Round the back of the chapel…
…experience tells me to leave no stone unturned,…
…and although that isn’t always possible, or feasible, on this occasion I’m glad I persevered, as two of the final three headstones proved of interest (see below).
In particular, sadly, this one. On the rare occasions one finds ‘Lusitania’ on a headstone, it always sends a shudder down one’s spine.
I had to look carefully at times…
…but the chapelyard was full of headstones with so many stories to tell.
As has been mentioned in previous Cornish posts, the diamond mines of South Africa, in particular, but also mines in the United States and elsewhere, were magnets for men with the required expertise who saw an opportunity to make their fortunes.
Two more headstones illustrating the link between Cornwall and South Africa in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries…
…and also the U.S.A., Colorado in this instance.
The Watters children, the oldest of whom was killed in a mining accident in 1904 at the age of just fourteen.
Thirty one men were killed on 20th October 1919 at the Levant mine when the huge man engine, used to ferry men up and down the shaft, collapsed. We have come across the graves of men killed that day before, at Pendeen, and there are more casualties buried here (above & below).
And another…
…and yet another.
A place to remember and reflect. On war. And peace.
One of the gravestones caught my eye. I am a Canadian descendant of the sister of
May and William Tregear, of Trevegean Farm. The name L.L. Jones (Leslie Leathen
Jones) was my uncle, my mother’s brother, who grew up in Toronto.
I think my aunt Lillian Jones and her mother Eliza Tregear, arranged for that gravestone
on a trip to Cornwall. I used to correspond with Betty Tregear when I was a teen.
Hello Kathleen. That’s very interesting. Do you have any other information on Leslie, because I cannot find him on the CWGC database, which is odd?
Yes. I have a dedication framed after he passed away. I think the problem is that
Uncle Leslie was in the RCAF not the RAF, the Royal Canadian Air Force.
That stone marking may be an error.
I see. Thanks Kathleen. I presume you noticed the Lusitania headstone in this cemetery – your comment, and re-reading the post, prompted me to add a bit of text to that bit, so thanks for that too.
I will check that gravestone. I remember my grandmother was a Methodist, so the chapel yard in St. Just was the reason I looked at the site. She was a nurse educated at
Guys Hospital in London.