The May Boys

I found the gate to Balmoral Cemetery lying open yesterday morning, as council workers were carrying out some maintenance work, so I grabbed my camera and started to explore.

I found these memorials back to back, both belonging to the same family. This one is in memory of Humphrey Frederick May, a captain in the Queen's Royal Antrim Rifles, who died aged 31 in 1861. I don't know anything of the circumstances of his death but he seems terribly young to have died of natural causes, even in 1861.
The memorial to the rear is that of his older brother, Stephen Brinsley May, who died aged 37 in 1858. As a lieutenant in the 18th Bengal Native Infantry at the time of the Indian Mutiny, I suspect he died in action in India.
Both boys were the sons of Sir Stephen May, who served as Lord Mayor of Befast between 1824 and 1833.

Balmoral Cemetery is a very interesting place. I'll be back.

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