Wellshill Cemetery

A large burial ground in Perth, Wellshill Cemetery opened in 1844 at Dovecot Land, a half-mile (1 km) west northwest of the city centre. Over the years the original cemetery has expanded north and west over the hill, incorporating a new section which once formed part of Jeansfield Recreation Ground in the later 20th century.

Notables buried at Wellshill include Alexander Thompson (1824-80), who won a Victoria Cross in India, John Pullar (1803-78) and Sir Robert Pullar (1828 - 1912) of the Perth-based textile dyeing and cleaning dynasty, and poet William Soutar (1898 - 1943). The cemetery also includes 100 graves of soldiers from the First and Second World Wars which are managed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Many of these soldiers died of wounds in Perth Royal Infirmary, which was in use as a war hospital. There are also more than 350 graves of Polish soldiers who died in Scotland. These are located next to the Jeanfield Road entrance, behind a large memorial, and date from 1940 to 1947. There are a number of civilian graves nearby of Poles who requested burial next to their wartime comrades. One of those buried here was Lt. Col. Gwido Langer (1894 - 1948), Head of the Polish Cipher Bureau which broke the German Enigma code in 1932. His body was exhumed in 2010 and reburied with full military honours in Poland.


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