Old Protestant Cemetery, George Town

Old Protestant Cemetery

Grave of Capt. Francis Light
Details
Established	1786
Location	George Town, Penang
Country	Malaysia
Type	Protestant cemetery

The Old Protestant Cemetery, also known as Northam Road Cemetery, is a disused Christian cemetery in George Town, Penang, Malaysia. After more than a century of neglect, it is now listed as a Class 1 Heritage Site and is maintained by the Penang Heritage Trust.

The cemetery lies in a grove of frangipani trees along Northam Road (now Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah) near the historic core of George Town, only metres away from the beachfront and a short walk from the Eastern & Oriental Hotel.

Established in 1786, the cemetery is of significant historic interest: it is older than many better-known burial grounds such as Père Lachaise in Paris, Powązki in Warsaw, the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna, and Highgate Cemetery in London. It is also 35 years older than the Old Protestant Cemetery in Macau. In 2012, conservation works were undertaken to protect and preserve the site, although there was some concern about how the restoration was done.

Northam Road Cemetery was the first cemetery to be consecrated after Captain Francis Light founded the Prince of Wales Island Settlement in 1786. The first recorded burial was of Lt. William Murray of the Bengal Artillery in 1787; the grave marker is no longer extant. The earliest surviving grave marker is that of one H.D.D. Cunningham from 1789 (the exact location of his/her grave within the grounds is unknown, though the plaque survives on a wall of the cemetery). The last person to be buried at the cemetery was Cornelia Josephine Van Someren in 1892. After that, the cemetery was closed and subsequent Christian burials have been carried out in the Western Road Cemetery.