Orbitas blog: Remembrance Sunday at Macclesfield Cemetery

Monday, 7 November 2016

Remembrance day poppies

On Remembrance Sunday, which this year falls on Sunday 13th November. Our cemetery at Macclesfield has many graves of those members of our local community who died during military conflict or whilst in military service. We invite those who want to come and pay their respects to visit and spend some time in a period of reflection at the Cross of Sacrifice, a monument erected by the Commonwealth War Grave Commission.

Fiona, who works in the Cemetery Office is a keen historian and researches the history of the cemetery and its residents in her spare time. She says,

“Macclesfield cemetery offers an opportunity to remember and commemorate the lives of those who made the ultimate sacrifice in defence of their country, and to understand the effect of their loss on their families and the town as a whole. This remembrance day, we will also be remembering local men who served in the forces and returned home, but whose stories of courage and heroism have been forgotten”

Macclesfield Cemetery has 82 Commonwealth War Graves, and many more which have military connections, including those with memorials to loved ones whose bodies were never discovered or which were buried overseas.

The public are welcome to come and see these graves and pay their respects.

Remembering those who died during military service include;

  • Private Francis Walton, who entertained townsfolk with humorous letters sent to the local paper under the pseudonym Peeping Tom which described life at his training camp. He died of injuries sustained at Gallipoli during the Great War.
  • Local sports hero Sydney Gleave, a successful TT racer turned Test Pilot, whose Lancaster aeroplane crashed near Birtles Hall in 1944 due to a technical fault.
  • Wren Dorothy Lawton and Photographer Joseph Simpson who both died when the lorry conveying staff back to the naval base at Stretton following a May Ball at Lymm, crashed, killing six service people and injuring many more.
  • The resting place of George Eardley, who won a Victoria Cross in 1944 and who died in 1991. A resident of Congleton, he has a statue erected there in his honour.