The Western Cemetery in

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

, Scotland, is a still-operational cemetery founded in the mid 19th century. It rises northwards from the Perth Road, with terraces in its upper sections. It views over the

Firth of Tay The Firth of Tay (; ) is a firth on the east coast of Scotland, into which empties the River Tay (Scotland's largest river in terms of flow). The firth is surrounded by four council areas: Fife, Perth and Kinross, Dundee City, and Angus. ...

to the

Tay Rail Bridge The Tay Bridge carries rail traffic across the Firth of Tay in Scotland between Dundee and the suburb of Wormit in Fife. Its span is . It is the second bridge to occupy the site. Plans for a bridge over the Tay to replace the train ferry servic ...

and

Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...

. The Western Cemetery is maintained and managed by

Dundee City Council Dundee City Council is the Local government in Scotland, local authority for Dundee City council area, Dundee City, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. In its modern form it was created in 1996. Dundee was formerly governed by a municipal c ...

Background

The Cemeteries Act (Scotland) 1840 had permitted private companies to create burial grounds, unconnected to the historic church parish burial grounds or traditional burial grounds such as

The Howff The Howff is a burial ground in the city of Dundee, Scotland. Established in 1564, it has one of the most important collections of tombstones in Scotland, and is protected as a category A listed building. The majority of graves face exactly ...

. This provided a religiously neutral burial ground (at a price) in a controlled environment, usually some distance from the town centres. Dundee had planned a new cemetery north of the Howff Burial Ground based on a curvilinear layout as already executed in burial grounds 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 ...

in Edinburgh (1842). However, such curvilinear layouts, whilst visually more attractive, were far more difficult both to manage and maintain, and to track graves once more than a few dozen were created. A rectilinear layout was therefore chosen, based on more organised layouts such as found in

Grange Cemetery The Grange (originally St Giles' Grange) is an affluent suburb of Edinburgh, just south of the city centre, with Morningside and Greenhill to the west, Newington to the east, The Meadows park and Marchmont to the north, and Blackford Hi ...

in south Edinburgh (1847). The site chosen was Blackness House and Blackhouse Nurseries, to the west of Dundee, thereby gaining the name Western Cemetery. It had the huge advantage of already being laid out with paths and an established landscape, due to its previous nursery use. Unlike most traditional graveyards, the site was far from flat. However, as a nursery, soil depths were good, and the ground was well-drained. The southern aspect also created a sunnier position than normal and views from almost all parts of the cemetery (especially the upper sections). The terraces within the cemetery predate its conversion to cemetery use and belong to Blackness House. Designed by James Findlater in 1852 (mainly the entrance gates) the cemetery did not fully open until around 1858. From around 1860 the cemetery quickly became popular, especially amongst the wealthier families. Lightning destroyed the dome on top of the eastern gatepost in 1953 and this has never been repaired. The site changed from private control to Council control in 1979. In 2014 the Council created a new section in the centre of the western wall for interment of ashes. A new northern terrace was created in 2014 as an area for private burials. Local names include Nucator, Mealmaker, Easson, Fyffe, Soutar, McMaster and Keiller.

Notable interments

* William Allan (c. 1890–1945) architect * George Armitstead, Baron Armitstead (1824–1915) MP for Dundee * Henry Samuel Boase FRS (1799–1883) geologist * George Addison Cox (1826–1889) architect/engineer – creator of Cox's Stack at

Camperdown Works Camperdown Works was a jute works in Dundee, Scotland, which covered around 30 acres and at one point employed almost 6,000 workers. It was for a time the world's largest jute works and was owned by Cox Brothers. History Origins The Cox family w ...

* George Methven Cox (1852–1916) jute baron of the

* Thomas Hunter Cox (1820–1892) jute baron in the

* James Guthrie Davidson (1837–1891) founder of Rodyk & Davidson in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

* James Thomson Fairweather (1811–1859) tobacco merchant, founder of Fairweather & Sons (one of the first burials) * James Fairlie Gemmill

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

(1867–1926) * Sir Douglas Hardie (1923–2005) instigator of the

Tay Road Bridge The Tay Road Bridge carries the A92 road across the Firth of Tay from Newport-on-Tay in Fife to Dundee in Scotland, just downstream of the Tay Rail Bridge. At around , it is one of the longest road bridges in Europe, and was opened in 1966, rep ...

and the person who brought

RRS Discovery RRS ''Discovery'' is a barque, barque-rigged steamship, auxiliary steamship built in Dundee, Scotland for Antarctic research. Launched in 1901, she was the last traditional wooden three-masted ship to be built in the United Kingdom. Her first m ...

to Dundee * Sir William High (1858–1934) shipowner and Lord Provost of Dundee 1923 to 1929 * William Hunter (1840–1925)

Lord Provost A lord provost () is the convenor of the local authority, the civic head and the lord-lieutenant of one of the principal cities of Scotland. The office is similar to that of a lord mayor. Only the cities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Stirlin ...

of Dundee * James Ireland (1846–1886) architect * Alexander Keiller (1820–1877) creator of Keiller's marmalade * John Mitchell Keiller (1851–1899) owner of Keiller's marmalade during its major expansion in the 19th century * James Laing (1813–1886) inventor * William Duncan Latto (1823–1899) editor of " The People's Journal" *

James Bowman Lindsay James Bowman Lindsay (8 September 1799 – 29 June 1862) was a Scottish inventor and writer. He is credited with early developments in several fields, such as incandescent lighting and telegraphy. Life and work James Bowman Lindsay was bor ...

inventor and electricity pioneer * Henry McGrady (1836–1917) Lord Provost of Dundee 1896 to 1899 * Alexander Mathewson (1822-1914) Lord Provost of Dundee 1890 to 1893 * James Duncan Mitchell (1892–1915) drowned on

RMS Lusitania RMS ''Lusitania'' was a United Kingdom, British ocean liner launched by the Cunard Line in 1906. The Royal Mail Ship, the world's largest passenger ship until the completion of her sister three months later, in 1907 regained for Britain the ...

(memorial only) * Alexander Hay Moncur (1830–1903) Provost of Dundee 1881–1884 * Brigadier Surgeon George Alexander Moorhead (died 1912) and his pioneering doctor daughter Alice Moorhead (1868–1910) (sister of the suffragette

Ethel Moorhead Ethel Agnes Mary Moorhead (28 August 18694 March 1955) was a British suffragette and Painting, painter and was the first suffragette in Scotland to be forcibly-fed. She was also a patron of ''This Quarter'', a journal published by Ernest Walsh ...

) *

Charles Ower Charles Ower (1813–1876) and son (1849–1921) were father and son architects, operating in eastern Scotland. Charles Ower the elder He was born in or near Perth, Scotland, Perth on 31 July 1813, the son of Thomas Ower or Owler and his ...

(1849–1921) and his brother Leslie Ower (1851–1916) architect * Rev Dr John Paterson DD (1776–1855) missionary in Russia * George Alexander Pirie (1863–1929) radiologist * Prof Lloyd Turton Price (1874–1933) professor of surgery at

St Andrews University The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, following the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, t ...

* William Robertson (1825–1899) Provost of Dundee * John Greig Sibbald (1922–2006) founder of Graham & Sibbald surveyors * Major General Richard Talbot Snowden-Smith (1887–1951) pioneer air pilot, pupil of

Blondeau Blondeau is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Auguste Blondeau (1786–1863), French violinist and composer * Charles Bruno Blondeau (1835–1888), Canadian politician and contractor * Gustav Blondeau (1871–1965), co ...

John Steggall John Edward Aloysius Steggall ARIBA FRSE LLD (19 November 1855 – 26 November 1935) was an English mathematician and professor at the University College, Dundee (now University of Dundee). Life and work He was born on 19 November 1855 in Lo ...

(1855–1935) mathematician * William Bruce Thompson (1837–1923) engineer and shipbuilder * Patrick Hill Thoms (1873–1946) architect * Alexander Gordon Milne Thomson FGS (1866–1919) jute mill owner and geologist *

David Couper Thomson David Couper Thomson Deputy lieutenant, DL (6 August 1861 – 12 October 1954) was a newspaper proprietor and founder of the newspaper and publishing company D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd in Dundee, Scotland. Early life Thomson was raised in Newport-on ...

founder of D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd * Sir Thomas Thornton of Thornton Castle (1830–1903) town clerk * Preston Watson (1880–1915) aviation pioneer * Very Rev Dr James Weatherhead DD (died 1944)

Moderator of the General Assembly The moderator of the General Assembly is the Chair (official), chairperson of a General Assembly (presbyterian church), General Assembly, the highest court of a Presbyterian or Calvinism, Reformed church. Kirk sessions and presbytery (church pol ...

of the

United Free Church of Scotland The United Free Church of Scotland (UF Church; , ) is a Scottish Presbyterian denomination formed in 1900 by the union of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland (or UP) and the Free Church of Scotland (1843–1900), majority of the 19th-cen ...

in 1927 * David Dougal Williams

FRSA The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, s ...

(June 1888 – 27 September 1944) was a Cheshire-born artist and art teacher who lived, worked and died in

.''Dundee Courier'', 29 September 1944, p. 3 – Death of Dundee Art Master Mr. David D. Williams of Logie Central School (obituary) * Very Rev William Wilson (1808–1888)

of the Free Church of Scotland in 1866.

War Graves

The cemetery contains the Commonwealth war graves of 17 British service personnel of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and 10 of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Western Cemetery, Dundee Cemeteries in Scotland Buildings and structures in Dundee