VISIT TO THE ENGLISH CEMETERY
Last Thursday on the 12th of November the fourth year students went on a visit to the English Cementery in Málaga, a historic churchyard situated on Príes avenue. It is the oldest non-catholic cemetery in the Spanish peninsula due to the fact that the English funeral practices were forbidden in Spain, until the last British consul Mark got the transfer of land to the British crown.
The visit had three parts. In the first part, the students in groups of five took part in a gymkhana in English throughout the cemetery. During this game the students learnt about the history of the cemetery as well as seeing tombs of celebrities such as Robert Boyd, a young Irish liberal that went along with General Torrijos, ending in death by execution in 1831 on the beaches of San Andrés. The poet Jorge Guillén, the British Gerald Brenan and his wife the American writer Gamel Woolsey, and the German victims of the shipwreck of the Gneisenau frigate were also found by the students.
In the second part, the students enjoyed typical British tea and some biscuits to experience “Tea Time”. A traditional British custom of high society people, and later on the working class, who would share a tea accompanied with biscuits during conversation and good company.
Finally, the morning ended with a debate directed by two specialists in which students reflected about basic concepts such as tolerance, respect and prejudices to understand a little more about the history of the Cemetery as a perfect link of many different cultures, religions and funeral rituals that configures the English Cemetery of Málaga.