A Peaceful Place to Rest
West Hill Cemetery, Winchester
Burials 1
Burials
Over the years of the cemetery's active life many people were buried there. Most of them were citizens of, or had close ties with the City. A search in the Hampshire Genealogical Society's excellent record of the monumental inscriptions that were readable at the time the record was made has revealed much of interest. It is not possible to record them all here so a handful have been selected whose brief details recorded on their graves promised to be of interest and merited some research. The Cemetery Register is of little help, except to confirm date of burial, as the entries consist only of name, initials and the date. Some details of their lives and in some cases the circumstances of their death are recorded here. These short biographies are not complete, but time was not available for more detailed research.
Robert Collis
d. 15 October 1881
Shortly after six o'clock on the morning of 15th October 1881 Mr. Collis, a porter employed by the South-Western Railway Company, was helping to shunt goods wagons. While attending to a number of trucks he failed to notice the approach of another group that knocked him down occasioning severe and fatal injuries. Mr. Collis, a man of advanced years had long worked for the Company, commencing when the line was being constructed, and in various other capacities up to the date of his death. He lived in North Walls and left a widow and two sons, the latter also employed by the Company.
(Hampshire Chronicle 15 October 1881 p.4)
Miss Maria Eleonora Rivers
d. 10 January 1907
Miss Rivers, who died in her 90th year at No 3 Clifton Terrace, was a daughter of the Reverend Sir Henry Rivers Bart. of Chafford, Kent and Beacon Hill, Bath. He was Rector of Martyr Worthy and Prebendary of Winchester Cathedral. Miss Rivers, as one of the oldest inhabitants of the City, had witnessed many changes in her lifetime. She well remembered the old coaching and posting days, and with the coming of the railway the reluctance of people to use this modern form of transport. She was sadly missed by her nephews and nieces and by the poor people of the City to whom she was a great benefactress. She was buried at West Hill on the afternoon of Tuesday 14 January, the service being conducted at the cemetery.
(Hampshire Chronicle 12 January 1907)