Wellshill Cemetery

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox Cemetery

|name = Wellshill Cemetery

|image = File:The central roundel, Wellshill Cemetery, Perth.jpg

|imagesize =

|caption = The central roundel, Wellshill Cemetery, Perth

|established = {{Start date and age|1844|p=yes}}

|country = United Kingdom

|location = Feus Road
Perth, Scotland

|coordinates = {{coord|56.4001|-3.4494|display=inline,title}}

|type =

|owner = Perth and Kinross Council

|size =

|map_type = Scotland Perth

|graves =

|closed =

|website =

|findagraveid= 1974325

}}

Wellshill Cemetery is a 19th-century cemetery in the Scottish city of Perth, Perth and Kinross. Located on Feus Road, the cemetery is still operational and is under the control of Perth and Kinross Council.{{cite web|url=https://www.pkc.gov.uk/article/15014/List-of-burial-grounds|title=Perth & Kinross Council - List of burial grounds|website=Pkc.gov.uk|accessdate=6 March 2019}}

History

The cemetery was opened in 1844 as a private cemetery. The original section and original entrance gates lie to the south-east.

A parochial (free section) was added to the north around 1860 and further private sections added to the west (now the centre)

and far north. A modern section was added by the Council on former Jeanfield recreation ground to the west, and is known as Jeanfield Cemetery.

A wall exists between the two cemeteries but the wall has a gap at each end for mutual access.{{cite web|url=http://www.scottish-places.info/features/featurefirst17532.html|title=Wellshill Cemetery from The Gazetteer for Scotland|website=Scottish-places.info|accessdate=6 March 2019}}

Modern access is from the south-west on Jeanfield Road. The feature nearest the modern entrance is the monument and attached graves of the 381 Polish pilots who died serving Britain during the Second World War. There are over 90 Commonwealth service personnel and one Belgian soldier buried in the cemetery from the First World War and over 120 Commonwealth personnel from the Second. The cemetery contains a total 575 war graves, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, of persons who died of wounds, mainly at Perth Royal Infirmary, and other causes.{{Cite web |last=CWGC |title=Find War Dead |url=https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/ |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=CWGC |language=en}}

The Polish code-breaker Lieutenant Colonel Gwido Langer was also originally buried here in 1948, as a Polish Signal Corps grave within the Polish war graves, but his body was exhumed in 2010 for reburial in Poland with full military honours.{{cite web|url=http://polishscottishheritage.co.uk/?heritage_item=secret-secret-enigma|title=The best kept secret of the Enigma Secret « Polish Scottish Heritage|website=Polishscottishheritage.co.uk|accessdate=6 March 2019}}

Notable interments

The only grave of note (apart from war graves) in the Jeanfield section is the poet William Soutar (1898–1943).

Gallery

File:Silhouetted stones at sunset in Wellshill Cemetery, Perth.jpg|Silhouetted stones at sunset

File:The grave of the Polish pilots from WW2 at Wellshill and Jeanfield Cemetery, Perth.jpg|The grave of the Polish pilots from World War II

File:Monuments in Wellshill Cemetery, Perth.jpg|Monuments

References

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