Townsend Family - New Calton Cemetery - Edinburgh, Scotland
N 55° 57.226 W 003° 10.633
30U E 488933 N 6200948
A broken column headstone marks the graves of seven members of the Townsend Family in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Waymark Code: WMMCBJ
Location: Southern Scotland, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/30/2014
Views: 1
Close-up of the headstone inscriptions:
ABOUT THE CEMETERY
"Opened in 1820, the burying ground was created for the re-internment of remains disturbed when Waterloo Place was built through the Old Calton Burying Ground. The new burial ground provided compensation for its owners, the Society of the Incorporated Trades of Calton.
Prior to the Second World War a family of ten is said to have lived in the watchtower’s three rooms. The parents occupied the middle floor, their daughters and sons occupied the top and bottom floors respectively. Unused lairs to the south of the watchtower were cultivated by the family for growing vegetables
Amongst the burials are Robert and Thomas Stevenson, the grandfather and father of the author Robert Louis Stevenson. Robert Stevenson was a successful civil engineer, who as superintendent of Northern Lighthouses and responsible for planning Regent Road where the cemetery lies. Thomas Stevenson followed suit as an engineer who also invented the modern lighthouse light. The architect Archibald Elliot is also buried here
At least six Admirals are buried within the grounds including Rear-Admiral James Bissett (d.1824), Vice-Admiral Alexander Frazer (d.1829), Rear-Admiral, Andrew Smith (d.1831), Admiral Graham (d.1854), Vice-Admiral Alexander Frazer, (d.1870) and Admiral Peat, (d.1879) (Anderson 645). For this reason New Calton, with its distant views to Leith and the Firth of Forth, has been referred to in the past as The Cemetery of the Admirals."
--Source http://www.ewht.org.uk/news/351/102/A-new-lease-of-life-for-New-Calton-graveyard-tower