While working on my guidebook project (it’s with designers now, coming to a book store near you soon!) this week, I re-found the very interesting gravestone of Mr. Harry Bernard Russell, and wanted to share his story. In 2023, my husband and I worked on a collection of gravestones at Coley’s Point’s St. John the Evangelist’s Church and churchyard, near Bay Roberts, in Newfoundland. This was part of a three-phase project at this site in collaboration with the parish, which was a great experience. I wrote about the site in my guidebook, if you want to learn more! We’re just going to talk about Harry today though!

This is the gravestone of Harry Bernard Russell. His gravestone was likely carved in St. John’s, and had broken at some point in the past. In the ‘before’ photos, you can see the holes from a pin repair, and a fairly adhesive that we had to remove. Unfortunately, this old adhesive dyed part of the marble blue, and I’m really hoping the cleaning treatment does help lift that stain, but only time will tell there! The stone was also set in concrete into the base at some point, not by us! I do not recommend anyone set gravestones into concrete (or even on historic buildings, but we can talk about that later). We carefully removed the old adhesive, and as much of the flaking white paint as possible, before resetting the break using a stone conservation epoxy, cleaning with D2 and water, and filling any spaces in the break using a fine lime mortar. This work was done at the request of the parish, and we are archaeologists who can hold permits to work at these historic sites, so please do not go out and try to fix gravestones on a whim!

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