MAN BUILDS OWN TOMB.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21036, 21 November 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

MAN BUILDS OWN TOMB.

SELF-DIRECTED WORK

CEMETERY DIRECTOR'S HOBBY.

Mr. Henry Thomas Baker, of Bournemouth, England, who is 77 years old, spends many hours of his spare time watching his own grave and memorial being constructed in the local cemetery. The work was nearly finished last month, and is an imposing structure of red and grey polished Peterhead granite, which has cost Mr. Baker about £ISOO. Situated at the entrance to the cemetery, it towers above the war memorial just inside the gate. He designed the memorial himself, and is proud of the fact that it will be the best in the cemetery. " I had great difficulty," Mr. Baker said recently, "in persuading the authorities to let ine have this space, which was formerly a flower bed, but when I told them I would put up the best monument in the. cemetery, they let me buy the site." Occasionally Mr. Baker took his wife to the cemetery to see the progress of the monument. It is in the style of a pagoda, and tlie inscription on the plinth bears his own and Mrs. Baker's names. The date of his birth is there, but not that of Mrs. Baker's birth, which he does not wish to be added until her death. Mr. Baker was in quite a cheerful mood when asked about his interest in his own monument. " When 1 have anything done," he said, " I like to see it is done well." The workmen one day a few weeks ago were placing a 2jr ton slab of granite over the brick-lined grave, and there was certainly no suggestion of morbidity in his manner as he watched the operation. Mr. Baker says he has been connected with cemeteries, for many years. He opened the Wood Grange Park Cemetery, Romford, and is now chairman of directors of the company owning it. He also opened up the Ilendon Park Cemetery, Hendon, and the Greenford Park Cemetery, near Ealing, and is a director of both the companies.