VALDOSTA — Britain is helping Sunset Hill Cemetery.
In a series of fascinating turns, a London councillor was visiting Valdosta last summer when he learned of a grant application to implement an interactive Web site for the city’s Sunset Hill Cemetery. The councillor visited the cemetery and was impressed by the history and stories of Sunset Hill. Back home in England, he appealed to his fellow members in the Association for Veterans of Foreign Wars.
The British veterans answered by raising $500 for Valdosta’s Sunset Hill Cemetery.
This help started with Councillor Terence C. “Terry” Burton Esq. of London, who is councillor of the London Borough of Barnet, a member of the War Graves Preservation Group — War Memorials Trust, Western Front Association — Royal British Legion, president of the Association of Veterans of Foreign Wars, and director of the British Aid Charity, among other activities and duties. So Burton had an interest in historic preservation, honoring veterans of the past and present, and knowledge of fund-raising.
Last summer, Burton was in Valdosta, seeking a house for himself, wife Amy, and their two young daughters. He had spent many years in the U.S. but returned home to Britain in 1998 upon the death of his mother. He stayed in England, met his American wife, Amy, had two daughters, entered British politics, but is now ready to return to the U.S., and, wanting a warm home, discovered Valdosta, visiting the city last summer.
“As a politician in the UK (United Kingdom), I was most interested in visiting the Valdosta City Council sessions during July and August when I was in Valdosta,” Burton says in a recent e-mail interview with The Valdosta Daily Times.
During a Valdosta City Council meeting, Burton heard Emily Foster, Valdosta’s special projects and historic preservation planner, make a presentation about a grant for an interactive Web site for the city-operated Sunset Hill Cemetery. Such a Web site would allow Internet users to make a virtual tour of the cemetery. It would give locations for specific graves, including full names and individual birth and death dates for each person buried in Sunset Hill.
Burton was intrigued.
“I toured the cemetery myself a couple of times, researching and taking many photographs,” he says. “I also met Steve (Priest), the cemetery superintendent who was most interesting to talk to.”
Back home in England, Burton used his research and photographs to create a brochure about Sunset Hill Cemetery. The brochure includes photographs of Sunset Hill Cemetery’s military gravesites, from the Civil War to soldiers who served in the Spanish-American War to the wars of the 20th century. It also includes photographs and information on the family sites of Old West legend “Doc” Holliday’s Valdosta relatives and the Memorial to the Unknown Slaves in the cemetery.
He presented this brochure to fellow members of the AVFW.
“Being veterans themselves they were most interested in supporting (as best they could out of their limited old-age pensions) an appeal to further the interest and eventual restoration of veteran’s graves, even in the USA,” Burton says. “As they said, a veteran is a veteran, no matter from what war or conflict or in what country.”
Aged 85 to 93, the British World War II veterans raised $500 to help in the grant application for Sunset Hill Cemetery.
In late November, Emily Foster was surprised to find a letter from Burton and a check from Britain for Sunset Hill Cemetery.
“I was very surprised. Speechless,” Foster says. “I’m very appreciative for what they have done.”
Though the Georgia Department of Economic Development and Historic Preservation Division did not approve the initial grant request for Valdosta, Foster is preparing a second grant request for early 2009. The British contribution may either help attain that grant, or it could help Valdosta fund an in-house program to make Sunset Hill Cemetery an interactive Web site.
Still, by the time Burton and his family move here this summer, he will already have helped his new home of Valdosta.
Local News
Related Photos
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Some of the British World War II veterans and members of the Association for Veterans of Foreign Wars around a 1941 Jeep. These British veterans raised $500 to help Valdosta's Sunset Hill Cemetery start an online site.
Discussion
Britain helps Sunset Hill
Veterans raise $500 for Web site project
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