Art of Dying Art of Dying_Volume III_joomag | Page 60
SAM PERRIN
SA
bankrupt. Who looks after these headstones now? As
it stands, no one but volunteers from local councils
and friends organizations.
We thoroughly research each cemetery’s history.
We discover people who weren’t well known but
who had an interesting incident happen to them
or who did something unusual. It’s not necessarily
about the famous or infamous. People just love to
hear intriguing stories that they wouldn’t know by
reading a book, or going online.
We created a “Vice and Virtue Tour" for Abney
Park because it is the final resting place of some
fantastically interesting people—from abolitionists
to police officers killed in the line of duty to
musical stars.
Rebecca Jarrett's buried there. She was a reformed
prostitute who worked with a journalist, W.T. Stead,
in1885, to expose how easy it was to procure an
underage prostitute in London. Through her help,
the age of consent was raised.
Another of my favorite people buried there is
Benjamin Mitchell Jenkins. He conducted an
orchestra of 150 mandolin players, 130 of whom
were women. He's part of the Virtue part of the tour
because after the First World War, he taught blinded
servicemen how to play mandolins and guitars. You
could apply the Vice and Virtue theme to a tour of
any cemetery.
I have had adverse reactions when people hear that
I am a cemetery tour guide. People have expressed
everything from raised eyebrows to horror. When
people feel apprehension about taking a guided
cemetery tour it's largely down to the fact that they
We celebrate the lives of the
people who are buried and
the ornate funerary art and
architecture.
60 | ART OF DYING