Place:Lawnswood Cemetery, Leeds (metropolitan borough), West Yorkshire, England

Resources

• Find A Grave: Lawnswood Cemetery
• Address: Otley Road, Adel, Metropolitan Borough of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England LS16 6AH

Cemetery notes and/or description

Lawnswood Cemetery is situated 4 miles NE of Leeds city center, on the left of the A660 Otley Road. The CWGC refer to the cemetery as Leeds (Lawns Wood) Cemetery.

In 1874 Headingley-cum-Burley Burial Board purchased land to provide for the burial needs of the expanding population of the suburbs of Headingley and Far Headingley. Located north-west of the town on the Leeds and Otley turnpike, the land selected was that part of an existing woodland called Lawns Wood just outside the municipal boundary.The cemetery opened in 1875 and the first burial took place on 23 January 1876. Further extensions to the cemetery were made in 1908, 1919 and 1965. The cemetery remains open for burials and the interment of ashes and is managed by Leeds City Council, who purchased the cemetery from the Burial Board in 1972.

The cemetery is well worth a visit as it contains some spectacular early twentieth century monuments. During the First World War, the major hospitals in Leeds were the 2nd Northern General with 1,800 beds and the East Leeds War Hospital with 1,900. Leeds was also one of the principal hospital centers in Yorkshire during the Second World War. Leeds (Lawns Wood) Cemetery contains 138 burial of the First World War, 88 of them forming a war graves plot in Section W. As these graves could not be marked individually, the names of the dead are recorded on a screen wall. The rest of the First World War burials and all of the 67 Second World War burials are scattered throughout the cemetery. A further screen wall bears the names of 105 casualties of both wars buried in Leeds General Cemetery, where their graves could no longer be maintained. In all, there are now 222 First World War casualties and 91 from the Second World War commemorated in the cemetery. The cemetery also contains Leeds (Lawns Wood) Crematorium, where there is a memorial to 94 Second World War casualties whose remains were cremated.