Cemetery that tells of Halifax's naval history hides in plain sight
CBC
A small cemetery in the heart of Halifax tells the story of the city in its earlier days — yet few people know about it.
The Royal Naval Burying Ground opened in 1783 as an adjunct to a new naval hospital completed on the waterfront that same year.
At the time, Halifax was the centre of British naval operations for North America and the Caribbean. It was known as the Halifax Station.
The first recorded burial at the cemetery was in 1791, the last in 1910.
Today, it sits at the edge of what is now CFB Stadacona, in full view of thousands of people driving by on busy Barrington Street or coming into the city on the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge.
The cemetery is open to the public, but has few visitors, said Tom Tulloch, an honorary director of the Halifax Military Heritage Preservation Society.
Tulloch, who served 37 years in the Royal Canadian Navy, said the cemetery's location is a major reason it remains an undiscovered treasure.
He said it may be the only dedicated naval cemetery in Canada.
Describing it as a "magnificent place," Tulloch said it encapsulates a period of history that saw a large number of wars and conflicts.
"People drive past it because it's on the base and a lot of people, I think, are intimidated by the fact that it is on the base and they don't really know how to gain access to it," Tulloch said. "It is a phenomenal historical site."
He said most of the people buried there were ordinary Royal Navy seamen, their family members and workers from the naval yard.
Although there have been an estimated 1,000 burials in the small stretch of land, there are only about 80 grave markers visible.
Tulloch said many of the people who died at the military hospital would have had very simple burials at the cemetery.
In 1809, vice-admiral John Borlase Warren, the commander of the Halifax Station, wrote to the Admiralty deploring the way in which burials were carried out there.
