Morningside Cemetery is a

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

in south

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. It was established in 1878 by the Metropolitan Cemetery Company, originally just outwith the then city boundary, the nearest suburb then being Morningside. It extends to just over 13 acres in area. The cemetery contains 81 war graves. The cemetery contains the graves of several important female figures; including a female air commandant, Scotland's first female surgeon, the first female Fellow of the

Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) is a medical royal college in Scotland. It is one of three organisations that set the specialty training standards for physicians in the United Kingdom. It was established by royal charter i ...

, and many church missionaries. Sir Edward Victor Appleton GBE KCB FRS (6 September 1892 – 21 April 1965) who was an English

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

, Nobel Prize winner (1947) and pioneer in

radiophysics Radiophysics (also modern writing radio physics) is a branch of physics focused on the theoretical and experimental study of certain kinds of radiation, its emission, propagation and interaction with matter. The term is used in the following maj ...

is also buried here.

History

The cemetery was soon enveloped by the city and now lies between Balcarres Street (to its north) and Morningside Drive (to its south). Its original entrance was very grand. This was off Belhaven Terrace to the east. However, although the entrance gates and railings still exist, this route is now blocked, a modern housing development, Belhaven Place, standing over the graveyard, in defiance of cemetery legislation. This is not the sole loss of ground: Balcarres Court has been built to the north-west; Morningside Court to the south-west; and numerous blocks have been added along most of Morningside Drive. This leaves the cemetery detached from its surroundings, hard to access, and seriously compromised in terms of its design integrity. The developments, essentially asset-stripping in relation to the original Cemetery Company, represent a period of private ownership between the original Cemetery Company ownership and compulsory purchase by the City of Edinburgh Council in February 1992.

Layout

The overall layout is broadly rectilinear but with a slight curve on its east–west axis. There is a general drop in ground levels from south to north giving an overall form of a shallow amphitheatre. Apart from a central avenue of trees on the main east–west path the landscape is undramatic and unstructured, and lacks the atmosphere of its predecessors, such as

Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and o ...

. The overall distribution of stones is spartan, especially towards the north. Larger monuments tend to lie to the south-west. One section lies almost detached, to the south-east, accessed through a pathway between the modern housing developments, isolated as an ignoble peninsula. The local Morningside Library has an index which can be used to locate specific stones.

Current operation

Morningside is one of the few city cemeteries to be open 24 hours per day. This has both advantages and disadvantages; exposing it to vandalism during unsocial hours. Edinburgh Council has a policy of knocking down unsafe gravestones, so many of them are broken and lying askew. There is a Friends of Morningside Cemetery group who meet weekly to look after the cemetery. The cemetery remains open to burials and interment of ashes. Style of monument is not controlled.

War graves

The cemetery is an official Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery containing 49 war graves from World War I and 32 from World War II. The dead largely represent those dying of wounds following repatriation, linking to the nearby City Hospital. The Cross of Remembrance stands in the north-east section of the cemetery. Unusually two war graves are of female victims (both from the ATS): Margaret White Walker (1922-1945) and Jean Dewar Scougall (1921-1943).

Notable interments

* Mary Aitken (died 1918) member of Women's Royal Air Force in First World War. Possibly the only war grave with this rare link *Prof Rev

William Menzies Alexander William Menzies Alexander (Shettleston, then in Lanarkshire, 12 May 1858 – Edinburgh 30 August 1929) was a Scotland, Scottish medical and theological writer. He was Moderator of the General Assembly for the Free Church of Scotland (since 1900 ...

(1858–1929), academic, theologian, Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland 1911/12 * Alexander John ("Jack") Travers Allan (1879-1898), golfer *Sir

Edward Victor Appleton Sir Edward Victor Appleton (6 September 1892 – 21 April 1965) was an English atmospheric physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1947 "for his investigations of the physics of the upper atmosphere especially for the discovery ...

(1892–1965), physicist, winner of the 1947

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for Physics * Isabella Bartholomew Mears LRCPE (1854-1936) early female doctor, mother of

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(1924-1996) Bishop of

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*John Breingan (1857-1930), architect *William Gordon Brown (1895-1916), mathematician killed in the

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(1839–1893) entrepreneur *Dr Grace Ross Cadell (1855-1918) and Martha Georgina Isabella Cadell (1858-1905) suffragette sisters who were two of Britain's first female doctors *Rev Henry Calderwood (1830–1897) minister and academic *Air Commandant Dame

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's nanny, referred to as "Cummy" in his books *Prof Alexander Darroch (1862-1924) educationalist *Dr

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(1883-1941) gynaecologist and ornithologist * Alexander Scott Dodd

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(1828–1910), architect * Thomas Noble Foulis (1878-1943) publisher (stone fallen) *

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George Whitton Johnstone George Whitton Johnstone RSA RSW (3 May 1849 – 22 February 1901) was a 19th-century Scottish artist. Life Johnstone was born in Glamis on 3 May 1849, the sixth of seven children. He was a full member of the Royal Scottish Academy and Ro ...

RSA RSW (1849–1901) artist *Dr Claude Buchanan Ker (1867-1925) physician and medical author *The Very Rev Prof Daniel Lamont (1870–1950), Moderator of the Church of Scotland 1936/7 * Jessie Lennox (1830-1933) oldest occupant of the cemetery, and friend of

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and

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*Prof George Lichtenstein (1827–1893) Hungarian-born musician * Lonsdale McAll (1870-1937) medical missionary at Yale-in-China * Hannah MacGoun RSW (1864-1913) artist *Sir

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(1883-1945) law lord *Prof

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(d.1904) plaque by

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(1887-1972) chemist *John Douglas Michie (1830-1895), artist (stone fallen)
Margret Isabel Mitchell
(1920-2016) pioneer nurse educator in Africa and Middle East for the World Health Organisation *Harriet E. Moore (d.1919) monument by her grandson

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1910 *Captain Granville Toup Nicolas RN (1832-1894) son of Admiral

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(stone fallen) *

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(stone fallen) *Dr Isabella Pringle (1876-1963) first female Fellow of the

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(1856–1931), philosopher *

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OBE (1900-1975) physician * Gourlay Steell RSA (1819–1894) artist (stone fallen) * Harold Thomas Swan (1922-2011) haematologist *Dr Johnson Symington FRS

FZS (1851-1924) anatomist * George Hunter MacThomas Thoms

(1831-1903) Sheriff of Orkney and Shetland, funder of the restoration of

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*Andrew Tod (1819-1898) sculpted by D.A.Tod *

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of the Free Church of Scotland 1895 *John Wilson (1844-1909) founder of the

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*Alexander Waugh Young (1836-1915) classical scholar and author

Notes

External links

*http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/directory_record/18717/morningside_cemetery * *https://www.morningside.org.uk/friends-of-morningside-cemetery/ {{coord, 55, 55, 28, N, 3, 12, 51, W, type:landmark, display=title 1878 establishments in Scotland Cemeteries in Edinburgh Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in Scotland