TNAG-2353-FCO40-3423-Visits-by-Lord-Caithness--Minister-of-State-for-Foreign-and--1991 — Page 44

OLD PROTESTANT CEMETERY

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The Old Protestant Cemetery is on land granted in perpetuity to the Honourable East India Company in 1821 for protestants who should die in Macau, and for the construction of a protestant chapel. On the withdrawal of the charter of the East India Company in 1834, administration of the cemetery fell to HMG. old cemetery had to be closed in 1858 after a government decree that no more burials could take place within the city limits. new protestant cemetery was consequently erected at Mong Ha. cemeteries and the chapel have, since the second World War, been financially administered by the Hongkong Shanghai Bank Corporation as Custodian Trustee of the Old Cemetery and Chapel Funds. The remaining trustees are (and have been since 1860) the consular authorities of Great Britain, the USA, Germany and the Netherlands (the main protestant nations).

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Some of the graves predate 1821, having been moved to the cemetery after its establishment. The most well known are those of George Chinnery, the South China coast artist, and a Spencer Churchill uncle of Sir Winston Churchill. One of the most moving however records the death of a cabin boy on a voyage to Macau. He fell through a hatch and was drowned.