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Complete with bell and cast iron fountains, this Victorian cemetery was opened in 1869 as Belfast's first cross-denominational burial ground. In 1916 sections were set aside for the city's Jewish community and the burial of deceased sailors and soldiers. The war connections continue with a monument to those killed in the 1941 Belfast Blitz and a Memorial Cross in honour of locals killed in action in WW2.
The cemetery is the city's largest with around 250,000 burials and, curiously, has a sunken wall dividing the Protestant and Catholic plots. Many of Belfast's prominent figures from its industrial, religious and political past are buried here including: Viscount Pirrie, former Lord Mayor, controller of Harland & Wolff shipyard at the time of Titanic, Sir Edward Harland, former MP, Mayor and one of the Harland & Wolff shipyard's founders and Daniel Joseph Jaffe, linen merchant and builder of Belfast's first synagogue. CS Lewis' mother Florence is also buried here.
Poignantly, also buried here is the teenager thought to have been the first victim of the Titanic has finally been given a headstone on his grave. Samuel Scott, 15, fractured his skull whilst working on the ship in 1910. His body has since lain in an unmarked grave in Belfast City Cemetery.
A new headstone has recently been erected, and a new children's book, Spirit Of The Titanic, uses the teenager as its main character. The book, published in early 2011, follows the boy's ghost as it haunts the decks of the ship during its voyage.
