Stories of Elmwood

Looking straight ahead as you enter you will see the grave of William Hagyard. Bill enlisted in the RCAF at age 18 and was eventually stationed at a base outside London. On the night before his final mission, he took the train to London and met his childhood friend Ivan Penfold. The next day his aircraft was shot down over the English Channel. He was the first fatality from the Perth area in WW2. Like many veterans whose body was never returned from war, markers and monuments

In recent times interments take place year round. For more than a century that was not the case. Originally there was a small chapel on your left as you entered. When the ground was frozen the remains had to be stored until burials could take place. The burial registry records the names of bodies placed in and removed from the vault. These records are often little more than a single line, providing little or no information. Built in 1897 the Elmwood Vault not only served this

The minutes of Perth Cemetery Company meetings (all of which are available online) reveal there were several fences and gates in place before the current stone and iron gates that greet visitors. These early gates were in constant need of repair primarily because hitching posts for up to 25 horses was part of the fencing. After years of repairs and rebuilding the current stone gates were put in place around 1907. The minutes record that even locating suitable stone for the ga