I know my baby sister is one of 300 bodies in Oldham mass grave – mum never got to hold her before she was taken from us
A WOMAN whose baby sister is one of the 300 bodies in a mass grave in Oldham says her mum never got to hold her before she was taken away.
Gillian Davidson – now the mother of two boys herself – went to Royton Cemetery in the Greater Manchester town with her brother on Friday after hearing the news of the grave’s discovery.
Their mum – who is still alive – had a stillborn 47 years ago.
While she was told the baby – called Angela – was in the cemetery all those years ago, she was tragically never told where her grave was.
Gillian, 49, from Oldham, and her brother laid flowers during their visit after hearing about it on Facebook.
The grave – which measures 12x12ft – was found by another woman looking for her own brothers, with one stillborn and the other dying within five hours of his birth in 1962.
Gillian said: “I phoned my mum up this morning… she told me they’d found stillborn babies – my mum had a stillborn 47 years ago and she told me the stillborn was in Royton Cemetery.
“We’ve come, got some flowers, found the plot and just laid some flowers for what would have been my sister.”
She went on to say: “She’s never been forgotten. I was the first baby, she was the second and my mum’s always talked about her. What if this, what if that.
“I know I had a sister two years younger than me. We’d be best friends forever.”
Referring to when her sister was born, Gillian said: “She went into labour at eight months, she was taken to Oldham Royal Hospital expecting to deliver a baby – they didn’t know what sex it was until the baby was born.
“It was born at eight months, still born, so my mum didn’t even see the baby. They took the baby straight off her and took it away, and that’s it, over and done with.”
Gillian said her mum was told the baby’s body was “going to go in a public grave with other babies, I’m assuming”.
“She got told it was somewhere in Royton, that was all.
“Now this has come up this morning and that’s why I’m here after talking to my mum.”
Gillian agreed a memorial should be set up to mark the space.
“I bet lots of people who don’t have relatives here will come because it’s a surreal thing to happen,” she continued.
“I would come even if it wasn’t anything to do with me – just to lay flowers out of respect.”
Out of all the remains discovered, 146 were of stillborn babies, as well as a further 128 babies and young children, according to councillors Maggie Hurley and Jade Hughes, who revealed the grim find in a statement on Friday.
Up until the mid-1980s, stillborn babes were often taken from families with no consultation with their parents, who would not know where they were eventually laid to rest.
The councillors said: “It’s a stark injustice that parents were denied the fundamental right to bury their babies – a right that should be inherent and unquestionable.
“This situation should stir our collective sense of fairness and empathy.”
They added the woman who found the grave was left “in tears” following the discovery, which left her “feeling a profound sense of loss and injustice”.
She needed emotional and practical help to cope with the trauma of her find, they said.
The grave is not the only one of its kind in the cemetery, with another three of a similar size, the councillors said.
Of the 303 bodies found, they added there were only 147 names online, with 156 names missing.
The councillors said: “We also asked about the other cemeteries across the borough, and we were informed that there is missing information for these cemeteries as well.
“The staff are currently in the process of rectifying this by cross-referencing all available records and updating the online database.”
They have put forward a motion to Oldham Council to “recognise the injustice” that has taken place, the Oldham Chronicle reports.
The statement read: “How many babies are laying in Royton Cemetery in mass graves, their identities unknown to their grieving relatives?
“It’s a stark injustice that parents were denied the fundamental right to bury their babies, a right that should be inherent and unquestionable.
“This situation should stir our collective sense of fairness and empathy.
“We cannot change what has happened, but we can ensure that the babies born sleeping are named, recognised, and never forgotten.”
Parents of stillborn babies or those dying shortly after birth were not consulted about funeral arrangements before the mid-1980s, according to Sands, a stillbirth and neonatal death charity.
The organisation said: “Before then, parents were not usually involved and many were not told what happened to their baby’s body.”
It added: “Some parents who have tried to trace the grave or cremation record of a baby who died some time ago have been successful.”
In many cases, the charity explained, stillborn babies were buried in a shared grave with other babies.
Sands said there was a “general belief, both amongst professionals and society as a whole, that it was best to carry on as though nothing had happened”.
“You may have been discouraged from talking about or remembering your baby and discouraged from expressing grief,” they added.
The two independent councillors said the woman who made the discovery had set out to locate the resting place for her brothers after reading about Gina Jacobs, who found her son, who was stillborn in 1969, in a mass grave at a cemetery in Wirral in 2022.
The Sun has approached Oldham Council for comment.