Old Drift Cemetery
The Old Drift Cemetery is a small burial site near the Zambezi River in what is now Zambia in the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park. It houses the graves of early European settlers and visitors to nearby Victoria Falls who died of diseases such as malaria . The settlers founded Old Drift in the area of the swamps and waterfalls, but left the area because of the mosquitoes that were there in abundance and the diseases that they transmit. They eventually founded a settlement in a slightly higher elevation, where today's city of Livingstone was formed.
The inscription on a cast iron plaque on the grave site reads:
THE OLD DRIFT CEMETERY
This cemetery forms the last resting place of a number of the early settlers who died at the old drift between the year 1898 and the time of the removal to Livingstone.
Among those known to be buried here are: -
- Georges Mercier, Paris Missionary, died 1908.
- John Neil Wilson, aged 45, died 11 January 1903.
- Alexander W. Findlay, age 35, died 9 January 1904.
- Ernest Collins, age 34, died 25 March 1904.
- Miss E. Elliott, died August 8, 1904.
- Samuel Thomas Alexander, aged 68, died 11 September 1904.
- David Smith, died April 7, 1905.
And 14 others whose names are not known.
supporting documents
- ↑ Chris McIntyre: Bradt Zambia: The Bradt Travel Guide . Bradt Travel Guides, 2008, ISBN 978-1-84162-226-2 , p. 160.
- ^ Plaque from Old Drift . In: Zambia & Rhodesia Genealogy leads web site . December 5, 2009. Retrieved July 28, 2019. (Name is Samuel Taylor Alexander)
Coordinates: 17 ° 52 ′ 5 ″ S , 25 ° 48 ′ 1 ″ E