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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Berkshire => Topic started by: julkes on Saturday 12 February 11 22:13 GMT (UK)
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We are looking for the burial place of the Russian journalist Ivan (John) Bilibin (26.12.1908 - 9.08.1993).
His obituary states that "his funeral near Reading on August 13 was attended by Her Imperial Highness the Grand
Duchess Maria of Russia".
Any ideas where it could be?
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Hi,
You could try getting in touch with the Reading Crematorium they are very helpful there. If you explain and tell them the dates you know they may look for you to see if it was the Henley rd Cemetery
Will carry on investigating for you.
GG
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Thank you for your reply!
We did call the Crematorium about a year ago and they said he's not there.
Do you think we should ask them specifically about Henley Rd cemy?
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I found an obituary in The Independent by Googling that said he worked at the BBC Monitoring Service in Caversham 1941-73. Perhaps you could contact someone there and see if they have any records? Or perhaps a local paper or Reading Library might be able to help you.
Good Luck, Heather
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Thank you Heather
Monitoring service is sort of spying service.
We contacted them but they keep their secrets thoroughly.
So we came here hoping somebody local could know
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Entries for I Bilibin in the telephone directories on Ancestry suggest he lived at Kidmore End, so I would try there. It's just outside Reading but in Oxfordshire.
Many people whose deaths are registered as Reading died in one of the hospitals there, so it isn't always a guide to burial place as they could have come from villages up to 20 miles away.
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Thank you for this idea!
I have contacted Kidmore End.
Interestingly, there seems to be some links to another Russian.
We'll see if they come back...
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regret that there's no Bilibin listed in the Berkshire Burial Index
KN
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Thanks for looking up!
Is it conclusive?
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No, not conclusive because the Berks Burial Index is not yet complete. and in any case he is probably buried in Oxfordshire. (Reading is close to the border with Oxfordshire.)
What looks like his wife's death was registered in Henley and I think Kidmore End would come under Henley district. Do let us know if you get a result from Kidmore End and if not, it might be worth checking out the parishes nearby.
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Thank yoy, SG!
Does your source show the wife's dates? (esp. death?)
In fact, Bilibin was half-Russian. His father, also Ivan Bilibin, was an extremely well known illustrator of the Russian folk tales. He was married to an Irish lady Mary CVhambers, who came to study art in Russia. After they divorced, she returned to England with their two sons (we found another son's grave!). We would like to find her grave one day, too - but at the moment we have too little information.
Bilibin-elder died during the siege of Leningrad of starvation and was buried in the common grave of the professors of the Russian academy of Arts.
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I looked in the GRO deaths index, and I found only 5 entries for Bilibin. I am guessing that Alexander is the other son and Gwendoline his wife.
Mary E V Bilibin d. Q2 1962 aged 88 Henley
Alexander Bilibin (b. 2 Feb 1903) d. 1972 Chichester
Gwendoline Bilibin (b. 13 Mar1904) d. Jan 1990 Chichester
Ivan Bilibin (b. 26 Dec 1908) d. Aug 1993 Reading and Wokingham
Jean Mary Bilibin (b. 10 Aug 1915) d. Aug 2000 Henley
So from what you tell us, it seems quite possible that Mary, the mother, lived with Ivan (or nearby). His address was the same from 1962 up to 1984: Maitlands, Wood Lane, Sonning Common. (Kidmore End was the exchange.) So it's probably Sonning Common (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonning_Common) that you should look at (apologies, I didn't have time before to look at the full directory entry, just the index). Perhaps Ivan was buried near his mother.
Sonning Common is also in Oxfordshire, and is not the Sonning in Berkshire.
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Hope we are getting closer, thank you for these ideas.
I have written to Sonning Common parish.
Alexander Bilibin is buried here:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=37431436
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Thank you thank you thank you to all!
Another mystery solved - we just got a confirmation that Bilibin and his wife were buried in Kidmore End!
Will try to pay a visit there soon and then will be back here with new requests for help...
According to some statistics, there were around 15,000 Russians who settled in the UK after the revolution. We have some 1000+ in our database:)))
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Good! very pleased for you. I will keep an eye on Findagrave.
The telephone directories on Ancestry are worth consulting as a finding aid for people in the more recent past, especially of course if they had unusual or foreign surnames. But bear in mind that most people didn't have their own phone before the c1970s.
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we do not have Ancestry access:(
We do a lot of field work - Internet search is not our strong side, that's why we come here.
It is not only about finding dead people, we got some very much alive friends...
Thank you for your help, we were looking for Bilibin for a very long time...
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I know this query was 6 years ago (!) but did you ever make it to Kidmore End? I'm from Sonning Common and as I have a relative also buried at the cemetery, I've walked past Ivan's grave numerous times.
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We love this forums! Sometimes you have to wait a few years but then the answer will pop up.
Thank you for your reply but in this case we discovered the grave a few years back.
Say Hi to Ivan next time you are there
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https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=67616895
Your work, julkes, I presume? Very informative and great photos.
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https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=67616895
Your work, julkes, I presume? Very informative and great photos.
a lot of it achieved with your help.
Thank you for your support.
We now have some 2,000+ Russians in the UK names in our database...
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Hallo,
Just seen these posts. Husband knew him well. Went to his funeral.
Several of the older Russians working at Caversham were buried at KidmorEnd, Others are at at the Henley Rd cemetery.Some buried in London burial grounds or ashes scattered elsewhere.
Glad you have found him.
lola
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Others are at at the Henley Rd cemetery.Some buried in London burial grounds or ashes scattered elsewhere.
Hi Lola
Do you know the names? of those who were buried in London or Henley road?
It would be great to add some names to our list...
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Hallo,
I think we have communicated before but by messaging.
Husband says he did not attend Ivan Bilibin's funeral but that he worked with him for nearly 20yrs and Mr Bilibin always wanted to be buried in Russia.
My husband was a Senior monitor and Supervisor of the Russian team so knew all the Russians who were there between 1961 and 1979 /80 when we moved awayt from Caversham
Mr George Shatanovski was another who l lived near Basil(Vassily) Pashkov..(George was in the Russian Air Force at one time, Maybe WW2.
Mr Bilibin was responsible for the arrangement of Mr Pashkov's funeral with full Russian Ceremony.
Mrs Benkendorf and Mr Budberg were other Russians there. The latter was related to Moira Budberg , a writer. and also somehow related to Rasputin it was said..
Mr Krushalnitsky(sp) also worked there and lived in Caversham so may have been buried in the Henley Road cemetery.
Of all these I met only four of these though my husband often spoke of some of his colleagues.
Mrs Galia Wheen was possibly buried in London as she lived in Kensington.
Mr Leo Salko lived at Sonning Common so is possibly buried there.. I remember when he died but not the date. sometime in the 1960's perhaps.?
I expect you have all this info already.
Kind regards
Lola
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Hallo,
I think we have communicated before but by messaging.
Husband says he did not attend Ivan Bilibin's funeral but that he worked with him for nearly 20yrs and Mr Bilibin always wanted to be buried in Russia.
My husband was a Senior monitor and Supervisor of the Russian team so knew all the Russians who were there between 1961 and 1979 /80 when we moved awayt from Caversham
Mr George Shatanovski was another who l lived near Basil(Vassily) Pashkov..(George was in the Russian Air Force at one time, Maybe WW2.
Mr Bilibin was responsible for the arrangement of Mr Pashkov's funeral with full Russian Ceremony.
Mrs Benkendorf and Mr Budberg were other Russians there. The latter was related to Moira Budberg , a writer. and also somehow related to Rasputin it was said..
Mr Krushalnitsky(sp) also worked there and lived in Caversham so may have been buried in the Henley Road cemetery.
Of all these I met only four of these though my husband often spoke of some of his colleagues.
Mrs Galia Wheen was possibly buried in London as she lived in Kensington.
Mr Leo Salko lived at Sonning Common so is possibly buried there.. I remember when he died but not the date. sometime in the 1960's perhaps.?
I expect you have all this info already.
Kind regards
Lola
Thank you Lola
We are always on the look for new names and details. Our list of recorded graves is now more than 2000 but many more we are still to discover.