Coventry London Road
Cemetery War Dead

Coventry London Road Cemetery opened in 1847.  It's a beautiful Victorian cemetery designed by Joseph Paxton. 

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Over the years the cemetery has proved to be fertile ground for us for research inspiration. It's amazing what stories can be uncovered and I have used some of these in my blog. 

 

Inspired by the centenary of the First World War, we decided to research the WW1 war graves in the cemetery.  The Commonwealth War graves are easy to spot; but what we realised in our wanderings around the cemetery there are many other headstones that memorialise a father, husband, son or brother who died as a result of the war.  We decided to include these in our research.

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There are 95 Commonwealth War Graves in London Road Cemetery. On top of this we have located 65 other men killed as a result of the First World War who are commemorated on headstones around the cemetery. There are probably many other men who died as a result of the war buried in the cemetery but for the purposes of this work we have only included those whose families have commemorated them on their headstones.

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In London Road Cemetery, of the 95 CWGC graves: 13 died in accidents (from drownings to plane crashes), 31 died of illness (from flu to leukaemia), 13 died of wounds, 34 died of unknown causes, of these half of them had served overseas and so it is likely they died as the result of wounds. In addition, there are 2 suicides, 1 man who was murdered and 1 man who was struck by lightning.  Of the other 65 commemorated on family headstones: 59 were killed in action, 1 was killed in a flying accident, 3 died of illness and 1 died of wounds.

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