 comparison does not end there – look at archive pictures of the devastation and the scene looks very much like the aftermath of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Halifax Explosion, Richmond district 2 days after Courtesy of Canadian Government DND Archive This view looks across to the Dartmouth side of the harbour and you can just see the Imo aground on the far side. 9 2. Davey/Casey Cross [Section EF] From something large to something small, we head south into the United States. This simple cross is in the New Cemetery. 10 There's nothing on the small plate on the cross to suggest another country, but it remembers William Davey, his wife Annie, their youngest daughter, also Annie, and her husband, James Casey. However, from a Swansea descendent of William Davey, we learnt that he was born in Tiverton Devon in 1862, went to America as an army scout and came home with a lady named Annie Gray who was born on the Blackfoot Indian reservation. In consequence, she was known locally as Blackfoot Annie. They lived at 170 Woodville Road and had ten children. It would be nice to know more of the story. There are at least two uncertainties: - we cannot be certain that Annie was a Blackfoot Indian (but it still makes a good story) - as the Blackfoot territory straddled the 49th parallel, we are not sure if our link is to Canada or the USA. When the Blackfeet moved into reservations, most of them chose to settle in Alberta, so Canada appears more likely. But we will now definitely move south across the border into the United States. 11 3. General Mite (John Dempster Simpson) Cutting from Evening Telegraph 1st February 1902 General Mite had “survived life for 31 years from an altitude of 30 inches, a hands breadth taller than the more famous Tom Thumb”, by whom he had been adopted and with whom he had toured widely in the USA and UK, including appearing before the queen. He had been appearing in Cardiff for the Empire Novelty Company when he fell victim to acute dyspepsia – a term which, 100 years ago, could cover a multitude of problems. 12 It notes that the short, but wide, coffin was carried down an avenue of Scotch firs and across a frost hardened sward to the grave, with four friends and a pressman in attendance. There were only two wreaths … but they hid the casket. A few words that paint a clear picture of this sad, lonely end. General Mite left a widow in Washington, USA. The cutting prompted a search for the grave, which proved to be not far from the one featured previously in Section O, but unmarked. In fact, it plotted precisely to the position occupied by what, until two years ago, was the biggest tree in the Cemetery. The giant Holm Oak, started to fall on another frosty day. 13 For safety reasons all of the multiple stems had to be felled, so the only marker for the grave today is a large stump. But you do wonder if General Mite got tired of the lack of recognition, so decided to draw attention to himself. 14 4. William Llewellyn Rhys Memorial [Section L] 15 Staying in the USA, you may be familiar with this memorial in Section L. It is that of one of our Charge of the Light Brigade representatives, William Llewellyn Rhys. Suffice to say that he had a debatable reputation, but seemed to do well for himself and ended up in a grand house in Dumfries Place. After the Crimea, he went to America to fight in Civil War: 1861-65 – finishing as a Judge- advocate. Perhaps surprisingly, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of links to the USA – or perhaps we haven't found them yet. But we have one more, rather strange one. 5.Captain Charles Bliault Memorial [Section J] 16 This memorial stands on the vault of the Bliault family. It features one of the many fine angels that adorn Cathays Cemetery. He hailed from Jersey and distinguished himself in the Merchant Navy in WW1. But where is the American connection? Well, in 1912, he won a date race from Bussorah on the Persian Gulf to New York in the SS Turkistan. At the time, the 150,000 boxes of the fruit was the largest consignment brought in by one steamer. More importantly, by being the first ship load to arrive, he obtained the highest market price for the merchants who had entrusted him with their goods, in all about $120,000 ($2.5 million today). He had been racing another vessel, the Stanhope, which had left the Persian Gulf four days before him. He had to contend with a fire in one of his coal bunkers that took 12 days to extinguish and consumed 100 tons of his fuel and stood by a stricken vessel carrying pilgrims to Mecca until a ship that could take it in tow arrived. At Port Said, he was five days behind the Stanhope, making his arrival in New York more than a day ahead even more remarkable. Bliault clearly did a lot of trade in American waters, and appeared as a defence expert witness on behalf of a Cardiff shipowner, one of whose ships had been lost off Bermuda. The argument hinged around safe loading levels for winter operation in these waters and Bliault argued on the basis of extensive experience in these waters that loading to summer marks was safe practice. Unfortunately Bliauilt's evidence was discredited and the defendant was found guilty and sentenced to 12 months. 17 6. Monkey Puzzle Tree [Section X] 18 The Monkey Puzzle (Araucaria araucana, to give it its proper name), looking like a giant chimney sweep's brush, is a native of the south- central Andes, typically growing above 3,000 feet. And it gives us an excuse to jump to Chile! The tree was introduced to Britain in 1795 by Archibald Menzies, a botanist and naval surgeon. Having been served the seeds of the tree as a dessert while dining with the governor of Chile, he stowed them on board the ship, and returned to England with five healthy plants. However, it was Cornishman and star Victorian plant collector, William Lobb, who ensured that there were sufficient to satisfy the demand of the landed gentry. In 1842, he travelled to Chile, where he collected more than 3,000 seeds by shooting the cones down from the trees with a shotgun. One of this first batch of seed was taken to Pencarrow, Sir John Molesworth's Cornish estate, where Lobb’s father was the estate carpenter. The proud owner showed the tree to a group of friends and one remarked that it would puzzle a monkey to climb it. The common name for the tree was born. Coincidentally, if you look closely at smaller young branches, they can appear remarkably like the prehensile tail of a monkey. Monkey Puzzle Tree Nuts 19 The Monkey Puzzle is usually dioecious, having male and female cones on separate trees) though occasional individuals bear cones of both sexes. The male pollen cones expand to 8–12 cm long at pollen release, relying upon the wind for dispersion.