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An exceptional burial in a closed churchyard: St Mary and St Eanswythe, Folkestone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2024

Frank Cranmer
Frank Cranmer*
Affiliation:
Fellow, St Chad's College, Durham, Durham, UK Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Law and Religion, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
*
Email: [email protected]
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Extract

On 6 December 2023, seven-year-old William Brown was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver when he was retrieving his football from the road outside his home. A Year 3 pupil at St Eanswythe's Church of England Primary School in Folkestone, he had walked through the grounds of St Mary and St Eanswythe's Church every day on his way to school and had attended services there. His parents wanted to bury him in the churchyard, but although the Vicar was willing to conduct the burial, the churchyard had been closed by Order in Council in 1857 under the provisions of the Burial Act 1855, with only one exception being made for a burial in 1898. Because the churchyard had been closed, under section 1 of that Act his burial would require an Order of the Privy Council.

Keywords

closed churchyardPrivy CouncilRoyal Prerogative
Type
Comment
Information
Ecclesiastical Law Journal , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , September 2024 , pp. 313 - 316
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Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 2024

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References

1 Burial Act 1855, s 1 provides that ‘1. Orders in Council under the recited Acts may be varied by like orders.

It shall be lawful for Her Majesty, by and with the advice of her Privy Council, from time to time to postpone the time appointed by any Order in Council for the discontinuance of burials, or otherwise to vary any Order in Council made under any of the said recited Acts or this Act (whether the time thereby appointed for the discontinuance of burials thereunder or other operation of such order shall or shall not have arrived) as to Her Majesty, with such advice as aforesaid, may seem fit’.

2 H Furness, ‘King grants grieving mother's wish to bury seven-year-old son in closed graveyard’ (Daily Telegraph, 29 December 2023).

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid: emphasis added.

5 D Collins, ‘The tragic death of William Brown’, 30 December 2023, <https://damiancollins.com/the-tragic-death-of-william-brown/>.

6 S Odeen-Isbister, ‘Boy, 7, buried in favourite churchyard after King Charles gave permission’ (Metro, 13 January 2024), < https://metro.co.uk/2024/01/13/boy-7-buried-favourite-churchyard-king-gave-permission-20109400/>.

7 Re St Oswald, Filey Closed Churchyard [2019] ECC Yor 8 at para 7; emphasis added.

8 Re All Saints Pontefract [2022] ECC Lee 6 at para 29.

9 Privy Council, ‘Orders Approved and Business Transacted at the Privy Council, held by The King at Buckingham Palace on 21st February 2024’, 92 <https://privycouncil.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024-02-21-List-of-Business.pdf>.