R.
CEMETERIES.
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#1
"I wonder if 'Colonial' could tell us anything of St. Francis Yard, Wanchai? I seem to recollect being told that in the early days this was the site of the first burial-ground in Hongkong. If this was so, were any of the old tombstones preserved and if so, where may they be seen to-day?
This reader's enquiry perhaps caught the eye of someone able to reply in detail. However, I am able to supply a few notes on local cemeteries in the old days, and the site of St. Francis Yard may quite easily be that formerly occupied by the first European cemetery of the island.
The place was situated on a plot of ground above Queen's Road, East, and here were interred the remains of many who died from malaria during the first year of the British occupation (1841). The troops then encamped at West Point suffered most severely from the disease, and we read that even the newly arrived Chinese settlers fell victims to Malaria in that district, Saiyingpun (which is the Chinese for "West English Camp"). The mortality was heavy among the foreign population, and the Wanchai cemetery began to fill. Among the prominent victims was the Senior Naval Officer, Sir H. le Fleming Senhouse, who died on June 13, 1841.
I am not able to state exactly when this old cemetery above Queen's Road East ceased to be used, but there is a reference in the Legislative Council records early in 1845 to "new burial grounds", the Council deciding that these would be as follows: - one east of Victoria city in the second ravine on the right after passing through the gap into Wongneichung Valley" (the present Happy Valley area) and another west of Victoria, the one formerly used by H.M.'s 55th Regiment." Does anyone know precisely where the latter was situated?
There is, however, a definite reference to the removal of remains from the old Queen's Road (Wanchai) cemetery. In a Notification No. 447 of November 2, 1889, in the Government Gazette, particulars are given as to the abandonment and removal of the old "God's acre". From this, it appears that a total of 55 persons were buried there between 1841 and 1845, a large number being Naval and Military officers.
The only old, disused cemetery now left intact is the one out at Lyemun, where members of the military were buried many years ago.
It might be of interest to note that at one time (1844) it was laid down in an official notification that the Colony's burial grounds could be open for interment at specified hours. Another of the regulations fixed the Sexton's fee at three rupees for digging and filling each grave.
Here is a further contribution on the subject of old cemeteries dealt with yesterday (10-7-33);
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