English Cemetery, Funchal, Madeira. 2007.

Judith's visit




I retrace my steps to the British Cemetery. Easy entrance - I just rang the doorbell and the janitor lets me in, no questions asked. No one around in this lovely spot except the gardener - feels a bit Easter-ish! Hundreds of tiny lizards scuttle everywhere but they are quite harmless of course. Great excitement as I find the Hubbard/Evans memorials on the wall in the corner as Aunt Frances had described. No rummaging behind shrubs and bushes nowadays, as all is in order. I also find the original gravestones nearby which AF never found.







              engcem2   
              In memory of JOHN WADDINGTON HUBBARD of 16 KENSINGTON SQUARE LONDON. Born JULY 10 1823.Died at FUNCHAL JUNE 15 1871


              engcem1
           In memory of GEORGE EVANS of MARKET BOSWORTH, LEICESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND. Born 17th May 1825  Died 25th January 1847

                   engcem4    


           engcem5




Vivid dream:- I go back down to the British Cemetery and I ask to borrow the Registers which contain the lists of those buried there. I was given a venerable and vulnerable leather bound book with pages made of parchment; it was so very precious. The cemetery and chapel were both undergoing extensive renovations, with dust and dirt, workmen and cement and tools everywhere. It was a general builders' site. I am holding this wonderful treasure of an old book which seems alive with its hidden knowledge waiting to be explored. I wander around the rubble, rebuilding and muddle with the book in my hands. I am looking for a safe place to open it. I awake = end of dream.

I go back down to the British Cemetery, 235, Rua da Carreira, ring the bell at the door and I am let in. I ask to see the Registers. The Janitor takes me to the little room (and opens what looks like a very C of E church safe) where the registers are kept - or rather the copies. Someone has typed up the entries and everything is in a new folio. We easily find the entries for George Evans, a great, great uncle and John Waddington Hubbard.

I then ask to see if we can find anyone with the name of Phelps and an interesting entry springs up....
‘James Phelps, a Black, for upwards of 60 years a household servant in the family of Joseph Phelps, Merchant of this place, said to be aged 74 years, died in this Island of Madeira on the 19th and was interred in the Old British Burial Ground on the 20th day of March 1838....’   What was ordinary to that culture and time; was ordinary! If those older generations saw us now, what a shock they would get at our culture and technology.

We also looked for other Phelps but time was running out.

I told the janitor how Aunt Frances had come here in 1953 and how she described the awful state of the cemetery. He said he was born here in 1953 and that his father was janitor and would have been the one who met Aunt Frances. Yes, it was a mess until about ten years ago. Now there is funding to keep the place beautiful. I showed him the Evans and Hubbard memorials and tombs. He said this was unusual - - one or the other but not both. Obviously no expense spared. Because of where the tomb stones are, they are still in their original position. He explained how the new road had changed things a lot, when Funchal’s road system was changed from being medieval paths and alley ways to how it is now.

I wondered who paid for the memorials – Did Emma Evans, losing a son and a brother? The grave stones are very basic; it looked like some-one later on put up the memorials.

The janitor also showed me an old picture of the cemetery and chapel; showing how the chapel was once central to the cemetery.

 Back