Queen Victoria's Grave #FolklorePhoto

Photo by Kelly Drover.

Today's folklore photo comes from the General Protestant Cemetery which is located between Waterford Bridge Road and Old Topsail Road in St. John's. A couple of months back I interviewed Roberta Bugden about growing up in St. John's. Along with her own stories she told several stories from her mother Queen Victoria (Ross) Young. If you want to learn more about Queen Victoria's memories of the great fire click here for a previous blog post.

When Queen Victoria Ross was born in 1885 the reigning Queen offered a bounty for multiple births above twins. While she didn't qualify for the bounty as a single birth where she was the eighth girl in the family it was suggested that she was named after the Queen. Pictured above is Queen Victoria's grave in St. John's.

~Terra Barrett

Do You Know of Any Metal Grave Markers in Newfoundland and Labrador?

On a recent camping trip to the New-Wes-Valley area, I visited the Lumsden United Church Cemetery and came across the headstone of William Tuff, son of William and Susanah Tuff, who died 9th of October 1847 aged 28 years. What caught my attention with this headstone was that it's made of cast iron. I have seen one other cast iron marker, at Bethany United in Carbonear, and a small sheet metal marker in St. James Cemetery, also in Carbonear.

In a 2012 ICH Newsletter article, Patrick Carroll wrote about the tin monuments in Bonavista Bay, which you can read about here. There are also a few interesting zinc (or white bronze) grave markers in St. John's. The hollow zinc markers have an distinctive blue-gray colour that is easily recognized once you know what to look for.

The zinc or White Bronze grave marker of Isabell and S.H. Parsons at the General Protestant Cemetery in St. John's

Do you know of any others metal grave markers around the province? Do you have a relative whose grave is marked with one? Do you know anything about the makers of these headstones, particularly the cast iron ones?

~ Kelly