Prince Claus Fund supports restoration of 19th century cemetery

Cape Coast, March 22, GNA - The Prince Claus Funds in the Netherlands under its Cultural Emergency Programme is supporting the restoration of the Colonial European/ Garrison Cemetery in Cape Coast with 30,000.00 euros.

The cemetery, situated at Bakaano in Cape Coast and which dates back to the 19th century, is the burial ground for the British Colonial Garrison stationed inside the Cape Coast castle.

Mr Kwame Sarpong, the President of the Ghana committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), told newsmen that his organization was liaising with the Ghana Veterans Association (VAG), the Oguaa Traditional Council and the Anglican Church of Cape Coast to carry out the works.

He said the project would include the demolition of damaged pillars=

and weak bamboo fencing, erection of a perimeter wall, construction of walkways and concrete kerb, restoration of tombs, landscaping and the erection of memorial plague and wreath laying points.

Mr Sarpong said the purpose of the project was to help retain the cemetery to serve as a national monument where reverential meetings could also be held. Narrating the history of the cemetery which has the tombs of British soldiers like Captain William Henry Lowther of Bristol, aged 29 years and who died of fever and dysentery on January 30, 1859, and Lieutenant Charles Sayce, 25, who died in July 1867, Mr Sarpong said burial dates as far bac= k as 1797.

Others buried there included Dr Jon Farrell Easmon, Chief Medical Officer who died in June 1900 at the age of 43 and a 73-year-old woman, Madam Phyllis Renner.

He said many of the British soldiers who died in the then Gold Coa= st mostly of malaria and fever were buried there and that there were mass burials in 1824 of which records of their names were available and would= be engraved on a concrete slab and erected at the cemetery to serve as a memorial. MR Sarpong said the project would, on completion, be handed over to=

the Veterans Association in Cape Coast to manage.

He said he hoped the cemetery would be recognized as an ICOMOS worl= d heritage site where tourists and perhaps relatives of those buried there could visit.