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Fred Newman |
Anguish as relatives are found in paupers’ grave
Mother, not told her son had died, wants to bring him home
DEAD bodies stacked on top each other in a ‘public’ grave are in line to be exhumed – the rare practise of digging up remains already laid to rest.
Relatives of two men buried in a so-called ‘Pauper’s Grave’ in St Pancras Cemetery have made official applications for their remains to be removed from an unmarked grave so that they can be re-buried closer to their family homes.
They were not contacted at the time of the men’s deaths and their next of kin did not even realise they had been buried.
The Diocese of London, which manages the cemetery, is now considering the case and will determine whether the grave can be opened.
It has led to a request to exhume Fred Newman, who died two years ago and was buried closest to the surface.
Close friend Barry Sullivan – a charity volunteer listed as Mr Newman’s equivalent to a next of kin – said he had been left with “very mixed and uncertain emotions” by the request and has begun researching why the two men below him had been buried without their family’s knowledge. His consent is needed for the exhumations to take place.
Mr Sullivan said: “I was not aware that such a thing had happened and the fuller details shocked me even more.”
Paul Startup died at the Royal Free Hospital in July 2005 and was buried below Mr Newman three weeks later. Relatives apparently could not be found at the time but his mother later came forward and complained that she had not even been told her son had died.
Millie Goodbourn now wants to near him to be buried near her home in Maidstone. She told BBC reporters in Kent: “I couldn’t believe it at first. I was shaking, crying. Why didn’t they let me know? I do miss him. He was a lovely boy.”
Mr Startup had gone missing after travelling to London in search of work, although was later registered to a homeless hostel in Holborn. His fate was only discovered when an NHS worker who knew his relatives saw his file and raised the alarm.
His cousin, the Reverend Chris Sears, added: “She (Ms Goodbourn) is now in her mid 80s and has said that she will not rest until she has been able to have her son’s remains exhumed and taken to Maidstone to be laid to rest with his father’s remains.”
A Royal Free spokeswoman said: “After his death on July 7 2005 however, Royal Free staff made strenuous efforts to establish Mr Startup’s next of kin and other details with Barnet Hospital but no information was available.
“The trust would like to extend its condolences to Mr Startup’s family for their loss and the sad circumstances following his death.”
The second application relates to a man named Anthony Myers, although it is neither clear who has made the application for exhumation or where and exactly when a death certificate was issued. He died sometime in 2005.
‘Pauper’s Graves’ is an old-fashioned term relating to plots usually used for people without known relatives or funds for a private burial. Bodies are buried in deep graves capable of holding six people.
St Pancras Cemetery is in East Finchley but is the graveyard commonly used by families from Camden as there is no other land in the borough for this use.
Mr Newman, who lived in Bayham Street, Camden Town, made it clear that he did not want Camden Council to have any hand in his funeral following a dispute over his finances and care.
It was only after his burial that his savings were discovered by the council and offered for a private burial. Mr Sullivan has suggested previously that Mr Newman’s account could have been involved in a fraud in the council’s social services department discovered last year.
Mr Sullivan is now in contact with Reverend Sears and Mr Startup’s family in an attempt to reach a resolution.
He said: “Freddie did not like question marks, especially when it either involved or related to him. I know that he would have not only been very angry but also concerned as to the recent developments which appear to show that the system did not make the relatives aware of the passing of their loved ones.”
In a letter to Mr Sullivan sent last year, Wendy Wallace, chief executive of the Camden and Islington Mental Health and Social Care Trust, said: “The families are very distressed that their loved ones were buried in a public grave without their knowledge and wish to exhume their relatives in order to bury them in family graves outside London.
“Both the deceased were patients in two different local hospitals at the time of their death and had not given any next of kin details to staff.
“It has taken some time to trace the relatives, who now wish to proceed with exhumation.” |
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