The Churchyard Project

The inscriptions on the tombstones in the churchyard were recorded in detail by Elizabeth Auger as part of a school project for her studies in archaeology. She has generously made her records available to us and we are gradually uploading them to an on-line archive.

Elizabeth undertook her survey in 1999 and, since then, some inscriptions have become less readable and some gravestones have been renewed. For stones that have been lost, the original inscriptions, that were taken in Elizabeth's original survey, are recorded here.

Inscription format

The inscription record is recorded here as it is found on the stones. No attempts have been made to guess at obscure or missing letters or numbers. Spelling is the same as that engraved on the stones themselves. Following accepted procedure, all names have been recorded in capitals and all other text in natural cases e.g. capitals for the first letter of the month, whether or not this is so on the stones.

The line breaks have been recorded and are shown in the inscriptions here.

Commonwealth War Grave

Hartlip has one Commonwealth War Grave, situated to the east of the church. It is to Charles Whitehead and the inscription is as follows.

C. A. WHITEHEAD
Stoker 2nd Class RN K/55105
H.M.S. Pembroke
2nd December 1918. Aged 18.

"H.M.S Pembroke" was the shore establishment at Chatham, and Charles died in the hospital there, seemingly as one of the victims of the Spanish influenza epidemic.