Ford Park Cemetery Trust

Cemetery of Choice

Military

The Trust is justly proud of its military history.

Two holders of the Victoria Cross are buried at Ford Park; Capt Andrew Henry VC, Royal Artillery and Quartermaster George Hinckley VC, Royal Navy. The Trust supports memorial services which are held each year by the Royal Artillery Association and Royal Naval Association respectively. Relatives of George Hinckley, who still live locally, regularly attend the services of remembrance.

We maintain strip gardens, and over nine hundred war graves, for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, this being one of the pillars of the Trust's finances.

Research volunteers working on behalf of the Trust have been creating an archive of information on all First World War casualties buried in the Cemetery. These biographies, which include service histories, census records, newspaper cuttings and some photographs, can be viewed in the Visitor Centre.

In a ceremony held at the Cemetery on 23rd November 2014 the Plymouth Branch of the Normandy Veterans Association officially closed their group by laying up their standard in the Victorian Chapel. Surviving veterans later chose the Chapel for a ceremony during which they were presented with the Legion d'honneure by the Honorary Consul of France.

Our Heritage team have produced a new booklet for a Nineteenth Century Military Heritage trail. This booklet runs alongside our previous 2 trail booklets which identify notable burials in Ford Park Cemetery. The cost of the booklets are £3.50.

Our current exhibition in our Visitor Centre, "Battles", runs from 22nd March to the 4th June 2026.

Here is a short introduction for the third booklet.

In addition to almost 1,000 Commonwealth War Graves, Ford Park Cemetery is also the last resting place of many military personnel who fought in one of the numerous battles during the nineteenth century.

Included in this Heritage Trail are men who took part in the following:

Battle of Trafalgar

Peninsular War

Battle of Waterloo

Opium Wars

Crimean War

American Civil War

Zulu War

Boer War

Also the cemetery has several monuments honouring fighting men who lost their lives in the service of their country.

The cemetery is also the last resting place of two men who were awarded the Victoria Cross and one civilian who was awarded the first Albert Medal for noncombatant bravery. The Albert Medal was replaced by the George Cross in the twentieth century.

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