The establishment of the Grange Cemetery
The Grange Cemetery was established in 1847 by the Southern Cemetery Company Ltd on land donated by the Dick Lauder family of the Grange Estate.
Designed by David Bryce the architect, the site occupied an open space of more than 12 acres and was built on a rectangular pattern around central vaulted catacombs which are built into the crest of the hill. Bryce also designed the lodge, modified by J.G. Adams in 1890, and a mortuary chapel which was never built.
The cemetery lies on Beaufort Road and has been expanded to Kilgraston Road. It contains about 6,250 burial plots and is still in use today. There is more about the history of the cemetery here.
Grange Associaton involvement
In 2015 the Grange Association donated two information boards at the East and West Gates of the Grange Cemetery. These boards identify 24 interesting people who have headstones in the cemetery.
The project was initiated by Dorothy Ryle and supported by the Grange Association through their Legacy Subgroup. The group was coordinated at first by Alistair Keating then by Alison Bramley. Joanne Lamb was responsible for the considerable amount of research involved and wrote the biographies; Neil Davidson researched the history of the land; Erick Davidson led the design work; and Jenny Dawe led the editing task. Charlie Holt, Cemeteries Manager, Edinburgh City Council, was supportive throughout. Funding for the project came from the Legacy left to the Grange Association by Ronald Mackenzie.
Since the original project in 2015, a further 24 burials have been researched. The full 48 can be found here. The individual biographies, including a summary of the relationship to the other people on the headstones, can be found on these pages.
Apart from the sources mentioned with each individual, we also acknowledge the following:
Family Search, https://familysearch.org/
FreeCen, http://www.freecen.org.uk/
Scotland’s People, http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/
Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page.
Joanne Lamb. March 2015