Saturday 30 June 2007

Bertram Robinson


Went to Jesus College Cambridge. Author, "contributed" to Sherlock Holmes novels. Exhumation requested in 2005.
Did Conan Doyle even write The Hound of the Baskervilles? How much of an influence was his old friend, Bertram Fletcher Robinson, who lived in Ipplepen and first told him about the legend of the Dartmoor hound? When the story was published in book form in 1902, Conan Doyle included an acknowledgement to Fletcher Robinson for telling him of the hound legend. But it went no further than that.

St. Andrews Church, Ipplepen.

Thursday 28 June 2007

Richard Cabell



There is the suggestion that the legend of Squire Cabell was the basis for the Conan Doyle book - The Hound of the Baskervilles. The "sepulchre" for the Cabell family, in the middle distance, is alongside the burnt out ruins of Holy Trinity Church, Buckfastleigh.

Wednesday 27 June 2007

St. Gregory the Great


Churchyard, Dawlish

The Hoare Family

Charles Hoare, the banker, was attracted by the climate and scenery of Dawlish. In 1800-4 John Nash built Luscombe Castle for him, about 1 m. west of the church, combining the external appearance of "our ancient baronial fortresses" with all modern comforts inside.

The family has a walled tomb inside the churchyard.

St. Gregory the Great, Dawlish.

William Pye


Commander William Pye served at Trafalgar on HMS Minotaur as Midshipman.

St. Gregory the Great, Dawlish.

Saturday 23 June 2007

Thomas Pearse



Thomas Pearse, serge maker.

Quaker Burying Ground, Finch Foundry, Sticklepath.

Thomas Pearse


Thomas Pearse built a summer house in Sticklepath, next to the Quaker Burying Ground. This notice is inside the house. He is featured in the song about the fair at Widecombe-in-the-Moor; "Tom Pearse, Tom Pearse, lend me your grey mare..."

Thursday 14 June 2007

George Hewson

He served under Admiral Lord Nelson in many campaigns including Trafalgar.

Topsham cemetery.

Thomas Randle

...who was many years in the Royal Navy having served in several ships and as Quartermaster on board the Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar...

St. Margaret, Topsham

Friday 8 June 2007

Skene Craig

A founder of Melbourne, Australia.

Torquay cemetery.

Sir Edmund Hudson, MA, DSc, FRSE


Educated at Marlborough College, Cambridge and Heriot Watt. A director of ICI. Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Torquay cemetery.

Isaac Singer




Singer sewing machines were big business.

Oldway mansion in Paignton was built by Mr. Singer, who reputedly had 5 "wives" and fathered 24 children, many of them interred in the same tomb.

Torquay cemetery.

Wednesday 6 June 2007

John Pulsford


Author of "Quiet Hours" amongst others. Cleric who died in 1897.

Teignmouth cemetery.

Francois Guidon (Lieutenant)

French P.O.W from the Napoleonic war who died while on parole in Ashburton, aged 22, in 1817.
The tree behind the headstone is said to be from a cutting off the willow tree on St. Helena where Napoleon was buried. However, a quick search on the Internet will reveal that virtually every willow tree in the world came from this source.

Sr. Andrews, Ashburton.

Frederick Foot

Artist, born in Lustleigh, lived in Ashburton until 1908.

St. Andrews Ashburton.

Tuesday 5 June 2007

James Spratt


Buried in Teignmouth, but so far not found.

Thomas Luny & James Wallace


Thomas Luny, marine artist, lived and died in Teignmouth. Buried with Captain James Wallace (half brother) who sailed under Nelson at Copenhagen.

St. James the Less, Teignmouth.

William Homeyard



Inventor of Liqufruta (spelled out backwards on the monument to avoid sanctions).

St. Nicholas, Ringmore, Shaldon.

Monday 4 June 2007

Oliver Heaviside F.R.S



Buried in Paignton Cemetery, plot 346, close to the gatehouse. Physicist, mathematician and electrical engineer. Nominated for the Nobel Physics prize in 1912. Lived in Newton Abbot for many years close to Bradley Park. Look out for the blue plaque in his memory erected by the Institution of Electrical Engineers. (Now called the Institution of Engineering and Technology).

Olive Parr


Olive Parr wrote under the pen name of Beatrice Chase. Look on the other side of the stone monument. Was she related to Catherine Parr?
She died in 1955. The small granite cross on her grave is inscribed with Beatrice Chase on one side and Olive Katharine Parr on the other. Locals tell a story that she was taken to hospital in a straight jacket, but only after the loaded revolver she kept by her bed was taken away.

Widecombe in the Moor, St. Pancras.

Jay's Unconsecrated Grave, Dartmoor


Mermaid


This mermaid is at the church of St Peter, St Paul and St Thomas of Canterbury, Bovey Tracey.


Charles Matthews


Trumpeter, died September 10th, 1916 aged 16.

Ford Park, Plymouth.

William Bennett



Killed in Plymouth while on police duty, July 1875.

Ford Park, Plymouth.

William Simpson


Drowned in 1890 aged 14.

Ford Park, Plymouth.

Frank Heckford




Mass graves of sailors from several Royal Navy ships.

Frank Heckford, boy on H.M.S. Impregnable, who died 28th June, 1918, aged 15 years.

Ford Park, Plymouth.

Andrew Henry V.C.




Captain Andrew Henry V.C., Royal Garrison Artillery, died at the Royal Citadel in Plymouth 14th. October 1870.

He received the second Victoria Cross awarded to the Royal Regiment of Artillery for successfully defending his gun at the battle of Inkerman against heavy odds . Although severely wounded for this action he was also commissioned in the field.

Ford Park, Plymouth.

Sunday 3 June 2007

Masonic Grave


Ford Park, Plymouth.