The Cemeteries of South Georgia

A record of cemeteries and burial sites, and the people who lie on the island.

South Georgia

The Island of South Georgia lies at the Southern extreme of the South Atlantic Ocean, on the edge of the cold Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica. 600 miles from the nearest land, the Falkland Islands, it was the scene of remote seal and whale hunting over the past three centuries. Many died in these harsh industries and were buried on the island, far from home. The hunting has stopped but the men still lie buried here.

This website is dedicated to the families and friends of these men, who may never have the opportunity to visit the graves, but who can at least see some pictures.

The Cemeteries

The main cemeteries are at the abandoned whaling stations of Leith, Stromness, Husvik, Grytviken, Prince Olav Harbour, and Ocean Harbour. There are undoubtedly unmarked graves in other sites on the island. There is also a known grave site at Godthul (rediscovered in 2006/7).

Some graves have no markers, so we do not know who is buried there. In other cases, records exist for a person, but we do not know where he is buried.

This website allows the graves to be examined in two ways, either by looking up information on a person or by looking a particular grave. To look for a particular name, select List of All Names from the menu. To find a particular grave, select the cemetery from the main menu, and when the page for that cemetery is displayed, select the option to explore that particular cemetery. You can then  click on the image for a particular grave and see what we know about it.

Other Information

This website was written by Pat Lurcock in 2004 and rewritten in 2010/11/12. The background pattern is based on a photograph of the granite on one of the Stromness graves.

Any further information on the individuals would be received with interest. Please email me via the Send us a message page.

All pictures ©P.M. Lurcock unless otherwise stated.