Grave No. 4258


Cemetery Gate
A little over a month before she passed away, Elizabeth gave birth to her fifth child on August 9, 1876, a baby girl, that may have induced complications to her deteriorating health as a mother, already being overly burdened for rearing three of her other small children: Charles born in Ireland now aged seven, Nelly, born in Gibraltar, aged five, and Agnes born in Malta, three years old. Elizabeth Jane McBride had followed her spouse, Cpl. James Bracken, in nearly all destinations of his overseas deployment with the 28th Regiment of Foot. The previous year, she had given birth in Malta to their fourth child, son Francis, who died three months later. The family's move to the garrison in Hong Kong and the recent childbirth must have been particularly difficult that took its toll, sadly, having Elizabeth succumbed from her dear life on earth September 11, 1876 at Victoria Barracks, leaving three small kids and a four-week-old infant with her husband James.

Elizabeth Bracken's Grave
She was buried in the military section (her grave's designation is Sec. 41) of Happy Valley Cemetery that we found marked with the number 4258 on a small headstone. Providence must have worked for Elizabeth that Section 41 was kept untouched - unlike the eastern parcel of sacred ground once beside it that was taken over by a newly built-up expressway tunnel going towards Aberdeen. It was probably the high elevation of Sec. 41 that led engineering designers to veer away their tunnel project from that particular gravesite.

Data culled from the cemetery office registered her surname as Bracin - quite similar to 'Brackin', the surname, as originally spelled appearing in James's personal records. The other important detail that confirmed the presence of Elizabeth's remains in the cemetery was her date of death recorded on the same line item in the logbook: "11.9.1876".

Logbook Entry
Rain came down pouring again and the vegetation lent some muffling properties to the area because the noisy expressway nearby was hardly audible.  The cover's downside was the swarm of mosquitoes all-ready to make their killing.  We had anticipated that, taking the warning from researcher-blogger Michael Bourke of Ireland whom I had been communicating with regarding the grave that he himself had visited back in 2002. Earlier at the cemetery office, we wore ourselves with DEET and OFF lotion as the office staff looked on at us with gaiety for our preparedness.

Most parts of the sloping walkways were covered with thick moss and algae and we were careful walking the slippery, serpentine concrete paths. Being cumbersome holding an umbrella on one hand, I preferred to peregrinate over grass off the perilous pathways for fear of damaging my DSLRs in case I slipped.


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2 comments:

  1. UnknownMay 18, 2013 at 6:16 AM

    This is an extremely detailed and lovingly researched account, particularly helpful for the directions on how to reach this obscure site. Congratulations on mission accomplished.

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