Dame Diana Johnson

The Visit

As some of you may already know the local M.P., Dame Diana Johnson, visited Hull General Cemetery recently. The cemetery lies within her constituency, Hull North. However, she didn’t just drop in. This was a planned visit and due to one or two things it’s been a year in the arranging.

The first part of making this event happen was simple chance. I was taking some paperwork to the Wyke Area Office at the Avenues Centre in October 2019. As I crossed the car park, I saw Diana walking towards her car. Thinking quickly, not something I’m known for, I hailed her and we had a brief chat.

The Gist

The gist of this was that I asked her if she would be interested in supporting the work of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery. She said she liked the sound of the idea but that she was deep into the de-selection issue that was happening at the time. I said I’d contact her again when the issue was over.

So, back in February 2020, I contacted her once again. A tentative date was put forward of late March. Well, we all know what happened then; lockdown, and the meeting was postponed.

I kept the idea of the meeting alive by maintaining contact with Diana’s P.A. Bill and I also donated one of our books to her. This was the War Dead of Hull General Cemetery which we felt was appropriate as Diana Johnson is also the co-chair of the parliamentary group with links to the War Graves Commission.

A Window of Opportunity

Eventually, a small window of opportunity was created, where Diana was free to visit the cemetery and have a discussion on how she could help the Friends in their work.

The result was that Diana Johnson and Kevin Morton, her parliamentary aide turned up for the meeting. Accompanying them were Abhimanyu Singh, ward councillor and Karen Woods, prospective councillor for the ward.

None of them had ever been in the cemetery, although Diana did say that, like many people, she had sat in her car in traffic on Spring Bank West, and wondered what that green space was.

The Rule of Six

We met in Cactus Café on Princes Avenue and yes, we abided by the rule of six, as we sat over our hot drinks. Bill and I found Diana was open to supporting us, although she was unsure what she could do. Mr Singh also said that he felt the council could help. Bill had provided some analysis of the needs of the Friends and circulated these.

The main issues at the moment are the provision of storage for the tools and machinery that the Friends have managed to acquire over the past couple of years and skips to remove all of the green waste that the work produces.

After the hot drink, we walked along Princes Avenue to the cemetery, entering it at Prim Corner. We were blessed with lovely autumn weather and we had a gentle walk right around the cemetery, with Bill and myself pointing out the improvements that have been made and the usual important monuments.

It’s fair to say that all of the group were pleasantly surprised by how good the cemetery combined the blend of the rural aspect with important local history that, as all of you who know the cemetery, will be familiar with.

Connections Bearing Fruit

After two hours we had completed the tour of the cemetery and both Bill and myself felt that we had made some useful connections that will bear fruit over the next few years to help the Friends in its work to restore the Hull General Cemetery.