Service to mark death of popular war time captain (From Western Telegraph)
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Service to mark death of popular war time captain
10:43am Thursday 27th September 2012 in News
Pembroke Dock’s Bicentenary Group will hold a short service at Park Street Cemetery this morning (Thursday) to mark the 175th anniversary of the death of Captain William Pryce Cumby.
Capt Cumby was a Battle of Trafalgar veteran who was buried in the town’s old cemetery in Upper Park Street, having died months after being appointed Captain Superintendent of Pembroke dockyard.
He had only been in Pembroke Dock for six months when he died, but he and the family had endeared themselves to the officers and men of the Dockyard, and to the residents of the surrounding area.
After his death, his fellow officers subscribed to an impressive memorial in the parish church at Heighington, and Officers Row – close to Pembroke dockyard – was later renamed Cumby Terrace.
Bicentenary co-ordinator Martin Cavaney said: “After the clean-up of the cemetery in the 1970s the grave was partly destroyed and only a modern plaque remains.
“It is our wish to replace this existing plaque with a more substantial slate headstone, to commemorate this remarkable man and his mark on the history of Pembroke Dock.”
