Hubert Wilberforce Wilson: What’s in a name?

While we were researching our actual question, something caught our eyes. On the southeast side of the church there was a very large grave, 9 by 4 feet, and what strikes you most at first glance is the name “Wilberforce”.

All four of us had the same reaction to this grave, we all got extremely excited over the name, started guessing what he looked like and decided that he must have been an extremely intense man. At first we decided that, since he needed so much more height than everyone else that he must be some huge, muscular, blond man of Scandinavian decent, looking a little like this…

But then the more we talked about him the more we felt that he must have been a very important person as well to warrant a raised marker and a spot so close to the church. He was, obviously, a very serious man, probably a bit grim and bound by honour to do his duty. The more I thought about him, the more he evolved in my head into Eddard Stark.

Wilberforce soon became our favourite grave out of the bunch and we even managed to find out a bit about the true Hubert Wilberforce Wilson on the Internet.

 

Hubert Wilberforce Wilson was born in Hong Kong during the British occupation to Wilberforce Wilson and Jessie Ransome. He was the second oldest of ten children, but the genealogy sites do not tell how many of these siblings survived childhood. He is recorded to have been a Consul and diplomat for South America and his portrait hangs in the British National Portrait Gallery. He also was on the 1930 Honours List as a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George according to the London Gazette. He died in Victoria B.C. in 1949.

One interesting thing we did uncover researching Wilson was that his grave says he was born in 1857 but all the online genealogy sites say that he was born in 1867. It would be interesting to track down more records on him and find out which is wrong!

Anyways, the point of this post was to draw attention to our curiosity to know about the dead and who they were based off of simple things they leave behind, such as their names. Who knows, there could be other interesting stories to be told about the people at St. John’s but we just did not look into them because their names did not catch our imagination as fully as Hubert Wilberforce Wilson did.

Sources: http://www.geni.com/people/Hubert-Wilson/6000000005437560520

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=DESC&db=sshawcross&id=I5645

Dear Every One,

http://wallpapers5.com/wallpaper/Red-Ornament-on-Tree/

Dear Everyone,

If you are reading this, I am probably dead. Obviously I don't know how it happened but, I'm sure, you are all coping with my death in your own ways. What ever happens after death I'm sure that I'll survive, and if there isn't anything...its to late to come back now I guess.

While I write this letter it is hard for me to think about my own death, I've never spent much time thinking about what I would like done afterwards, I don't know what to say. I think people divvy up their belongings in letters like this, and on that note you all can have what ever you would like and sell the rest, or donate it, it's up to you. As for what to do with  "me" I would like to be cremated, or aquamated if that is in Canada by the time I die and isn't more expensive than cremation,  and then I'd like my urn to be buried in a park with a tree planted on top of it with a little memory card in front of it. The tree doesn't have to be any specific type, although a Gary Oak would be nice because the grow well and I always think of them as our family's tree. I also want the sapling decorated like a Christmas tree, nothing elaborate, with a few ornaments. I remember going on a run at Elk lake and seeing some trees decorated in the forest which made me happy for the rest of the day, I'd like something like that to be left for people to remember me by. Something cheery!

I look forward to seeing you on the "other side" and if there isn't another side enjoy this one as much as you can.

      Love,

             Emily

*** Thanks to Gr. 10 English class for this entry. I remember having to write a death bed letter in class and thought "Hey, why not do it again for this blog prompt!" Obviously I'm not dead, I'll see you all in class tomorrow!

Things to Do With Your Dead Body...Besides Cram it in a Box and Stick it in the Ground...

Blog Prompt: What are some alternative funerary methods in BC?

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2010/09/crashtest_corpses.html

The first thing that I thought about when we were given this prompt was "Hey, I could donate my body to science!" which, indeed, is an option...if you meet the requirements. In order to donate your body to the UBC  Faculty of Medicine you must be over the age of 30 at the time of death and, usually, you have to fill out some paper work before you are dead...your family cannot just donate your body after you are gone, you actually have to sign consent forms in order to have your body accepted. Also, your body may be turned down due to...

 Infectious diseases (e.g. HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B or C)
• Severe antibiotic resistant infections (e.g. MRSA, VRE)
• Obesity 
• Extensive trauma to the body (including recent major surgery) 
• Suicide or traumatic death 
• Autopsy or Coroner’s case 
• Delay in notification of death 
• Most organ donations with the exception of corneal transplant (eye donation) 

( http://www.cellphys.ubc.ca/bodyprogram.html ) <---that's the website for more info.

UBC has the ONLY body donation program in all of BC so you (or more likely your family) are responsible of getting...your corpse to UBC. Public Transit is not encouraged I imagine.

Another alternate you can look at in BC is burial at sea. This method, seemingly simple, actually takes a lot of planning. In order to be buried at sea you must acquire a permit at least 8 weeks before "need" of the permit and you must also announce it in the paper and (depending where you are) you have to be X nautical miles from shore and, you have to get a boat, and organize all the other funerary type things as well. This method can be quite expensive and all the paper work make for a lot of hoops to jump through... easiest way to be buried at sea is to join the Navy. 

THIS IS NOT AVAILABLE IN BC. But it seems sort of cool so I'll mention it any ways! The process of "aquamation" has been used in Australia and some places in the states (Florida) and is viewed as more eco-friendly than cremation. Basically, your body is placed in a steel container and potassium is added and so is 93 °C water. After 4 hrs the flesh and organs have decomposed off of your bones. After that, I've read, your bones are broken down or crushed or something to that effect and returned to your family, leaving them with something equivalent to ashes  after a cremation. The cool part about aquamation is that it only uses 10% of the energy that a cremation needs AND there is no toxic emissions... the sites don't tell you what happens to the potassium water that you are dissolved in though... oh well, life needs a little bit of mystery!

(looks like a VERY large washing machine to me...)

http://www.orble.com/new-way-to-kill-the-dead/

So those are some alternates to being stuck in a hole or being burned to a crisp! 

In a state of separation...

So this last week I only went to ANTH 392 once because I have been horribly sick... but on the day that I was  there (being Tuesday) we were continuing our discussions about the Funeral of a Rus' and on the three stages of a rite of passage; being the preliminal, liminal, and postliminal stages. As part of the preliminal stage some one mentioned that when the person originally became ill and was separated from the band that was the beginning of their rite of passage of death. I thought this was a very interesting way of looking at it, but it does make sense because sick people were placed away from the general community with food and water to get better or to die. 

http://www.freewebs.com/dkpassion/page9.htm

The above picture (compleetly unrelated to Rus') is a little piece of folklore/mythology that I found interesting while looking up illnesses on line. It features two sick men in bed with Caladrius birds perched on the sheets. Supposedly a Caladrius had the power to take all sickness away from an individual by looking at their face (like the lucky guy in the front bed) but, if the patient was not expected to make a full recovery it wouldn't look at him at all (like the poor guy in the back). The Caladrius, specifically, is from Roman mythology but the same idea of the white healing bird is in Greek mythology as well but known as Dhalion. It was also adopted as a representation of Christ in the Medieval ages because Christ is viewed as taking our "sickness" (sin) away with him when he died on the cross.

So there's a little bit of fun, useless, knowledge to think about and I hope to be back in class again soon!

So... This is What a Blog Looks like...

Hello Every One!

I have to admit that this is my first time ever signing up for a blog site and, honestly, I do not believe I have ever read (let alone followed) anyone else's blog before. So here we go and I am wishing for the best!
I am settling up this blog to discuss/post about my ANTH 392 course: "The Archaeology of Death". Hopefully, I will also branch out and post stuff that I have found in my internet wanderings on the subject; but who knows...the future will tell all things.

I had my first day of the Archaeology of Death yesterday with Erin McGuire and, being the first day, we went through the introductions and syllabus and such and were shown a few examples of the types of case studies we would be looking at throughout the semester...

http://www.coolantarctica.com/gallery/arctic/arctic0145.php

That little guy is one of the mummies from Qilakitsoq, Greenland. He and 7 other mummies were found at this site, preserved by the cold, and they are some of the best preserved human bodies ever found. Of the six women found in the grave 5 of them still have visible facial tattoos, a tradition still practiced by the indigenous people of Greenland today I found out. I thought the little section on these mummies extremely fascinating and hope we return to them later on in the course as well. We also talked about the Amesbury Archer, who came from the Alps but died in Wessex and was burred with all sorts of grave goods. 

From this short preview of the course I am extremely excited to learn more from Erin McGuire and from my class mates!

Until next time,
Emily