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Our February 2010 Newsletter is here...

Memorialisation of Civilian War Dead of Plymouth

Ford Park Cemetery Trust will launch a public appeal for the balance of the money needed to create a memorial to Plymouth’s Civilian War Dead on Friday 5 February 2010.

Seventy years after the Blitz, Plymouth does not have a memorial honouring the sacrifice of those who died and listing each of their names, ages and dates of death.

Ford Park Cemetery Trust Chairman Dr Henry Will MBE said: “In A Plan for Plymouth, Abercrombie proposed a memorial in the ruins of Charles Church and hoped that it would become a place of pilgrimage. Today the Church is in the middle of a very busy traffic roundabout without pedestrian access and quite unsuitable for such a purpose.

“We have, however, the opportunity to realise, albeit in a different setting to that envisaged by Abercrombie, a place to honour and remember the extraordinary endurance, courage and sacrifice of Plymouth people during the city’s darkest hour.

“Restoration of Ford Park Cemetery’s Victorian Chapel is scheduled for completion in March.  The memorial to the City’s Civilian War Dead will take the form of 22 Welsh slate plaques mounted on the east wall of the Chapel, on which will be inscribed around 1,250 names. We are indebted to the Trust volunteers, led by Dr Ian Hodgins, who have tirelessly researched the names and compiled what we believe to be the most accurate and comprehensive record of fatalities to date.

“Ford Park Cemetery was itself a Blitz casualty – with about six high explosive bombs falling on the site, destroying the sister chapel and severely damaging vaults and graves. Over a quarter of the civilians who died in the Blitz are buried in the Cemetery, which is now managed by a charitable trust and continues to serve the local community as a working cemetery.”  

The Trust has already, through donations and fundraising activity last year, raised just over half (£19,000) of the memorialisation project cost of just under £34,000, leaving £15,000 to raise. The Friends of Ford Park Cemetery generously donated £1,000 to kick off the appeal launch.

The Lord Mayor of Plymouth, Cllr Ken Foster, and the Lady Mayoress will be among the guests at the appeal launch on 5 February at Ford Park Cemetery at 2.15pm. If the remaining £15,000 balance is raised as planned it is hoped the work on creating the memorial will start in late March when the restoration of the Grade II Listed Victorian Chapel in the heart of Ford Park Cemetery is completed.  The memorial should be completed by late May. Cornish company, H.G Stacey Ltd, has been commissioned by the Trust to make and install the memorial.

 

Barbara Mills lost four members of her family in the Blitz. She was in a shelter in Portland Square with her mum, Beatrice, and sister, Betty, when it was bombed.  Barbara, who was 11 years old, was pulled out of the rubble. It is understood her father, William Cundy, may have died when he was heading for the shelter to give his family a flask of tea. Her grandfather, John Allison, was on his first duty as a shelter guard.  Beatrice, Betty, William and John are buried at Ford Park Cemetery.

Barbara said: “I think it is really marvellous what the Cemetery Trust is trying to achieve with the memorial. I would much rather go to the memorial in a chapel than I would a gravestone. A memorial is for everyone.”

Ford Park Cemetery Trustee and lead researcher Ian Hodgins said: “Our starting point was the Ford Park Cemetery burial registers and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission book of civilian war dead, which was created soon after the war.

“The task was to research and pull together a range of documents and databases. Plymouth and West Devon records office was a very useful source of information and we also checked the names against the inscriptions on the Efford cemetery war memorial.  Trust volunteer Tony Rees contributed information from his research into the Portland Square bombing.

“A decision had to be made about which casualties of the Blitz should be included on the memorial – the individual needed to be civilian, injured within five miles of Plymouth, and to have died from injuries sustained directly as a result of the bombing. We tried to be as inclusive as possible. Finally the list was supplemented with a modern computerised record held by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The list of names was available for public consultation, including Ford Park Cemetery Trust website.”

 

                       

 

To contact us call 01752 665442, Fax 01752 601177 or
e-mail at info@ford-park-cemetery.org