This is an acc
ount made from the typed contents of the file of the
Burial Record for the Cemetery of the Roman Catholic Church of Holy Innocents',
Orpington. The original account was made by our late parishioner Jack Boorer
in January 1986.
In the 1890’s when the railway line from London was extended as far as Orpington in Kent, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Southwark who had arranged for the purchase of a large area of land close to the station in order to build an orphanage for boys and one for girls for the accommodation of the numerous orphans and homeless children in London.
Early in the history of the Orphanages a private cemetery was established
and in order to re-bury the bodies in a suitable place after the new development,
the cemetery was officially transferred to a site in the garden in front of
the new Holy Innocents' Church. A single memorial stone replaced the various
headstones and plaques of the old cemetery. A detailed list of the bodies to be re-interred was officially completed, as far as was possible. With the permission of the Parish Priest thi
s forms the basis of the record used by the North-West Kent Family History Society.
In addition to the many children, some priests, brothers and sisters of the two orders were buried in the old cemetery, as well as some staff and a few parishioners with special connections with the Orphanages. In the early years there were many infant deaths from influenza and other diseases, often due to premature malnutrition and deprivation before the admission of the children. Jack Boorer remembered, in the 1920’s, travelling from Catford to play football with the Orpington Orphanage team. He also recalled meeting some of the orphans years later who were visiting their old place of upbringing and who spoke highly of the care and treatment they received.
There is an inscription on the Memorial stone in the Garden of Remembrance at Holy Innocents' Church, Orpington, which reads:
Here in this Garden of Remembrance rest the mortal remains of priests of the Presentation Brothers of St Joseph, Sisters of Mercy of Saint Anne, Children and Others who were buried within the Old Orphanage Cemetery.
Even if you have to die, keep faithful and I will give you the crown of life for your prize. Apocalypse (Revelation): Chapter 2 Verse 1
| Joseph Olives |
8-5-1894 aged 14 years |
| Charles Smith |
18-6-1894 aged 11 years |
| John Dunt |
3-8-1894 aged 14 years |
| Harry West |
16-2-1895 aged 11 years |
| James Hennessey |
26-2-1895 aged 13 years |
| John Donovan |
28-5-1895 aged 13 years |
| Mary Evans |
23-12-1895 aged 4 years |
| Eliza Gibbons | 25-12-1895 aged 7 years |
| Nora Bryan |
15-1-1896 aged 8 years |
| Thomas Ryan |
19-1-1896 aged 11 years |
| Daniel O'Shea |
15-3-1896 aged 13 years |
| Thomas O’Neill |
20-4-1896 aged 10 years |
| Joseph Shannon |
5-6-1896 aged 3 years |
| Harold Oddy |
11-8-1896 aged 8 years |
| Nellie Murphy |
15-1-1897 aged 7 years |
| William Crawley | 2-4-1897 aged 17 years |
| Lillian Fisher |
3-4-1897 aged 15 years |
| Charles White |
21-4-1898 aged 13 years |
| Edward McGee |
22-4-1898 aged 4 years |
| James Condon |
7-6-1898 aged 2½ years |
| Clara Hickey |
3-10-1898 aged 5 years |
| Marcia Percival |
15-11-1898 aged 7 years |
| Jeremiah Stellatus |
9-2-1899 aged 16 years |
| Daniel Barry |
16-2-1899 aged 18 years |
| Alexander McCall |
4-2-1900 aged 7 years |
| Eliza Sadler |
23-4-1900 aged 12 years |
| Frederick Browne |
27-4-1900 aged 12 years |
| William Whitby |
2-6-1900 aged 15 years |
| Mary Ann Sells |
15-11-1900 aged 13 years |
| Robert Baker |
22-1-1901 aged 11 years |
| Thomas O’Shea |
31-3-1901 aged 12 years |
| Clara Restell |
2-6-1901 aged 6 years |
| Ernest Morris |
-12-1901 aged 3 years |
| Mary Frances Bryan |
20-5-1902 aged 12 years |
| John Sullivan |
27-7-1902 aged 3 years |
| Mary Clifford |
5-3-1903 aged 15 years |
| Nellie Lee |
16-9-1903 aged 6 years |
| John Avery |
27-2-1904 aged 8 years |
| Josephine Callaghan |
5-3-1904 aged 4 years |
| James McCaffery |
30-3-1904 aged 1 month |
| William Chapman |
29-5-19 04 aged 16 years |
| William Murphy |
27-1-1905 aged 19 years |
| William Collins |
14-2-1905 aged 8 years |
| Alfred Townsend |
16-2-1905 aged 9 years |
| Cornelius Read |
21-4-1905 aged 5 years |
| Thomas Davis |
30-4-1905 aged 7 years |
| William Payne |
31-8-1905 aged 16 years |
| Patrick Shea |
8-11-1905 aged 14 years |
| John Hawkins |
10-11-1905 aged 5 years |
| John Scanlon |
-6-1906 aged 3 years |
| Selena Galloway |
20-3-1907 aged 12 years |
| Elizabeth Callaghan |
9-6-1907 aged 12 years |
| Helen Comer | 25-8-1907 aged 11 years |
| Matilda Murphy |
21-12-1907 aged 12 years |
| Charles Clancy |
-7-1908 aged 4 years |
| George Ives 5 |
-11-1908 aged 12 years |
| Thomas Logan |
18-10-1909 aged 24 years |
| Alfred Payne |
24-4-1910 aged 10 years |
| Violet Byron |
25-5-1910 aged 5 years |
| Hannah Blackman |
8-7-1910 aged 9 years |
| Edward Greenaway |
7-11-1910 aged 4 years |
| John Hayes |
28-3-1911 aged 10 years |
| Elizabeth Welton |
9-2-1912 aged 11 years |
| John Brown |
19-7-1912 aged 9 years |
| Revd William Linnitt |
22-11-1912 aged 57 years |
| Alice Mitchell |
14-2-1913 aged 14 years |
| Mary Ellen O’Reilly |
22-5- 1913 aged 54 years |
| William Dawes |
16-8-1913 aged 8 years |
| Frederick Raymond |
18-8-1913 aged 10 years |
| Alfred Long |
10-1-1914 aged 14 years |
| Mary Mahoney |
1-2-1916 aged 15 years |
| Dorothy Marshall |
11-2-1916 aged 13 years |
| Nicholas Cotey (Canadian ?) |
8-6-1916 aged 21 years |
| Christopher Trowsdale |
26-8-1916 aged 12 years |
| John James Clark |
24-12-1916 aged 13 years |
| Ronald Sandles |
28-1-1917 aged 5 years |
| Jacobious Brown |
21-3-1917 aged 8 years |
| James Charles Wood |
25-7-1918 aged 12 years |
| Peter Douglas Grant |
3-8-1918 aged 18 years |
| Mary Capps |
13-8-1918 aged 66 years |
| Sister Margaret Gee |
21-11-1918 age not given |
| Frederick Smith |
-11-1918 aged 5 years |
| Amos Connor |
-11-1918 aged 5 years |
| Kathleen Kelly |
14-11-1918 age not given |
| Mary Walsh |
10-12-1918 aged 6 years |
| James Hayes |
15-2-1919 aged 10 years |
| Sister Theresa |
27-2-1919 aged 32 years |
| Frederick Calishair |
17-6-1919 aged 14 years |
| Mary Walsh |
31-7-1919 aged 3 days |
| Francis Carpenter |
17-12-1919 aged 14 years |
| Doris Churchill |
19-1-1920 aged 13 years |
| Austin Hartley |
11-4-1920 age not given |
| Sister Margaret Cassidy |
-8-1920 age not given |
| Norman Longford |
23-11-1920 aged 14 years |
| George Buckland |
11-4-1921 aged 14 years |
| Stanley Bone |
2-1-1923 age not given |
| Patrick Collins |
14-1-1923 age not given |
| Brother Alphonsus Kelly |
15-1-1923 aged 63 years |
| Philip Christie | 17-1-1924 aged 14 years |
| Frederick O’Shea |
30-1-1924 aged 16 years |
| Charles Cook |
10-3-1924 aged 8 years |
| Brother Jarlath Keane |
28-3-1924 aged 15 years |
| Brother Columba Curtin |
-4-1924 aged 31 years |
| George Saunders |
27-7-1924 aged 16 years |
| Thomas O’Connor |
10-4-1925 aged 16 years |
| Hugh Lacey |
25-4-1925 aged 15 years |
| Father Edmond Carroll |
10-2-1926 age not given |
| Ellen Walmsley Teetgen |
18-2-1927 age not given |
| Margaret Austin |
15-4-1928 aged 3 years |
| Ethel Fanny Greene |
11-2-1929 aged 48 years |
| Brother Pacificus Coughlin |
15-8-1931 age not given |
| Brother Leonard O’Donnell |
3-12-1931 age not given |
| Miss Catherine Condon |
12-9-1937 age not given |
| Denis Phillips |
22-2-1939 aged 4 years |
| Father Louis Fitzmaurice |
9-6-1941 aged 31 years |
| Henry Johnson |
15-5-1942 age not given |
| Mrs Eizikiewcz |
26-12-1943 age not given |
| Maria Rabalt |
-10-1944 aged 81 years |
| Brother Samescene Savage |
11-11-1946 age not given |
| Brother Calistus Kelly |
13-5-1947 aged 61 years |
| William Ball |
22-9-1947 aged 47 years |
| Charles Rodney |
24-12-1948 aged 83 years |
| Alfred Murphy |
10-1-1949 age not given |
| Maria Anne Gallagher |
10-7-1949 aged 83 years |
| Helena Roberts |
31-7-1949 aged 65 years |
| Brother Tobin Willibrord |
13-7-1950 aged 57 years |
| Sister Etheldreda |
-11-1950 age not given |
| Henry Armand |
-3-1951 aged 64 years |
| Margaret Marks |
-1-1952 aged 73 years |
| Ellen Slocombe |
31-1-1952 aged 79 years |
| Florence Peel |
5-2-1952 aged 63 years |
| Ellen Ashdown |
12-10-1952 age not given |
| Brother Matthew Barrett |
15-11-1952 aged 72 years |
| Carol Reeves |
1-12-1952 aged 11 years |
| Paul May |
1-1-1953 aged 34 years |
| James Marley |
11-4-1954 age 60 years |
| Edward Umman |
3-7-1954 aged 60 years |
| Augustus Kossilouski |
18-5-1955 aged 71 years |
| Aleander Rossi |
19-5-1955 aged 51 years |
| Catherine Whitterick |
9-7-1955 aged 78 years |
| Madge Hickey |
5-9-1956 age not given |
| Brother Nessan McCloughlin |
-11-1957 age not given |
| James Patrick Fox |
12-10-1958 age not given |
| Margaret Lyle |
30-1-1965 age not given |
| Father John Slocombe |
1-10- 1965 age not given |
| Michael Custy | -10-1966 age not given |
| *** Mr H Maguire NB to be re-interred elsewhere at request of next of kin. |
-10-1966 age not given |
| Edward Farrell 28-10-1966 age not given | |
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* Where there is no exact date of death, it is not known. |
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ADDENDUM TO LIST OF THOSE BURIED IN THE CEMETERY AT ORPINGTON |
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Unfortunately further details of those listed below are also not known. |
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Christina Mary Sollow |
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Minnie Brown |
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Grace Shinn |
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Alice Shepherd |
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Josephine Burke |
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Bridget Molloy |
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Constance Greaves |
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Joan Saunders |
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Mercy Freelove |
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Maureen Scannell |
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Agnes Mary Sollow |
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Mrs Best |
1951 / 1952 |
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Peter Egan |
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Sister M Elizabeth |
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Sister M Vincent |
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Michael Murphy (motorcycle accident) |
1958 |
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One hundred and sixty-six remains lie in the communal grave. May the parishioners of Holy Innocents never forget them. |
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