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English Cemetery
| Sitio: |
Moodle IES Belén |
| Curso: |
A cultural taste of Málaga |
| Libro: |
English Cemetery |
| Imprimido por: |
Invitado |
| Día: |
Tuesday, 30 de July de 2024, 17:19 |
1 Introduction
Introduction
THE ENGLISH CEMETERY IN MALAGA HAS AN INTERESTING STORY
By Chris Chaplow and Robina Lowry
The English Cemetery lies on a hillside very near the historic centre of Malaga. More than 1000 people are buried within its 8,000 square metres; the majority, including its founder, are British but there are also Spanish and Americans, Danes and Swedes among other nationalities. Originally an isolated plot of land on the road to Velez, today the cemetery is surrounded by blocks of apartments and the hustle and bustle of a modern city, but it still retains a sense of peace. If you wander along the terraces you will come across simple headstones, ornate vaults and touching epitaphs, all providing a fascinating insight into life and death in this unique part of Andalucia.
2 History
History
Gravestones in the English Cemetary
By Chris Chaplow and Robina Lowry
When William Mark arrived in Malaga in 1816 to take up his post as British Consul, he was astonished and horrified to learn that in Spain burial in consecrated ground was reserved exclusively for Catholics. Protestants were buried without rites and in Malaga the burials were bizarre. The bodies of dead Protestants, regardless of nationality, were buried upright on the seashore facing the sea, under the supervision of the local guards and invariably at midnight. Not surprisingly, the bodies frequently attracted the attention of hungry, stray dogs or were swept out to sea.
This blatant religious discrimination first aroused British concern in the mid-1650s, when Ascham, Oliver Cromwell's envoy, was assassinated in Spain and buried without ceremony. Although Cromwell insisted on a paragraph being written into a commercial treaty between the two countries, it was completely ignored. Subsequent treaties of Utrecht (1713), Madrid (1715 and 1721) and Versailles (1783) proved no more helpful.
William Mark, after trying to organise a cemetery for many years, finally approached the Governor of Malaga, General José Mansó, who immediately called the Board of Health and arranged for a suitable site to be provided. In 1830, the granting of the land was ratified by King Ferdinand VII.
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| Decorative fountain in the English Cemetary |
A year later the cemetery received its first tenant, the hapless 26-year-old Robert Boyd, executed along with Torrijos and his fellow rebels on San Andrés Beach. Their story is interesting but clearly a foolhardy attempt to overthrow King Ferdinand without local support. Eleven years later an obelisk in their memory was erected in Malaga in the centre of Plaza de la Merced and can still be seen today just down the road from Plaza del General Torrijos.
Richard Ford was in Spain at the time of Boyd's execution and, on 11th January 1832, wrote to his friend Henry Addington, British Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in Madrid, that Mark, ". . . is gone wild about the Malaga events and the execution of Mr. Boyd. In his heart I believe he was as glad as a young surgeon to get a subject for his new churchyard. He certainly has a hankering after my wife's body, not her live body, but, hearing of her ill health, tried all in his power to get me to Malaga to have a pretty female specimen in his sepulchral museum."
Mark rests there today and his monument, one of the cemetery's most prominent memorials, is a tall, fluted column surmounted by an urn draped with a mourning cloth. A little hole in the path led to the discovery in 2007 of a large crypt under this monument where Mark and seven other members of his family remain.
In 1839-40 a 'lodge temple' was built in classical style with a small chapel and incorporating the cemetery guard's dwelling. With its fine Doric columns, this structure was adapted and enlarged in 1890-91 to become the present St George's Anglican Church. The adjoining mortuary is now the church library. A Gothic style Gatehouse was constructed in 1856 just inside the entrance to the cemetery which has two carved lions lounging over the gate.
Hans Cristian Andersen visited Malaga in 1862 and fell under the spell of the cemetery's romantic melancholy, prompting him to write: "... I wandered in a little paradise, this charming garden. Here were myrtle hedges, covered with flowers sufficient for a thousand bridal wreaths; high geranium bushes growing round the tombstones, which had inscriptions in Danish - Norse."
3 Location
Location
HOW TO FIND THE CEMETERY
By Chris Chaplow and Robina Lowry
The cemetery is easy to find along the north side of Avenida de Pries, it is close to the Hotel Miramar and the bullring. From the Alameda Principal you can get Nº11 to English Cemetery.
See bigger map
Open: Tuesday to Saturday 9:30am to 2:30pm; Sunday 9:00am to 1:00pm.
Closed Mondays.
4 Residents
Residents
SOME INTERESTING RESIDENTS OF THE ENGLISH CEMETERY
By Chris Chaplow and Robina Lowry
Philip Ashworth, the son of Edmund and Charlotte Ashworth of Egerton Hall, Bolton, who died on 17th January 1871 aged 26 years, is buried at the English Cemetery. It is also the final resting place of one of the principal figures of the Generation of 27, Spanish poet Jorge Guillén (1893-1984) and of his Italian wife, Irene.
The cemetery has numerous sculptures and monuments, one of which is dedicated to 62 officers and crew of the Gneisenau which belonged to the Imperial German Navy and sank in the port of Malaga on 16th December 1900. The survivors of the disaster were rescued by the townspeople and, in gratitude for their help, the German government paid for the construction of the Santo Domingo Bridge, popularly known as the Germans' Bridge, which spans the Guadalmedina River. The unfortunate victims were buried in a common fosse in the English Cemetery.
The graves of four members of the Royal Air Force (an Australian Royal Air Force Flying Officer, a Royal Navy Commander and two RAF radio operator-air gunner Sergeants) are easy to spot. Their bodies were washed up on the beaches at Marbella during the Second World War, and were reburied on 2nd April 1946, their names being inscribed on four grey headstones in the cemetery. One of their epitaphs, that of Flight Sergeant C.A. Ross, reads: "My darling husband The war united us The war parted us I'll love your memory always."
Sir George Langworthy, philanthropist to the poor people of Torremolinos, is buried in the cemetery. When he arrived in Torremolinos he was immensely rich. He visited the poor when they were ill and gave them money and in 1918 was granted the unique honour by the Town Hall of Torremolinos of 'Hijo Adoptivo y Predilecto de Torremolinos' - Favourite and Adopted Son of Torremolinos. He died a pauper in 1945 surrounded by his employees and the entire town came to pay respects to his simple coffin.
Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson (1909-2003), Baroness Von Schlippenbach, historian of economics who left her native England in 1951 to settle in Spain with her husband, spent much time studying the history of The English Cemetery. In the mid-fifties she wrote a booklet entitled The English Cemetery at Malaga, the fruit of a year of research. She is one of the few people to have been buried in the cemetery since the 1990s. Her estate in San Julian, near the airport, with its tropical botanical gardens was left by her to Malaga University, one of the many universities to award her honorary degrees.
Gamel Woolsey, the wife of Gerald Brenan, who died on 18th January 1968 the victim of cancer, was buried at the English Cemetery. Both she and Brenan were very fond of Malaga and lived in nearby Churriana. Her husband had the first two verses of a song by Cimbelino inscribed on her gravestone: "No longer need you dread the heat of the sun or the furious rage of winter."
Gerald Brenan died in 1987 and left his body to medical science; some say to save the funeral expenses. Untouched for fifteen years because nobody wished to dissect such an eminent body, it was left floating in formaldehyde in Malaga University until 2001 when he was interred alongside his wife. His epitaph reads simply: "Escritor Inglés, Amigo de España."
At Brennan's funeral were his grandchild Stéphane Corre (from Paris), son of Miranda Helen y Corre (his illegitimate daughter born in Granada in 1931) now a French doctor. Stéphane Corre's wife was at his side and Edward Oakden from the Embassy in Madrid. Carmen Calvo, Culture Minister of the Junta de Andalucía, and Francisco de la Torre, the mayor of Malaga, were also present.
Ian Gibson, Irish writer and hispanist, made a short speech in which he described the English Cemetery as the most beautiful in the Mediterranean region. Few people disagree with that.
5 Today
Today
By Chris Chaplow and Robina Lowry
The cemetery used to be owned by the British government. As no funds had been provided for its upkeep for many years, local Protestants worked hard to find a solution. While recognising the cemetery as an important part of the city's history, the Malaga Town Hall was also reluctant to devote more than minimal funds to it, so on 21st June 2006 the 'English Cemetery in Malaga Foundation' was formally established. The President is the British Consul in Malaga and its Executive Board comprises three Spaniards, three Britons, one German and one Italian, and includes three members of St George's Church. The church itself, in the centre of the cemetery, is looked after by the Anglican Chaplaincy of Saint George, Malaga.
In 1991, the cemetery gardener, Antonio Alcaide, was awarded an OBE for a life dedicated to the care of it. This work had been carried out not only by his ancestors but was also continued by his son. The cemetery gatehouse, for many years the home of the cemetery gardener, was beautifully renovated in 2005 and now houses a shop where a wide variety of gifts including pot plants are on sale. And John Hallybone, a dedicated gardener also works tirelessly to keep the cemetery neat and tidy.
A flourishing yew tree, described on a plaque as ". . . planted on 2nd January 2000 to celebrate the millennium and . . . a gift from St Paul's Cathedral, London", is an impostor from a garden centre in Henley-on-Thames. The real tree, which should have gone on to survive for hundreds of years, died. It was one of 7,000 chosen by naturalist David Bellamy and blessed by the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Richard Chartres. Brought to Malaga by John and Peggy Carswell, worshippers at the chaplaincy, they had seen the trees on a visit to St Paul's in 1999 and had asked the Bishop whether they could take one home to Spain.
