ENTRANCE TO MOUNT ROYAL CEMETERY (PROTESTANT)
ENTRANCE TO COTE-DES-NEIGES CEMETERY (CATHOLIC)
THE “CALVARY” IN COTE-DES-NEIGES CEMETERY
The oldest Protestant cemetery in the city still existing is that on Papineau Road, where in 1816 land was purchased at a cost of £500 and was known as the “new” burial grounds. A portion of the latter, known as the military burial grounds, still exists as such and, owing to the efforts of the “Last Post” Association, the federal government has lately renovated it with needful repairs. Here there are several interesting monuments, among them being that of Sir Benjamin D’Urban, the first governor of Natal, who was sent out here to take command of the troops when the friction caused by the Oregon question threatened to bring on a war between Great Britain and our neighbours to the south.
There is also a military burial ground at St. Helen’s Island. It was discontinued in 1825. It is said to have been used for a hundred years and to contain between one thousand five hundred to two thousand remains. A further burial ground is preserved in memory by the great boulder of Point Charles at the north end of the Victoria Jubilee bridge, where the fever-stricken Irish emigrants were hurriedly buried in 1847.
OTHER IMPROVEMENTS
Beyond the establishment of the public places and cemeteries during this period other civic improvements have to be accredited to this period before Confederation.