Southern Cemetery #11: Eric Thompson

'CHERISHED MEMORIES
OF
ERIC (Sketchbook) THOMPSON,
THE DEAREST DARLING HUSBAND
OF MARJORIE,
WHO LOST HIS LIFE IN THE MUNICH AIRCRAFT DISASTER
6th. FEBRUARY 1958, AGED 48 YEARS.
SPORTS JOURNALIST, 27 YEARS WITH THE
DAILY MAIL, MANCHESTER.
"Rest in Peace my darling."'

My other posts on Southern Cemetery graves:

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The Manchester Sound
L. S. Lowry
Maria Pawlikowska–Jasnorzewska
David Martin
George Ghita Ionescu
John and Enriqueta Rylands
John Cassidy
Jerome Caminada
George Freemantle
Leo Grindon and Rosa Grindon

Southern Cemetery #10: Leo Grindon and Rosa Grindon

'THE SHRINE OF BELOVED

LEO. H. GRINDON.

MOST GENTLE AND WINSOME,

TEACHER OF NATURE'S WAYS.

HE JOINED THE

COMMUNION OF SAINTS ON THE

SABBATH EVENING OF NOV. 20, 1904.

IN HIS 87TH YEAR.

THERE WERE ANGELS HOVERING ROUND

TO CARRY THE TIDINGS HOME.

ALSO OF

ROSA ELVERSON GRINDON,

WHO FELL ASLEEP MAY 6TH, 1923,

AGED 75 YEARS.'

Leopold Hartley Grindon (1818–1904) was a self-educated botanist and teacher who wrote many books, including Country Rambles and Manchester Walks and Wild Flowers (Manchester: Palmer and Howe, 1882); The Lesson of a Lovely Life: Glimpses of the Character of the Late Mrs. Wainwright, of Finchwood (Manchester: Palmer and Howe, 1888); The Shakespeare Flora: A Guide to All the Principal Passages in Which Mention Is Made of Trees, Plants, Flowers and Vegetable Productions (Manchester: Palmer and Howe, 1883); and his A History of Lancashire, written in 1882, was edited by Dawn Robinson-Walsh and published by Aurora in about 1995.

His feminist wife Rosa – President of the Manchester Ladies' Literary and Scientific Club – was also a writer: In Praise of Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor : An Essay in Exposition and Appreciation (Manchester: Sherratt and Hughes, 1902); In Praise of Shakespeare's Henry VIII: An Essay in Exposition and Appreciation (Manchester : Sherratt and Hughes, 1902); and Shakespeare and His Plays from a Woman's Point of View (Manchester: Policy-Holder Journal Co., 1930).

In memory of her husband, Rosa Grindon gave the Shakespeare window in the entrance hall of Manchester's Central Library: it was designed by Robert Anning Bell and depicts a portrait of Shakespeare with some scenes from his plays. A link to my blog post on the window is here.

My other posts on Southern Cemetery graves:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
The Manchester Sound
L. S. Lowry
Maria Pawlikowska–Jasnorzewska
David Martin
George Ghita Ionescu
John and Enriqueta Rylands
John Cassidy
Jerome Caminada
George Freemantle
Eric Thompson

Southern Cemetery #9: George Freemantle

'IN LOVING MEMORY OF

GEORGE FREEMANTLE,

who died May 21st. 1864 aged 61 years.'

 

 

'This memorial was erected by his

friends of the Brasenose Club.'

George Freemantle (1833–64) was an influential music critic on the Manchester Guardian from 1867 to 1894, and was particularly noted for his enthusiastic support of Charles Hallé's aim to bring the best orchestral music to Manchester.

My other posts on Southern Cemetery graves:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
The Manchester Sound
L. S. Lowry
Maria Pawlikowska–Jasnorzewska
David Martin
George Ghita Ionescu
John and Enriqueta Rylands
John Cassidy
Jerome Caminada
Leo Grindon and Rosa Grindon
Eric Thompson

Southern Cemetery #8: Jerome Caminada

 

'JEROME CAMINADA

DIED MARCH 10^TH 1914, AGED 70 YEARS

 

ALSO AMELIA HIS WIFE

DIED AUG. 23^RD 1928, AGED 73 YEARS'

 

Police officer Jerome Caminada (1844–1914) has been called the Manchester Sherlock Holmes by some, and he was the city's first CID superindendent. He published a few books on his experiences – the most notable being Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life (1895) – and some of his work was published posthumously. This year of course marks the centenary of his death.

My other posts on Southern Cemetery graves:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
The Manchester Sound
L. S. Lowry
Maria Pawlikowska–Jasnorzewska
David Martin
George Ghita Ionescu
John and Enriqueta Rylands
John Cassidy
George Freemantle
Leo Grindon and Rosa Grindon
Eric Thompson

Southern Cemetery #7: John Cassidy

 

'IN LOVING MEMORY

OF

JOHN CASSIDY

SCULPTOR

DIED 18^TH JULY 1939

AGED 79 YEARS.

 

HIS HANDS FASHIONED

THE BEAUTY HE SAW.'

 

Cassidy was the sculptor of the original statue of Ben Brierley in Queen's Park, now reproduced in bronze in Failsworth by Denise Dutton, and of the statues of John Rylands and his wife Enriqueta in John Rylands Library.

My other posts on Southern Cemetery graves:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
The Manchester Sound
L. S. Lowry
Maria Pawlikowska–Jasnorzewska
David Martin
George Ghita Ionescu
John and Enriqueta Rylands
Jerome Caminada
George Freemantle
Leo Grindon and Rosa Grindon
Eric Thompson

Southern Cemetery #6: John and Enriqueta Rylands

 

'John Rylands
of Manchester.
Born 7. Feb. 1801. Died 11. Dec. 1888.
In Living Memory.'

 

John Rylands's grave is the largest in Southern Cemetery, although the metal enclosure has been removed. Rylands was a rich Manchester textile merchant and philanthropist who lived at Longford Hall, Stretford, from 1857.

'Enriqueta Augustina
 Rylands
of Manchester.
Born 31. May. 1843. Died 4. Feb. 1908.
In Loving Memory.'

 

Enriqueta was John's third wife and his chief heir and executor. She founded the neo-Gothic John Rylands Library in Deansgate, Manchester, as a memorial to her husband. It was designed by Basil Champneys and was opened to the public in 1900.

My other posts on Southern Cemetery graves:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
The Manchester Sound
L. S. Lowry
Maria Pawlikowska–Jasnorzewska
David Martin
George Ghita Ionescu
John Cassidy
Jerome Caminada
George Freemantle
Leo Grindon and Rosa Grindon
Eric Thompson

Southern Cemetery #5: George Ghita Ionescu

'In Loving
Memory of
VALENCE R. de BOIS
IONESCU
2nd SEPT 1917–
12TH MARCH 1996
AND
GEORGE GHITA
IONESCU
21st MARCH 1913–
28th JUNE 1996'

 

Ghita Ionescu was a political scientist of Romanian origin who emigrated after the Soviet invasion in 1947. His most interesting work, perhaps, is Politics and the Pursuit of Happiness (1984), written after his retirement from Manchester University.

My other posts on Southern Cemetery graves:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
The Manchester Sound
L. S. Lowry
Maria Pawlikowska–Jasnorzewska
David Martin
John and Enriqueta Rylands
John Cassidy
Jerome Caminada
George Freemantle
Leo Grindon and Rosa Grindon
Eric Thompson

Southern Cemetery #4: David Martin

Among the many graves in Southern Cemetery this must be one of the strangest, and if an English equivalent of André Blavier's Les Fous littéraires existed it would surely merit a place in it. David Martin was a labourer and amateur scientist who was convinced that Leibnitz was right and Newton wrong, and that the world had been following the wrong person for three hundred years. However, the media wouldn't listen to him. He therefore resolved to self-publish in a poem his belief that gravity does not exist. The gravestone was prepared more than ten years before his death in 2010.

'Space

After 76 voyages around the sun, I am ready
to assert that space is not inert.
The world through space does not go.
Space carries the world to and fro.
It is the conveyer of our sphere. Be of
good cheer. The truth at last is here.
Let it be said "Gravity is dead." "Newton
was mad." "The people have been had."
God can make a tree – but not gravity.
With smooth effortless grace the super fluid
called space carries our world apace.
We pay no heed to our 20 miles per
second speed because super fluid engineering
at Nature's best makes perpetual
motion seem like rest. With hot stars
and our sun burning and churning,
space is alive and pulsating with energy electrified.
In a whirlpool of space our world
plays its part 93 million miles away
from the sun's boiling bubbling heart.

         David Martin'

My other posts on Southern Cemetery graves:

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The Manchester Sound
L. S. Lowry
Maria Pawlikowska–Jasnorzewska George Ghita Ionescu
John and Enriqueta Rylands
John Cassidy
Jerome Caminada
George Freemantle
Leo Grindon and Rosa Grindon
Eric Thompson

Southern Cemetery #3: Maria Pawlikowska–Jasnorzewska

'THIS STONE WAS ERECTED
BY THE UNION OF POLISH WRITERS ABROAD
AND THE POLISH COMMUNITY IN EXILE
IN COMMEMORATION OF
THIS GREAT POLISH POETESS.
A.D. 1973.'

 

The word 'poetess' would probably have sounded slightly better in 1973 than it sounds today. Maria Jasnorzewska, or Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska (1891–1945), was associated with the Warsaw-based Skamander poetry group. She left Poland in 1939 with her third husband, Stefan Jerzy Jasnorzewski, and died in Manchester.

She was also a playwright, and her Baba-dziwo, or A Woman of Wonder (1937), is generally understood to be a satire of Hitler. The play depicts a dictatorship in which a 'masculine' woman Valida Vrana rules a country called Ritonia, in which she strongly rewards people by the number of children they have: motherhood is compulsory and women are baby-making machines. Dissent produces severe penalties. Norman and Petronika Gondor are childless and both hate Valida, although Norman conceals his hatred and tries to restrain his wife's almost open contempt.

 

But the more Valida tightens her hold on the people the more they become discontented. Petronika is a chemist and contrives to render Valida powerless by means of a perfumed flower that is both irresistable and narcotic: with the despot out of the picture, the people are freed and Norman takes control of the country.

 

Behind the flowers on the grave someone had placed a sealed, pink plastic sleeve containing two photos of Maria Jasnorzewska, which I include below. They may not have come out too well through the plastic, but at least they put a face to the writer.

 

 

 

And below is a link to a translation of Baba-dziwo by Elwira M. Grossman, Paul J. Kelly and Stephen Grecco, which may not be brilliant but it does give an idea of what the author is trying to say:
 

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
A Woman of Wonder, by Maria Pawlikowska-Janorzewska

My other posts on Southern Cemetery graves:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
The Manchester Sound
L. S. Lowry
David Martin
George Ghita Ionescu
John and Enriqueta Rylands
John Cassidy
Jerome Caminada
George Freemantle
Leo Grindon and Rosa Grindon
Eric Thompson

Southern Cemetery #2: L. S. Lowry

'IN LOVING MEMORY OF

ROBERT STEPHEN MCALL LOWRY

THE BELOVED HUSBAND OF

ELIZABETH LOWRY

BORN 4^TH JUNE 1857

DIED 10^TH FEBRUARY 1932

AT REST

ALSO ELIZABETH LOWRY HIS WIFE

BORN MARCH 5^TH 1858

 DIED OCTOBER 12^TH 1939

 'ALSO

THEIR BELOVED SON

LAURENCE STEPHEN

LOWRY

BORN 1^ST NOV. 1887

DIED 23^RD FEB. 1976.'

The links below are to The Lowry's brief account of his life (which includes his relationship with his mother), and to a lecture Manchester-born Howard Jacobson gave at the Lowry in 2007:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
The Lowry on L. S. Lowry
'The Proud Provincial Loneliness of LS Lowry', by Howard Jacobson

My other posts on Southern Cemetery graves:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
The Manchester Sound
Maria Pawlikowska–Jasnorzewska
David Martin
George Ghita Ionescu
John and Enriqueta Rylands
John Cassidy
Jerome Caminada
George Freemantle
Leo Grindon and Rosa Grindon
Eric Thompson

Southern Cemetery #1: The Manchester Sound

Tony Wilson was the co-owner and manager of Factory Records (notably of Joy Division, New Order, and Happy Mondays fame), and also founder of The Haçienda in Whitworth Street West, Manchester (or Madchester as it was dubbed in the 'Second Summer of Love' at the end of the eighties).

This understated gravestone in black granite was unveiled three years after Wilson's death. Factory products were given a catalogue number and Wilson's coffin was FAC 501.

'Anthony H Wilson

 

Broadcaster

Cultural Catalyst

 

1950–2007'

 

'Mutability is the epitaph of worlds

Change alone is changeless

People drop out of the history of a life as of a land

though their work or their influence remains

 

The Manchester Man

G Linnaeus Banks 1876'

 

The quotation is from Isabella Banks's The Manchester Man – Wilson of course being known as 'Mr Manchester' – and reads as if from a poem, although these are the first three (prose) sentences of Chapter XVIII of the novel.

 

(Wilson's grave is in Plot B, only a few yards from the grave in Plot A of ten-year-old Lesley Ann Downey, who was murdered in 1964 by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, and who is mentioned in The Smiths's song 'Suffer Little Children'.)

'MARTIN

HANNETT

1948–1991

Husband Of

Wendy

Father Of

James and Tania

Record Producer

And Creator Of The

Manchester Sound'

 

Martin Hannett was also a partner and director of Factory Records whose name is closely linked with Joy Division. His grave is in the New Cemetery in plot FF.

Rob Gretton (1953–1999) – full name Robert Leo Gretton – was the manager of Joy Division and also partner and director of Factory Records. His grave is in Plot G.

My other posts on Southern Cemetery graves:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
L. S. Lowry

Maria Pawlikowska–Jasnorzewska
David Martin
George Ghita Ionescu
John and Enriqueta Rylands
John Cassidy
Jerome Caminada
George Freemantle
Leo Grindon and Rosa Grindon
Eric Thompson