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64
UNLAWFUL REMOVAL OF HUMAN REMAINS.
In December last, it became necessary to call the attention of builders and
other persons responsible for conducting building operations in the City, which
are likely to involve any disturbance of human remains in excavating, to the
importance of strict observance of the provision of Section 25 of the Burial
Act, 1857, which expressly enacts that :—
" Except in cases where a body is removed from one consecrated place
" of burial to another by faculty granted by an ordinary for that purpose,
" it shall not be lawful to remove any body, or the remains of any body,
" which may have been interred in any place of burial, without license
" under the hand of one of H.M. Principal Secretaries of State, and
" with such precautions as such Secretary of State may prescribe as the
" condition of such license ; and any person who shall remove any such
" body or remains, contrary to this enactment, or who shall neglect to
" observe the precautions prescribed as the condition of the license for
" removal, shall, on summary conviction, before any two justices of the
" peace, forfeit and pay for every such offence a sum not exceeding ten
" pounds."
The prohibition in this section extends to any place of burial, and not
merely to burying grounds which have been closed, or to burying grounds
provided by burial boards or otherwise. In the case of Reg. v. Sharpe, 26
L.J. (N.S.) M.C, 47 ; 7 Cox, C.C. 214, it was held to be an indictable
misdemeanour at common law to enter an unconsecrated burial ground, and
without the knowledge or consent of the owners of the ground, or authority
of any kind, to dig up and carry away a corpse buried therein ; and this, even
although the person committing the act may have been actuated by motives of
affection and respect to the dead, and of religious duty, and have conducted
the removal decently. The 15 and 16 Vict., c. 85, s. 42, enables places to be
established for the reception of bodies until they are interred. (Glen's Burial
Boards Act, 1881).
As it did not appear that this requirement was generally known, the
Committee, on my suggestion, directed the publication in the public press of
the following notice :—
Notice to Architects, Builders and others.
" The attention of Architects, Builders, and other persons connected
" with building operations in the City, which are likely to involve the
" disturbance of human remains, is directed to the responsibilities
" incurred by any breach of the following Section of the Burial Act of
" 1857, and to the importance of at once giving notice to the Medical
" Officer of Health of any cases where human remains are discovered :—