b.1879-d.1905
Introduction
Back in 2008 I was shown the photograph above of some of the remaining headstones in the Horton Estate Cemetery that had been photographed on 28 February 1971 by L. R. James. After zooming in as near as possible, I was able to make out some of the engraved words on the stones. This led me to researching the names, one of which was William Munk. At the time, there was little online to go on but now, sixteen years later, I have discovered more about William’s short life.
William’s family
William Munk was the second son and child of Henry and Caroline Munk. His parents had married on 30th June 1877 in Saint Jude’s Church in East Brixton. His father had been born in late 1845, or early 1846, in Shellow Bowells, Essex, while his mother, Caroline Middleton, had been born in early May 1851, in Hathersage, Derbyshire.
When William’s older brother Charles Henry, was born on 28th April 1878, the family was living at 32 Foreign Street in Lambeth. William was born on 25th September 1879, and later baptised in St James the Apostle, Lambeth, on 11th November that same year. William’s younger brother Frank Edward was later born on 15th May 1885.
Censuses
The 1881 and 1891 Censuses record the family as still living at 32 Foreign Street, and that William’s father Henry was working as a carpenter to support his family. Ten years on and the 1901 Census records that the family had moved to 41 Flaxman Road in Brixton. William, however, was not living with them and has not been found recorded elsewhere on the census.
Admission to Horton Asylum and death
On 9th May 1902, William was aged 22 when he was admitted to the Horton Asylum in Epsom, Surrey.
Information from William’s death certificate states his cause of death on 13 October 1905, was from hypostatic pneumonia and gangrene of the left lung. Hypostatic pneumonia is a chronic lung condition that occurs when fluid and mucus build up in the lower lobes of the lungs. This can happen if a person has been bedridden for a long length of time and not received the nursing care needed to avoid it.
William Munk’s death certificate
William was buried in the Horton Estate Cemetery on 19th October 1905 in grave 742 and was one of very few to have a headstone to mark his resting place.
IN LOVING MEMORY OF
WILLIAM MUNK
DIED OCT 13 1905
AGED 25
SOUL SHALL ?
?
William’s tombstone
In early 1983, acting on behalf of the freeholder, local solicitors Kirkwoods issued a formal notice in a local newspaper of “the intention to remove the remaining tombstones, monuments and other memorials” from Horton Cemetery “for the purpose of reducing the maintenance costs”. The removal of the headstones was carried out on 26th May 1983.
On 6th July 1983, Kirkwoods sent a list of the tombstones and memorials that had been removed from the cemetery to the Registrar General of Miscellaneous Records in St Catherine House. William Munk’s headstone was not included in this list and so must have been destroyed or removed between 1971 and 1983.