We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
1
Corinthians, chapter 15, verses 51-52
We have Richard Walker to thank for the graveyard as well as the church. When the church was consecrated there was no ‘present intention of having interments therein’, but when he died only three months afterwards another Sentence of Consecration, this time for the graveyard, stated: ‘Since the consecration of the…Church the Rev Richard Walker…hath departed this life and his Family and friends in accordance with a wish also expressed by the deceased shortly before his death are desirous that his mortal remains should be interred in the Yard of the Church and that such interment would be agreeable to the feelings of the congregation of St Luke’s…it would be very much for the accommodation and convenience of the Inhabitants in general of Great Crosby…as from the great increase in the inhabitants an additional burial ground will shortly become absolutely necessary and indispensable…the Yard has been properly enclosed with a stone wall.’
Richard died on 30 March 1854. Five days later the graveyard was consecrated and he was the first to be buried there, to be followed only a few weeks later by the sexton, James Smith who was buried on 16 April aged 56. Richard and the next four vicars all died in office and were buried in the graveyard. Details will be found in Appendix 1.
An addition was made to the graveyard in 1905 beyond the church to the east. In 1924 another extension was made beyond the present car park area and a final one was added to the side of the church in 1947. 6000 plots were then available covering four and a half acres with about 20,000 burials. In the oldest part of the graveyard there does not seem to have been any chronological order of burial, presumably because at the time there appeared to be so much space. There are now only a very few plots left and new graves have to be restricted to members of the church. This is in spite of the new cemetery in Thornton which opened in 1941, and now contains 11,200 graves or plots; in addition 1500 to 1600 cremations take place each year in the crematorium there.
There are areas of public graves along the wall at the back of York Road in which babies were often buried and a section at both sides of the front gate by the wall. At the bottom of the graveyard there is a memorial garden where people may sit to reflect or pray when they visit the family grave.
The tombstone, the oldest in the graveyard, of Richard Walker, the first vicar of St Luke’s.
There are 56 war graves, inspected by the War Graves Commission to ensure that they are kept in good order, 24 from the First World War and 32 from the Second. One of these commemorates Sergeant George Harvey Whalen who was wounded when the bomber in which he was flying crashed and who spent eighteen months in hospital until his death in June 1942. He was awarded the Cornwell Scout Badge (sometimes called the Scouts’ Victoria Cross) which is the highest decoration the Chief Scout can award and is given only in cases of exceptional bravery. The highest ranking officer in the graveyard is Rear Admiral Henry Hugh Bousfield who died on 6 November 1947 aged 58. Also commemorated are Lieutenant-Colonel William Longbottom DSO, JP, died 23 January 1932 aged 47, and Squadron-Leader Longbottom, DFC, killed on 6 January 1945, aged 29. In addition there are a Crimean War veteran, James R Elms, died 2 September 1901 aged 67, and Thomas Herbert T Maddock of HM Indian Army. There is a memorial to Captain Fraser Morton Sheard who was born in Crosby and went to Merchant Taylors’ School. He gained the MC in action during the German spring offensive of 1918. Seriously wounded, he was taken prisoner and, dying of his wounds, buried in France. A full account of his ‘conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty’ is recorded in the King’s Liverpool Regimental Museum.
The large vault in the front of the graveyard with a figure leaning on a cross was erected for a 10 month old baby called Richard Roughley. Recently, part of the entrance to the vault caved in and rendered the grave dangerous. It had to be entered and inspected but was found to be safe provided the entrance was secured. It gave an opportunity to photograph the inside of the vault which goes down quite deep and a ladder is needed to reach the bottom. Another vault belongs to the family of the Revd Robert Love, the third vicar.
Possibly because of the close proximity of the Methodist church there are some Wesleyan connections: William Henry Maude, Wesleyan minister and pioneer of West African Wesleyan Missions 1887-1917, died 28 December 1931 aged 86 years, Thomas Moscrop, Wesleyan missionary in Ceylon, died 7 July 1920 and Elizabeth Garbutt Milroy, headmistress of the Waterloo Wesleyan Girls’ School from 1888 to 1922.
A number of monuments take the form of broken columns, symbolizing mortality (the support of life being broken) or that the head (or pillar) of the family has died. One grave has a bronze head and shoulder sculpture of Eva Henderson which was sculpted by her eldest son. Another son, William Edward, is also featured on the plinth. He was a seaman who wanted to obtain his steam ticket as an engineer and transferred to the troop ship Laconia. He lost his life when, out of Liverpool, she was torpedoed and sunk by enemy action off the coast of Ireland in 1942. Bertie Wilson who was lost on the Titanic is mentioned on his mother’s headstone.
The oldest person in the graveyard is Mrs Eva Manson who was born on the 14 January 1893 and died on 28 April 2000 at the age of 107, and the second oldest Dorothy Ashworth of Avonswood Nursing Home, Abbotsford Road who died on 13 October 2000 aged 102. There are also twin sisters with 200 years between them: Elizabeth Webster, died 29 February 1952 aged 99, and Mary Hartley died 25 July 1954 aged 101. The youngest baby recorded is two hour old Maureen Mary Samuels who was buried in her mother’s coffin on 12 March 1926. There are also several memorials to babies ‘Born asleep’.
John Beach spent many years mapping and collating the graveyard and his work was completed by his wife Dorothy after his death, fifteen years work altogether. Consequently there is now a meticulous record of all the graves held in the parish office which is consulted regularly by families enquiring after relatives.
So the graveyard is not just a place where the dead have been buried. It is part of the continuing history of the church and Crosby, and a memorial to lives fulfilled in service and love. It is also a great haven for wildlife; birds and flowers of all kinds flourish and remind us that in death there is life.