In 1874 the Manor Park Cemetery Company (who still own and run the cemetery today) bought 115 acres of land on Hamfrith Farm from the British Land Company to open a new cemetery. The company quickly disposed of more than half of their new acquisition for the sum of £2939, enabling them to pay shareholders a dividend of 4% before they carried their first burial on March 25th 1875. The chapel was originally built in 1877 but was badly damaged by bombs in 1944, only the spire surviving intact. It was rebuilt after the war and a crematorium added in 1955. Manor Parkis very much a working cemetery – there are historic memorials but large areas of the cemetery have been reused and old headstones removed. Unusually, the cemetery was prone to fires, probably as a result of being built just a little too close to the Great Eastern Railway in the days of steam engines that emitted hot ash and cinders. The first reported fire was in 1901; this is from the West Ham and South Essex Mail of Saturday 13 April 1901;
REMARKABLE FIRE AT MANOR PARK CEMETERY.
On Monday morning at half eleven a singular outbreak of fire occurred at Manor Park Cemetery. It is supposed to have been originated by a spark from a locomotive on the Great Eastern Railway. But in any case, a number of valuable shrubs and trees in that portion of the cemetery bordering on caught fire and were soon in a fierce blaze. The alarm was conveyed from the Manor Park sub-fire station, and within a very short period the East Ham steamer and hose cart were on the scene. By this time the fire had spread until it covered about 100 square yards of the cemetery, and had damaged a number of graves. The appearance of the firemen on the scene soon had effect, for they, with the help of about half a dozen employees at the cemetery, succeeded in stopping the spread of the fire and eventually extinguishing it. As there was a strong wind blowing at the time, this task was not accomplished without a great deal of difficulty and hard work. Many of the shrubs and young trees were seriously damaged. and the grass was burnt off for a considerable distance. A number of the frames round graves were also destroyed. The appearance of the fire brigade so opportunely had the effect of stopping what might have been a really serious conflagration. The neighbouring hydrant was the means by which the fire was extinguished.
Then there was this fire reported in the Essex Times on Saturday 12th September 1914;
MANOR PARK. FIRE IN A CEMETERY. GRAVES ABLAZE.
The unusual spectacle of graves enveloped in flames was witnessed in Manor Park Cemetery, Sebert-road, on Tuesday afternoon. The cemetery runs alongside the railway, and it is supposed that sparks from a passing train dropped on some dry grass. The flames spread rapidly, and involved several graves. Wooden frames on a number of graves were destroyed. The East Ham Fire Brigade attended with the motor engine, and contained the outbreak.
On 25th June 1934 the Dundee Evening Telegraph reported that “tombstones hampered fire-fighters at Manor Park Cemetery, London, where a grass fire for a time threatened the cemetery lodge. Flowers on the graves were destroyed and tombstones blackened.” And then the Weekly Dispatch (London) of 8th August 1937:
GRASS ON FIRE IN CEMETERY Grass and undergrowth in Manor Park Cemetery, East Ham, caught fire yesterday. Clouds of smoke spread over a number of neighbouring houses and drove the occupants into the streets. Although the fire brigade had to dash half a mile every few minutes to refill water tanks it stopped flames from spreading to the church and graves.
Fires at the cemetery seem to have become a thing of the past from the 1940’s onwards.
The funeral of Annie Chapman, the last victim of the Whitechapel murderer, took place early on Friday morning. The utmost secrecy was observed in the arrangements, and none but the under-taker, the police. And the relatives of the deceased knew anything about it. Shortly after seven o’clock a hearse drew up outside the mortuary in Montagu-street, and the body was quickly removed. At nine o’clock a start was made for Manor Park Cemetery, the place selected by the friends of the deceased for the interment, but no coaches followed, as it was desired that public attention should not be attracted. Mr. Smith and other relatives met the body at the cemetery, and the service was duly performed in the ordinary manner. The remains of the deceased were enclosed in a black covered elm coffin, which bore the words. “Annie Chapman, died September the 8th 1888, aged 48 years."
Annie’s memorial is modern but I can’t find any confirmation online of who commissioned and paid for it or when it was put up.
A
short distance from Annie Chapman lies the grave of Sarah Dearman (nee Chapman,
no relative to Annie) who died on the 27th December 1947. The grave stands alone in an
area that has been cleared of headstones and is waiting to be reused for new
burials. Sarah’s is the only untouched grave, marked by a simple wooden cross. She
was born in Mile End in 1862, her father was a brewer’s servant, and grew up in
the East End. As a young woman she worked at the Bryant & May match factory
on Fairfield Road, Bow. Working conditions at the factory were very poor, the
production line working on the sweatshop system to avoid workers being
protected by the Factory Act. Because matches used phosphorus, workers were
also subject to the occupational disease of necrosis of the jaw, often called
phossy jaw. Management were aware of the risks and if workers complained of toothache,
they were told to have their teeth removed immediately or face the sack. In
1888 the Fabian Society voted to boycott the use of Bryant & May’s matches and
Annie Besant published an article on working conditions in the factory in The
Link in June. The factory management tried to get the staff to sign a
statement repudiating the claims made in Besant’s article but they refused.
When one of the workers was sacked on the 2nd July 1,400 women and girls
refused to work, and the Matchgirls strike began. Sarah Chapman was one of the
strike leaders. The strike was relatively short; the entire workforce walked
out on 6th July and by the 16th workers had come to terms with management. The
Union of Women Matchmakers was formed following the strike and the action
proved to be an inspiration to organised labour in other industries.
When
Sarah died at Bethnal Green Hospital in 1947, she was buried at Manor Park in a
common grave with 5 other people. No headstone or other memorial was ever
erected. In 2020 the cemetery announced plans to mound over the area of common
graves where Sarah was buried and reuse it for new interments. Sarah’s family
launched a campaign to save the grave with a socially distanced protest in the
cemetery in June 2020 and Labour MP for Limehouse and Poplar, Apsana Begum,
sponsored an Early Day Motion in Parliament saying:
That
this House is alarmed at the imminent plans to mound the grave of Sarah Dearman
(nee Chapman), a key organiser of the matchgirl’s strike in 1888 in Manor Park
Cemetery, East London; notes that Sarah Chapman played a leading role in the
historic strike and that the matchgirls as pioneers of gender equality and
fairness at work who through their strike action and formation of the Union of
Women Match Makers left a lasting legacy on the trade union movement; believes
that Sarah Chapman’s grave is of special historic interest and illustrates
important aspects of social, economic and political history; calls on the
Government to intervene to stop the imminent loss of an important piece of
London’s rich and diverse history; and further calls on the Government to
inspect the mounding process to ensure that there is no disturbance of early
burials when new graves are dug.
The
cemetery company told the BBC that "Sarah's grave will not disappear. The
company has already offered Mrs Johnson [Sarah’s great-granddaughter] an
assurance that, on reclamation, she would be offered first refusal to purchase
a lease of the new grave space above Sarah Dearman's existing grave." Once
the earth in the new mound has settled a handsome headstone will finally be
placed over the grave, paid for by London and Eastern region of Unite the
Union, and the GMB (General, Municipal, Boilermakers and Allied Trade Union).
Close to the Sebert Road entrance of the cemetery is the memorial to John Clinton who died at the age of 10 years on July 16th 1894. John is also remembered at Postman’s Park in G.F. Watts’ Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice, “who drowned near London Bridge in trying to save a companion younger than himself.” John was something of a heroic self-sacrifice prodigy, having saved the lives of other children on at least two occasions before the accident at London Bridge, as explained by the periodical To-day on Saturday 15th December 1894;
IN
MEMORY OF JOHN CLINTON The above sketch is of the monument being prepared by
Mr. Pegram, sculptor, to be placed in Manor Park Cemetery, in memory of the
gallant little lad, John Clinton, who lost his life in rescuing a small comrade
from drowning, in the Thames, near London Bridge. Little Clinton, as stated in
To-Day for September 8th.,had twice previously saved the lives of younger
children. Once he flew across the road in front of a hansom cab, and just
succeeded in snatching a baby from before the horse’s hoofs and rolling with it
into the gutter. On another occasion he found a child on fire in a room, and,
tearing down the window curtains, used them to extinguish the flames. When one
reflects that in all three cases this judgment, coolness, and daring were
exhibited by a child under ten years of age, one feels it would be a disgrace
to the nation to leave him lying in an unknown grave. The memorial, which will
cost thirty pounds, in spite of the generous reductions made by all concerned
in the work, is being provided for out of the Pluck Fund. This has been a
greater expense than we first anticipated, and readers who sympathise with
pluck, and who have not already contributed to the Fund, might bear this in
mind.
Pegram the sculptor is either Henry Alfred Pegram or his cousin Alfred Bertram Pegram; as this is the only reference I can find to Pegram being the sculptor there is no way to be sure, though Alfred Bertram Pegram is perhaps the most likely candidate.
The
photo above shows the cemetery’s memorial to the Bethnal Green tube disaster. 173
people, 84 women, 62 children, and 27 men, were killed just after 8pm on the
evening of March 3rd 1943. It was dark and wet evening and a large orderly crowd
were making their way calmly down a steep flight of blacked out stairs into the
unused tube station to take shelter after hearing an air raid warning siren.
Close by a new anti-aircraft rocket battery fired into the sky. The unfamiliar
noise was mistaken by many for the sound of bombs falling and there was a
sudden surge in the crowd as they tried urgently to get into the shelter. In
the stairwell a woman with a baby lost her footing and pulled an elderly man
down with her. People behind fell over them in the dark and knocked down the
people in front. The people at the back kept pushing forward unaware of what
was happening in the dark stairwell and more people tripped and fell. In a
minute or two nearly 300 people were caught up in the crush, 173 dying, 90
others seriously injured. It was the worst loss of civilian life during World War
II but not a single enemy bomb fell on Bethnal Green that night. Many of the
dead were buried at Manor Park and the cemetery has created a memorial by placing
together all the headstones for the victims that were scattered around the
cemetery.
Other notable memorials in the cemetery are those of William Thomas Ecclestone, the ‘Kings heaviest subject’ also known as Jolly Jumbo, a publican and boxing promoter, and the splendid modern memorial for Joyce and Ronald McQueen, Alexander McQueen’s parents (the couturier committed suicide on the evening before his mother was due to be buried in the cemetery). In the same area is the memorial to John Travers Cornwell, more generally known as Jack Cornwell, who died at the age of 16 on the 2nd June 1916 in Grimsby General Hospital as a result of injuries sustained at the battle of Jutland. Cornwell was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for staying at his post on HMS Chester after the ship had been under sustained bombardment by four German cruisers. Cornwell’s gun on the main deck was hit four times killing all the crew except for himself. He stayed at his gun despite being severely wounded by shards of metal shrapnel in the legs and stomach. He died in hospital before his mother could reach his bedside. He was initially buried in a common grave in the cemetery but after a public outcry he was exhumed and reburied in a prominent part of the cemetery opposite the main entrance and a large memorial erected over his grave.
In
1910 some excitement was caused when ahot air balloon came down in the
cemetery. This is from the Eastern Counties' Times of Friday 10 June 1910;
BALLOON DESCENT IN MANOR PARK
CEMETERY.
Some
little excitement was caused at about o'clock on Friday afternoon by a balloon
coming to the ground in Manor Park Cemetery. The balloon belonged to Mr.
Pollock, of Bedford-road, W.C. It appears that he and another party were having
a balloon race across London, for a second balloon was seen in the vicinity at
about the same time. Mr. Pollock's balloon, however, was sailing very near to
the ground, and when it passed over Stratford and Forest Gate it was noticed
that the anchor was hanging from the car. When the balloon was over Wanstead
Flats the anchor was almost touching the ground but the balloon then rose again.
It came to earth In Manor Perk Cemetery. The occupants of the balloon were a
lady and gentleman, neither of whom was injured by the descent into the
graveyard. The superintendent of the cemetery called together the men, and gave
all possible assistance to the aerial navigators. After the balloon had been deflated
it was packed up and sent off by goods train. A motor car had followed the
balloon in its flight across London, and picked up the party at the cemetery
gates. The party rode off in the direction of London. The plucky lady balloonist
drove the motor, thus showing that she had by no means lost her nerve after her
aerial trip.
Another
story from the Eastern Counties' Times, this one from the edition of 26 October
1894 detailing the intrepid adventures of ‘that smart young detective of
Ilford, Ernest Baxter’;
Stealing Angels from Manor Park Cemetery.
For
some time robberies from Manor Park Cemetery have been perpetrated, and
notwithstanding diligent inquiries the police were unable to obtain the
slightest clue as to who carried away the "Angels" and other sacred
memorials from the graves. The matter was placed in the hands of that smart young
detective of Ilford, Ernest Baxter, who appears to have been more successful and
has been able to bring to justice the man who now admits he is the offender.
The young officer obtained a clue from a dealer in Backchurch lane, Commercial road,
where he saw the figure of one of the missing angels. Afterwards he discovered some
copper railings in the possession of Mr. Sheldrake, iron and brassfounder, at
Frederick street, Stratford. As a result of inquiries, Baxter, accompanied by
Detective-sergeant Carn, visited 209 Harold road, Upton Park. on Friday, where
they charged Edgar Arthur Setkey. an engineer, with the theft. Setkey admitted
the theft, and was taken into custody. He was brought before the Stratford
Bench on Saturday and charged with stealing from the cemetery one gun metal
standard, two gunmetal rails, and the figure of an angel, the property of Messers.
Williams and Williams of Hampsead and valued at £l5. Baxter said other charges
might be preferred, white no doubt the City Solicitor would prosecute. The
remand asked for was granted.
And finally, from the Eastern Post of Saturday 06 August 1910, the funeral of an old soldier who had served in the Crimean war and taken part in the battles of Balaclava, Alma, Inkerman, and Sebastopol and also in the Indian Mutiny at Lucknow;
A BALACLAVA HERO. FUNERAL FROM BETHNAL GREEN WITH MILITARY HONOURS
At Manor Park Cemetery the funeral took place on Saturday, with military honours, of Mr. J. Loveland, an old soldier who had been through many strange vicissitudes and fought in several memorable battles. Deceased joined the 20th Foot of Lancashire Fusiliers in 1851, when 17. He fought in the Crimea, and received the Crimean medal with clasps for Balaclava, Alma, Inkerman, and Sebastopol. He also served in the Indian Mutiny and at Lucknow. He was born in the East End, and was a well-known and popular character in Bethnal Green up to the time of HIS UNEXPECTED DEATH. Large crowds gathered in the neighbourhood of Florida-street, where the deceased soldier lived. A service was held in the Church of St. James the Great, and was numerously attended. Among those present was a detachment of sergeants from the deceased’s old regiment, who had journeyed specially from Tidmouth Barracks, Salisbury Plain, in order to do honour to the veteran’s memory. They bore the coffin from the church to the hearse, and later to the grave. A magnificent wreath bearing an appropriate ‘inscription was sent from the headquarters of the regiment in Bury (Lancs.), and this, together with numerous other floral contributions, was placed upon the coffin with the colours of the regiment.—The funeral service was read by the Rev. K. C. Bickerdike, and the Rev. H. Standish delivered a short address and read the committal prayers at the graveside.
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