Internment Details

[Elma]

Can anyone explain to me about internments?

I am looking at a burial at Kensal Rise Cemetery in 1942. I am assuming this was a common burial, as the chap I am looking at was buried with 11 others (same grave reference). This is on Deceased on Line.
All the burials are within a three month period. I thought that whilst many could be buried in the same plot there had to be a time lapse, is this perhaps not a grave as I am imagining it?
Can anyone explain this to me?

With thanks Elizabeth

 

[Daft Bat]

I thought that the maximum number of bodies that could be in a grave was 6, so am now intrigued! Maybe they were cremated remains....

What was the name of the chap?

 

[MollyMay]

No definite answer from me, but 1942 was WW2, so could it have been a mass grave as a result of casualties of the bombing?

 

[Auburn]

Is Kensal Rise Cemetery the same as Kensal Green? (ignorance on display!)
If so you could try the Friends of Kensal Green website-they have contact details and an enquiry form.

 

[Archie's Mum]

No definite answer from me, but 1942 was WW2, so could it have been a mass grave as a result of casualties of the bombing?

Thats what I was thinking, but the deaths are in a 3 month period. Perhaps died elsewhere but memorialised on the one headstone.

 

[AnnB]

There is a fairly lengthy transcript of a question raised about common graves in Parliament in 1972, taken from Hansard.

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1972/dec/20/common-graves

I have to confess I've only glanced through it, but it may answer your question, although the burial you refer to may not have been a common grave?

 

[arthurk]

I don't know anything about Kensal Rise, but Beckett Street Cemetery in Leeds had various classes of graves, most of which involved multiple burials. I think I've occasionally seen them with as many as a dozen, but in those cases quite a few of them would have been children.

You can read about them here (2nd question - What Type of Graves....):

https://www.beckettstreetcemetery.org.uk/faq.php

 

[Elma]

I thought that the maximum number of bodies that could be in a grave was 6, so am now intrigued! Maybe they were cremated remains....

What was the name of the chap?

His name was John Runniff Howard. He was 72 when he died. It was Kensal Green Cemetery not Kensal Rise

 

[Elma]

There is a fairly lengthy transcript of a question raised about common graves in Parliament in 1972, taken from Hansard.

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1972/dec/20/common-graves

I have to confess I've only glanced through it, but it may answer your question, although the burial you refer to may not have been a common grave?

Thanks AnnB I have read through this now and it makes grim reading. I think some cemeteries must have had better practices than others but it looks like Kensal Green was not alone. I always imagined after a burial was done the grave was filled and then opened again. I see I was wrong.
I couldn't think why this burial wasn't a common grave. What else might it be?

 

[Elma]

I don't know anything about Kensal Rise, but Beckett Street Cemetery in Leeds had various classes of graves, most of which involved multiple burials. I think I've occasionally seen them with as many as a dozen, but in those cases quite a few of them would have been children.

You can read about them here (2nd question - What Type of Graves....):

https://www.beckettstreetcemetery.org.uk/faq.php

I have family in graves of 20 but those have always had longer time spans inbetween burials