Plaque | War served | Other war

John Joseph Sims VC

Inscription

John Joseph Sims VC
Died 6th December 1881.
City of London Cemetery Heritage Trail

Site: John Joseph Sims VC (1 memorial)

E12, Gardens Way, City of London Cemetery

A walk through this cemetery in c.1870 is described on pages 52-57 of May Sinclair’s 1919 novel ‘Mary Olivier: A Life’.  Mary is taken by her mother in a small carriage to the Manor Park railway crossing. They walk across a section of Wanstead Flats, enter the cemetery via a black wooden door in a hedge, and walk through the cemetery to the “big gates” at the Leytonstone side, where the carriage picks them up. The first section of the cemetery is described as having no tombstones, there is a “clay-coloured plain furrowed into low mounds” with “small flat sticks at one end of each grave showing where the heads were”. “The mounds had a fresh, raw look, as if all the people in the City of London had died and been buried hurriedly the night before.”

In one area the mounds are bigger than the others and the party is told it’s the “pauper buryin’ ground” where “there’s five coffins in each of these here graves, piled one atop of the other”. Across a gravel path are tombstones, in the rich variety of forms that we are used to seeing.  The party reach the “grey chapel with pointed gables”.

This all suggests that a large part of the south-west section of the cemetery was being filled in with graves all at the same time. That strikes us as very odd. Wikipedia’s history of the cemetery does not help.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of plaquesoflondon.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
John Joseph Sims VC

Subjects commemorated i

John Joseph Sims, VC

Soldier. A private in the 34th Regiment of Foot. On 18th June 1855 in Sebasto...

Read More

This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
John Joseph Sims VC

Created by i

City of London Cemetery Heritage Trail

A walk commemorating people buried in the cemetery.

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Goodenough House

Goodenough House

WC1, Mecklenburgh Square, Goodenough House

Carved on the wall to the right of the front door: "William Goodenough House, 1957 Goodenough College"

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Highbury Quadrant Congregational Church - 2 Fleming

Highbury Quadrant Congregational Church - 2 Fleming

N5, Highbury Quadrant

The 7 plaques are on different faces of the frontage of the building. We've numbered them left to right. Plaque 3 can be seen in our phot...

1 subject commemorated
Royal Free Hospital and Medical School Opening

Royal Free Hospital and Medical School Opening

NW3, Rowland Hill Street, Haemophilia Centre, Royal Free Hospital

The plaque is by the entrance to the Medical School.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Benjamin Baker - W8

Benjamin Baker - W8

W8, Kensington Gate, 3

Sir Benjamin Baker, 1840 - 1907, civil engineer, designer of the Forth Bridge, lived here 1881 - 1894. English Heritage

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
St Nicholas Nursery

St Nicholas Nursery

WC1, Guilford Street, 6

This nursery was set up and funded by the Friends of the Children of Great Ormond Street Hospital in 1955 for the use of nursing mothers ...

1 subject commemorated