Frederick Stanford Elkington

Most visitors to the Naval Plot assume the burials are for Americans who served in the U.S. Navy, but they are wrong on both counts. This burial is one of two that honor British soldiers and there is a third for a member of the Argentine Navy.

Frederick was born in Suffolk, England, northeast of London, and was the sixth of eight children. His first trip to North America was in the early 1900s. He was married in Montreal, Canada and a daughter was born in 1909. The family didn’t stay long, moving back to Middlesex (now part of London) by 1911.

Frederick joined the Suffolk Regiment of the British Army at the outbreak of the Great War in August, 1914. He rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and was decorated for his service when he was discharged in August, 1918.

A year later he was working as a civil engineer on board the British Tanker, SS British Marquis. While enroute to Port Arthur, Texas to load crude oil for the Royal Navy, Frederick was taken off the ship at the Port of Philadelphia for treatment of an illness. He was rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital just before Thanksgiving but never regained consciousness. He died a week later of meningitis.

Word was sent to his family but they couldn’t afford transportation of his remains. The British Consul received permission from the Navy to bury him here.

British veterans living in this country had formed the British Great War Veterans of America, and the Philadelphia chapter heard of Col. Elkington’s death. They turned out in force to give him a military funeral and marched through the cemetery. A firing party and a band was provided by the United States Marines.

Someone of British background may occasionally lay a “poppy cross” like the one shown above.  These are placed in the center of the base of graves of British soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen buried all over the world in commemoration of “Remembrance Day,” which is the Sunday before Armistice Day, November 11.

The other British soldier buried here has his own notable story, having died in Philadelphia from the 1918 pandemic. His name is Sgt. Malcom MacFarlane. The sailor from Argentina, Lazaro Auzoarra, was 21 when he died at the Naval Hospital from tuburculosis in 1916. No other details are available except for this photo of his gravestone and location in Naval 1, Row 7, grave 9.