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Trafalgar
Cemetery
This cemetery was consecrated in June 1798, seven years before the battle of Trafalgar. It was then known as the Southport Ditch cemetery, and was sometimes regarded as a part of the old St. Jago's Cemetery, which was situated on the other side of Charles V wall. The association with the battle of Trafalgar does not seem to have been made until many years after the event. The cemetery was used for burials between 1798 and 1814; thereafter it fell into disuse, although there is one isolated tomb from 1838 near the far north-east corner. Earlier gravestones from St. Jago's cemetery were set into the eastern wall in 1932, and there are also a few free standing stones, some of which date back to the 1780's, which have been transferred over the years from the Alameda Gardens. Although the name of the cemetery commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, only two of those who are buried here actually died of wounds suffered in the battle. Most of those who died at Trafalgar were buried at sea, Lord Nelson's body was transported to London, and those who died later of their wounds were buried just north of Charles V Wall, on the opposite side of Trafalgar cemetery. Many of the tombstones in the cemetery commemorate the dead of three terrible yellow fever epidemics in 1804, 1813 and 1814. Also buried here are victims of other sea battles of the Napoleonic Wars, the Battle of Algeciras (1801), Cadiz (1810)and Malaga (1812). For some years a ceremony has been held
annually in the cemetery on Trafalgar Day in remembrance of those
who gave their lives in the great victory.
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