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Notable Burials

A number of notable people were buried at the Leeds General Cemetery, here are just a few:

John Atkinson Grimshaw (6 September 1836 – 13 October 1893) was a notable Victorian-era artist born in Leeds. See burial register entry.

Pablo Fanque (1796-1871) was proprietor of ‘Pablo Fanque’s Circus Royal’, the most popular circus in Victorian Britain for over thirty years. His wife, Susannah Darby (neé Marlaw), who died in 1848 after Fanque’s big top collapsed on The Headrow in Leeds, is buried alongside him. See burial register entry.

Charles Hull VC (24 July 1890 – 21 February 1953) was a recipient of the Victoria Cross for acts of gallantry in the face of the enemy, carried out on the North West Frontier of British India during the First World War. Hull rescued a fellow officer whose horse had been shot from under him, pulling him onto the back of his own horse while under heavy fire and galloping to safety. See burial register entry.

Edward Baines (1774-1848) and his son Sir Edward Baines (1800-1890) were both buried at the cemetery. Edward Baines senior was a printer who later bought up the Leeds Mercury and became its influential editor. He became an MP for Leeds and a Justice of the Peace. His son, Edward Baines junior, followed a similar career path. He began working as a journalist before going into partnership with his father at the Leeds Mercury in 1827. Baines junior also went on to become an MP and was a significant figure in the founding of the Yorkshire College of Science in 1884. Both men were trustees of the Leeds General Cemetery Company from its early days in the 1830s. See burial register entries here and here.

Thomas Nunneley (1809-1870), an ophthalmic surgeon who was elected surgeon to the Leeds General Infirmary in 1864. He also lectured on surgery, anatomy and physiology and the Leeds School of Medicine. He was one of the original 300 Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons. See burial register entry.

 

Family Biographies

Two family biographies were produced by Imogen Gerard and Kelsie Root as part of their internship with the AHRC project, 'Living with Dying: Everyday Cultures of Dying within Family Life in Britain, 1900-50s', in summer 2017. These are for: