Bideford Higher Cemetery is the burial ground for

Bideford Bideford ( ) is a historic port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon, south-west England. It is the main town of the Torridge local government district. Toponymy In ancient records Bideford is recorded as ''Bedeford'', ''By ...

North Devon North Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. North Devon Council is based in Barnstaple. Other towns and villages in the North Devon District include Braunton, Fremington, Ilfracombe, Instow, South Molton, Lynton and Lynmouth ...

. Today it is managed by

Torridge District Council Torridge may refer to: * Torridge District, a local government district in the county of Devon, England * River Torridge The River Torridge is a river in Devon in England; it rises near Meddon. The river describes a long loop through Devon f ...

The cemetery was opened on Buckland Road in Bideford by W.L. Yellacott, the Mayor of Bideford, on 6 September 1889. The cemetery's records from 1899 to 1966 are held in the North Devon Athenaeum, a private library which shares the top floor of the Barnstaple Library building. The cemetery has 13 burials from

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

with their distinctive

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

headstones. Bideford Higher Cemetery Chapel

Buried here are 20-year-old Pilot Officer Philip Henry Lowther

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

(1922–1942) who was killed in a flying accident when the

Bristol Blenheim The Bristol Blenheim is a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company (Bristol) which was used extensively in the first two years of the Second World War, with examples still being used as trainers until ...

he was flying crashed into a pylon at

Stoke Holy Cross Stoke Holy Cross is a village in South Norfolk which lies approximately south of Norwich. Geography Stoke sits on the River Tas. It covers an area of and had a population of 1,568 in 674 households at the 2001 census. The village is accesse ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

during an air test in 1942. Also buried here is

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

veteran Sergeant Major William Rogers (1823–1897) of the 21st Royal Scots Fusiliers who was awarded the

Distinguished Conduct Medal The Distinguished Conduct Medal was a decoration established in 1854 by Queen Victoria for gallantry in the field by other ranks of the British Army. It is the oldest British award for gallantry and was a second level military decoration, ranki ...

in 1855. He ended his days as a

Chelsea Pensioner A Chelsea Pensioner, or In-Pensioner, is a resident at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, a retirement home and nursing home for former members of the British Army located in Chelsea, London. The Royal Hospital Chelsea is home to 300 retired British sold ...

at the

Royal Hospital Chelsea The Royal Hospital Chelsea is a retirement home and nursing home for some 300 veterans of the British Army. Founded as an almshouse, the ancient sense of the word "hospital", it is a site located on Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea. It is an ...

.Colour Sergeant William Rogers in the UK, Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner Soldier Service Records, 1760-1920
-

Ancestry.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

Buried beside him is his son the historian and geologist Inkerman Rogers FGS (1866-1959). Here also is an early

Boy Scouts Boy Scouts may refer to: * Boy Scout, a participant in the Boy Scout Movement. * Scouting, also known as the Boy Scout Movement. * An organisation in the Scouting Movement, although many of these organizations also have female members. There are ...

burial, that of Robert James Alford, who died in 1912 aged 17 and who has the Scouting emblem on his headstone. There is a memorial to the Belgian refugees who died in Bideford during

and who are buried in the cemetery. Across the way on Bowden Green is The Annex, the cemetery extension which was opened when the original 1889 cemetery was closed to burials.

Gallery

File:William Rogers DCM grave Bideford.jpg, The grave of

veteran Sgt Major William Rogers DCM File:P-O Philip Lowther grave Bideford.jpg, The grave of Pilot Officer Philip Henry Lowther RAF File:Robert James Alford grave Bideford.jpg, The early

burial of Robert James Alford File:Belgian Refugees Grave Bideford.jpg, The memorial to the Belgian Refugees who are buried here

References

External links

Bideford Higher Cemetery
on

Find a Grave Find a Grave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records. It is owned by Ancestry.com. Its stated mission is "to help people from all over the world work together to find, record and present fin ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bideford Higher Cemetery Cemeteries in Devon Bideford Buildings and structures in Bideford Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in England