Natives of Great Britain at Final Rest in Old City Cemetery
By Mariah Vaughn & Taylor Thornburg
William and Doreen Clelland
William and Doreen Clelland
William Clelland was born in 1922 in Uddingston, near Glasgow, Scotland. He enlisted in the merchant navy at age 15, travelling extensively to Australia, New Zealand, and many other locations. During World War II he joined a carrier company and learned metal working arts, becoming an expert welder, ship builder, boiler maker, and professional artist in multiple medias. He served in the British Army in Germany during the last couple years of the war. He and his wife, Doreen, immigrated to the United States in December 1954 on the liner Queen Elizabeth I and moved to New Jersey because of their love of living by the sea. William died in 2013 at age 91 in Manahawkin, New Jersey. Some of his ashes were scattered in Whitby, England, though most of them are here in the Cemetery’s Columbarium.
Doreen “Jackie” Thomas Clelland was born in 1922 in Thornaby-on-Tees in Yorkshire, England. She was a member of the Church of England and the Daughters of Scotia. She worked in agriculture and airplane manufacturing during the Second World War and later worked in Durham County in North East England in the stage and entertainment industry. After arriving in the United States in 1954, she primarily became a homemaker and raised two children with her husband, William. She died in New Jersey almost a year after William, and her ashes are inurned with his in the Columbarium.
Ann Brown Elliott
Elliott was born in 1790 in London, England. Having spent most of her early life in Great Britain, she immigrated as a young adult to the United States and married Peter Elliott in Henrico, Virginia in 1812. She was remembered for living out her life well in accordance with her Methodist faith. She had three children, although two died about a year after their births. Elliott died in 1823 at the age of 32 at her home in Lynchburg, leaving behind her husband and only surviving son. The location of her grave in Old City Cemetery is unknown.
Charlotte Eubank
Charlotte Eubank was born in 1787 in England. Her obituary in the Lynchburg Daily News states that she had no known relatives in America. Her tombstone in Old City Cemetery reads, “A Good Woman Sleeps Here.” She died in 1871 at 84 years old, an impressive age at the time.
Frederick Haskins
Englishman Frederick Haskins was only in Lynchburg for 10 days before his death, but his short stay caused great commotion in the community. The Lynchburg Daily News reported on November 23, 1877, that a “stranger whose name is ascertained to be Fred Haskins came down on the train from Tennessee, and upon reaching the platform was seized with violent convulsions, and up to midnight had not been able to speak.” He was taken first to the Mayor’s office, where physicians attempted unsuccessfully to diagnose his illness. Haskins was then brought to a local boarding house. At first, it was assumed that Haskins was an Irishman, as he was in possession of a bank deposit certificate from an Irish bank for $450, as well as $105.07 in cash. However, it was later reported, “it turns out that he was an Englishman, and not an Irishman as first stated.” His train ticket was purchased in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and his destination was listed as New York City. Haskins died of pneumonia 10 days after his arrival as a “mysterious stranger.” He was buried at the expense of the City of Lynchburg in an unmarked grave in Old City Cemetery.
Richard George Hill
Hill was born in 1924 in London, England. He was raised in England and married his wife, Lynn May, at age 20. He served in the British Homeguard for four years during the Second World War. After the war, he became an employee of General Electric Canada and transferred three years later to General Electric USA. He was promoted to be the manager of the Design and Drafting Department, where he retired fourteen years later. After retiring, he became a member of the “G.E. Elfun Society” to stay connected with the company. He died in 1999 at age 75, and his cremated remains were placed in the Scatter Garden. An antique damask rose was planted nearby in his memory. The variety of rose, ‘York and Lancaster,’ like Hill, had its origin in England.
Isaac Lewis
Lewis was born in Wales in 1814. He immigrated to Lynchburg by way of eastern Virginia in 1852 at the age of 38. Like many Britons in Lynchburg, Lewis belonged to the congregation of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. He died at the age of 44 in 1858. The location of his grave is not known.
The large marble ledger tombstone for siblings Augustus and Matilda May lies in one of the older sections of Old City Cemetery.
Augustus Hennegan May and Matilda Susan May
Augustus May was born in 1830 on the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. He immigrated to the United States with his family in 1841. After a short time in Pike County, Pennsylvania, his family moved to Lynchburg, where his father Edmund was a tutor and Augustus was an engineer. He lived in Lynchburg until his death from a long illness at 20 years of age in 1850. He is buried in Old City Cemetery beside his sister Matilda who died a year later at the age of 18.
Lizzie Mulliner Ratcliffe
Lizzie Ratcliffe was born in 1852 in Adderly, Shropshire, England, one of nine children. She married Henry H. Ratcliffe, who was born in 1849 in England. They immigrated to the United States around 1879 with two daughters and settled in Lynchburg’s Daniel’s Hill neighborhood. Henry worked as a mill laborer. Lizzie died in 1881, only two years after coming to America. Her small tombstone is located near the Confederate Section.
Norma Collins Ware
Norma Collins Ware
Ware was born in 1922 in Shirley, Birmingham, England. She was a “war bride,” having met her husband, American soldier Jesse Carroll Ware, Jr., in late 1943. She was an avid gardener and animal lover, and she worked as an in-home child care provider for 35 years. She died in 2014, and her ashes were placed in Cemetery’s Scatter Garden.
