Tuesday 27 March 2012

Four graves, one memorial


This is Fulford cemetry where many citizens of York were buried after York Cemetery was deemed to be full around 50 years ago. I had never visited this rather modern cemetery until very recently and this set of four graves really stood out. From a distance the shape and balance of them was clearly intended to link these four burials.
These are the graves of four victims of a plane crash in Ljubljana Yugoslavia on Sept 1st 1966. The plane concerned was a Bristol 175 Britannia that flew into a forest whilst attempting to land, 98 out of 117 people aboard died. 
These graves are for two sets of young sweethearts and their final markers mirror and balance one another in the inscriptions, fonts and stone carvings used (click on image to enlarge). The two young men are on the outside each next to his girl. I think it must have been some comfort to their grieving families to place them in the cemetery in this united way.
Taking part in Taphophile tragics

8 comments:

  1. Wow! Interesting to see headstones shaped to create a form of diorama! Tragic story attached but a beautiful tribute to their lives!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We tend to these youngsters graves each year

      Delete
  2. This are interesting and quite special the way the memorials have been done. That is a very neat and tidy cemetery too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. hat looks like a huge cemetery!
    how sad for those people, and their families....

    ReplyDelete
  4. so very sad, yet so romantic that each one includes the name of the 'sweetheart'.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree with Joan: a most neat and tidy cemetery.
    It is, to me, more moving that the families have gone to the effort to unite these four in their eternal life, as they were united in death. Must have taken a lot of clear thinking when clear thinking was very much in short supply. I do like the quote for Ian: 'His fearless bouyan youth will always live, revealing love and truth and radiant joy'.

    They were my age ...

    ReplyDelete
  6. When I went up to York University in 1971 I stayed in digs with Mr and Mrs Mallabon. They were a lovely couple but devastated by the death of their son and his fiancĂ©e. We will never get over it she said to me, all they had to remember him was his crushed signet ring. Their son had been in a local pop group and his rusting Gresch guitar sat under my bed. They had recordings on a reel to reel tape recorder that they liked to play. I remember listening to a rendition of “Ain’t she Sweet”. The Mallabons had a daughter who was married to a local farm worker, Mr Mallabon was a prominent member of the York photographic society. Mrs Mallabon made a mean Sunday roast with superb Yorkshire puddings.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment on my blog. All comments are read, and I will try to answer any blog related questions.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...