Balmoral Cemetery, Belfast

Balmoral Cemetery

Balmoral Cemetery is a cemetery in the Malone area of South Belfast, Northern Ireland, opened in 1855.

History[]

The cemetery was opened in 1855 by Presbyterian churchmen Rev. Henry Cooke and Rev. Joseph Mackenzie, on land owned by Mackenzie, after they had been refused burial by a Church of Ireland rector in another cemetery. It was controlled by a board of trustees which included three Presbyterian ministers. While most of the burials were for Presbyterians, other denominations were buried there.^[1]

Three Commonwealth soldiers (one each of British, Australian, and Canadian armies) of World War I are buried in the cemetery, their graves maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.^[2]

In 1953, the cemetery was taken over by Belfast Corporation. It is no longer open for burials, but is open to visitors.^[1]

Notable burials[]

• Dr Wilberforce Arnold (1838–1891), founder of the Presbyterian Orphan Society
• William Batt (1840–1910), architect
• Reverend Henry Cooke (1788–1868), Presbyterian minister and co-founder of the cemetery
• Prof. (1802–1865), physician and fetologist, Professor of Medicine, Queen's College, Belfast^[3]
• Josias Leslie Porter (1823–1889), Presbyterian minister, missionary and traveller
• Hugh Hanna (1821–1892), evangelical and anti-Catholic preacher
• Reverend Joseph Mackenzie (1811–1883), Presbyterian minister and co-founder of the cemetery
• Colonel Hampden Clement Blamire Moody (1821–1869), Commander of the Royal Engineers in China and Belfast
• Isabella Tod (1836–1896), Scottish suffragist and unionist politician

References[]

Further reading[]

• Hartley, Tom (2019). Balmoral Cemetery: the history of Belfast, written in stone. Newtownards: Blackstaff Press. ISBN 978-1-78073-230-5.

External links[]

• Belfast City Council – Balmoral Cemetery

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