The British Cemetery
“I was looking for a guitar shop and found a cemetery. Time to do a bit of digging!”
"Sketches of Funchal, Madeira - The English Cemetery" by Alfred Pulsford Latham (1840-1867) published in The Illustrated London News, 1866
It’s nice to discover new places, even if they are 250 years old! I was actually looking for a guitar shop but here before me in ‘Rua da Carreira’ just north of The Lavie Shopping Centre stood the British Cemetery. Time to do a bit of digging!
CLIFF HANGER
The British Cemetery dates back to 1770. Before that, anyone who had the misfortune of dying on these islands who was not Roman Catholic was either buried at sea or thrown from the cliffs at Garajau. This was by decree of law!
I rooted around the gravestones looking for nuggets of interest. There were plenty!
For instance, herein lies Paul Langerhans, the German pathologist who discovered the ‘Islets of Langerhans’, the cells that produce insulin. After a remarkable medical career and still only in his late 20s, Langerhans succumbed to tuberculosis and retired to Funchal seeking to assuage his symptoms and perhaps even find a cure.
Madeira was recognised as a retreat for respiratory ailments due to its exceptional air quality. Tuberculosis or ‘consumption’ as it was more commonly called, was killing one in seven people throughout the 19th century and it was believed that rest and a healthy climate could change the course of the condition.
It apparently worked for Langerhans. In Funchal, he continued to practise as a physician, treating mostly fellow TB sufferers and publishing scientific papers about the disease. In his spare time, he produced a guidebook for travellers to the island as well as pursuing studies in meteorology. In 1885, he married a widow of one of his patients and they rented 'Quinta Lambert’ overlooking Funchal Harbour, known at the time as the most beautiful villa in Funchal, and today the official residence of the president of the Regional Government. Langerhans finally succumbed to the disease and died at the age of 40. Here he rests!
Sara Forbes Bonetta, a West African princess who became Queen Victoria’s Goddaughter.
THE BELLE OF BRIGHTON
I continued snuffling around the gravestones, relying on divine intervention rather than any specific directions. As I came across the next stone of interest, I thought to myself, ‘You just couldn’t make this up!’
Sara Forbes Bonetta was a West African princess orphaned as a young child during a war between her native Yoruba and the neighbouring kingdom of Dahomey. At the age of only 3, she was enslaved to King Ghezo of Dahomey. The Atlantic slave trade was still prevalent in Dahomey and the British, who had been key players in the business and then changed their collective tune, sent an envoy to help end the trade.
“Queen Victoria adopted her as her goddaughter”
In 1850, Captain Frederick E. Forbes of the Royal Navy arrived in West Africa to negotiate abolition. As part of the pleasantries, Forbes was offered a young girl as a gift to Queen Victoria. Forbes knew immediately the girl was of noble birth and accepted the ‘gift’, knowing that Sara’s fate could be far worse if left in her native lands.
On their return to England, Queen Victoria was so impressed by the young princess's demeanour and "exceptional intelligence", she adopted her as her goddaughter.
But the English climate did not suit the young princess. Sara moved to the fashionable resort of Brighton at the age of 18 and soon after was permitted by her godmother to marry Captain James Pinson Labulo Davies, a wealthy Yoruba businessman. The ceremony took place at St Nicholas' Church in Brighton.
“White ladies with African gentlemen and African ladies with white gentlemen”
By all accounts, the wedding was a lavish affair! Newspapers of the day reported 10 horse-drawn carriages, 16 bridesmaids and a wedding party made up of ‘White ladies with African gentlemen and African ladies with White gentlemen’, a colourful cavalcade traversing the streets of Brighton.
The couple set up home at 17 Clifton Hill in the ‘Seven Dials’ area but even Brighton’s mild climate didn’t suit Sara’s delicate disposition. She developed a persistent cough which was eventually diagnosed as tuberculosis. In 1880, at the age of 37, she was sent to the warmer climes of Madeira but died that same year. Her grave is number 206 in the British Cemetery.
THE KING OF BONNY
George Oruigbiji Pepple, ruler of the Kingdom of Bonny rests in peace here in the British Cemetary.
As if a West African princess wasn’t enough, how about a West African King?
The Kingdom of Bonny was a state within the country of Nigeria that was an incisive slave-trading port. Approximately two or three million people were transported out of this region towards the Americas and exchanged for alcohol and tobacco which was then traded for textiles and machinery from Europe as part of the ‘Triangular Trade’.
George Oruigbiji Pepple, otherwise known as Perekule VII, ruled the kingdom between 30 September 1866 and 14 December 1883, when he was deposed - although later restored by the British. How he came to Madeira is unclear. King George is buried in the British Cemetery of Funchal and you can find his grave at number 209.
WILLIAM REID
Here lies William Reid, founder of Reid’s Palace and the most popular hotel on the island for the rich and famous throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
William Reid, founder of the famed Reid's Palace Hotel, bastion to the rich and famous visitors of the late 18th and early 19th century, occupies quite an ornate spot in the cemetery.
“Madeira’s got so many amazing dead people ”
William Reid was the son of a Kilmarnock farmer who, at the age of 14, due to his fragile health, was sent to Madeira on the advice of his family doctor.
Reid recovered fully and prospered in the warm Madeira climate. By the age of 25 he had built a small fortune in the wine trade, at the same time marrying Margaret Dewey and giving her twelve children.
By the 1850s, Madeira was an increasingly popular winter destination for rich patrons who would stay for several months, renting farmhouses or Quintas. William & Margaret took advantage of the opportunity and
rented Quintas to wealthy travellers, offering their personal supervision and services.
Madeira’s got so many amazing dead people and a visit to the British Cemetery is fulfilling but please note, it’s only open on weekdays from 9 am to 12 noon.
