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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: mentmore on Friday 08 January 21 15:34 GMT (UK)
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Hi
If a person committed suicide, I understand they couldn't be buried in a Churchyard, so where would they be buried?
Would it be in an a part of the churchyard that wasn't consecrated? and would the burial be entered into the church records?
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What sort of date do you have in mind?
I know of a man who killed himself in the 1850s, whilst living in the local town; he's buried in the graveyard of his home village in the same county.
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What period are you talking about? Check out the 1823 Suicide Act, the Burial Laws Amendment Act 1880 and the Suicide Act 1961.
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Our local graveyard has (at least) one suicide.
Note in the register Buried without (church) service.
Pauline
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hi
The inquest usually returned a verdict of took own life while temporally insane which enabled them to be buried in the churchyard.
John
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I have 2 cousins who sadly took that path, both are buried in consecrated ground.
Griff
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I can concur with Jim - I have an ancestor who committed suicide in 1875 and the coroner's verdict was that the cause of death was "suicide whilst in a state of temporary insanity". This was also stated on his death certificate. He was buried in the village churchyard in consecrated ground.
I also seem to remember that by the coroner giving such a verdict, it allowed the deceased's estate to be retained by the family (or distributed in accordance with a will). However, I can not find my notes on this so can not state it so with 100% accuracy.
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Also check out "Felo de se"
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Hi, Many thanks to everyone who replied to my request regarding burial after suicide.
The year was 1923 the person concerned was aged 19 years old and a soldier.
I have been told he is not buried in his home village churchyard in Buckinghamshire, nor can I find his burial in Hampton Middx or surrounding area, the place where he died.
Many thanks
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My first cousin once removed was a soldier too, committed suicide in Lancashire 1942 aged 20.
He was given a CWG burial with headstone in his home town and his parents are buried in front of his grave.
Griff
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By 1923 a large proportion of burials would be in cemeteries rather than churchyards, where theological questions about suicide wouldn't be relevant. Cremation was also available then, but with fewer crematoria than now, it could have been at some distance from either his home or place of death.
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OH has a 15yr old boy committing suicide by hanging (he found being responsible for his younger siblings too much, with mother dead and father absent).
Burial register entry reads "buried at night in the churchyard without religious rites".
1848 Hazelbury Bryan, Dorset
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Thanks Everyone,
Personally, I would think that he would have been returned to his home village for burial.
I must ask someone who lives in that village to have another look into the church records, as I think burials took place well into the 1950's.
Thanks