I went to Eltham Cemetery, also known as Falconwood Cemetery, yesterday to tend my dad’s grave and spotted this screen wall, which bears just six names. CWGC have the first photo on their site and my pictures from yesterday show it as it looks currently. I had looked at the CWGC record for Eltham the night before and read that the 57 graves they list are in various sections, but, in my naivety, I took that to mean they would be all neatly together, or fairly close together, in easily identifiable designated CWGC areas. I could see no signs for what section was what and the map I found on their website did not seem to bear much resemblance to what I found around me, although that’s probably down to my non-existent map reading skills. Nobody who worked there could help, unfortunately, the general consensus being that they were “scattered about”. I will have to return another day if and when I have more time to see if I can locate all the headstones and check they’re all still in a good state of repair. The headstone of Able Seaman Charles Edward Barritt should be fairly easy to locate having seen the attached photo, posted on Find-A-Grave; the memorial to its rear, as you can see, is pretty distinctive! I also took the opportunity to photograph a grave that had always caught my eye as I passed by on my way to dad’s. Clearly, Ernest must have served with the RAF and did not lose his life during the war, but did he see any service at that time, I wonder?
Hello yes large cems mostly have a war grave section with cwgc headstones followed by scattered graves the scattered could be either cwgc headstone or private headstones Screen walls either for cremations or graves lost over time in that cemetery for Eltham you will need a good day there and match the grave placements with the grave location on cwgc website to help you locate them
Cheers for the advice Clive, I had over simplified and underestimated my task and I will certainly have to study it all a tad more than I did. It’s not a small area and my simply turning up and finding everything neatly laid out before me didn’t happen, of course. Best - or, rather, ill prepared - plans and all that.
Sadly mate i learned the hard way Nigh on 500 cemeteries and churchyards later it still takes a bit of planning
