War Graves in City Road Cemetery

 

The H.M. Forces Memorial at City Road Cemetery

As a photographer, when exploring St. Martin’s church in Firbeck, I became interested in the various regimental crests that have been used for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) headstones – as examples of fine craftsmanship. On my various travels since, I have made a point of looking for them in various churchyards and cemeteries.

 

A plan of Sheffield City Cemetery

 

Although City Road Cemetery in Sheffield is quite vast, when photographing the crematorium and chapels and the Blitz Grave for the British Listed Buildings website, I kept my eyes open and was interested to discover that a formally laid out plot in section H accommodates some of them.

 

A CWGC information panel

The history of the CWCG is briefly outlined in an information panel at the entrance to the plot, with particular emphasis placed on the role of Sheffield’s hospitals in caring for the servicemen who were brought to the city. 

 

The H.M. Forces Memorial

In the centre of the plot is a memorial to the members of H.M. Forces, who perished in WWII, which is constructed with a rock-faced fine grained sandstone that looks like it is the ‘Brincliffe Blue’ variety of Greenmoor Rock. The inscription, however, is cut into a central plaque that I think might be made in Darley Dale stone. 

 

A screen wall commemorating burials at Wardsend Cemetery

There are also two screen walls, one in Botticino marble that commemorates the deceased who are buried at Wardsend Cemetery and another in Portland stone, which contain the names of those who were cremated here. 

 

A screen wall commemorating the deceased that were cremated

Along the southern edge of the plot, there are more than 30 special memorial headstones to casualties buried elsewhere in the cemetery in graves that could not be marked individually, which are mainly made with Portland stone but with Botticino marble used for replacements.

 

Special memorial headstones

 

I had a quick look at the various headstones, which commemorate members of the Dutch navy, the Polish army and various British regiments that I had not encountered before – the Loyal, Dorsetshire and Royal Warwickshire regiments, the Intelligence Corps and the Royal Armoured Corps - and also civilians from the Air Raids Precautions (ARP) organisations.  

 

Special memorial headstones showing various regimental crests

 

Nearly 150 other CWGC headstones are scattered throughout the cemetery, but I only encountered a few of these when searching for the Blitz Grave. The included the grey granite memorial to Gunner W. Keen of the Royal Garrison Artillery, the Botticino marble memorial to Lance Corporal G.H. Parker of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and the Portland stone memorial to Private H. Beresford of the Black Watch. 

 

Memorials to W. Keen, G.H. Parker and H. Beresford