Father grieved at wrong grave for 30 years as daughter's headstone put in wrong place

A father has discovered he's been grieving for his daughter at the wrong grave for 30 years, because her headstone was put in the wrong place.

George Salt says he feels let down by the council. Picture: BBC

George Salt lost his daughter Victoria in July 1988, shortly after she was born. She was buried at Southern Cemetery in Manchester, and George has visited twice a year for the last three decades to sit by her grave and speak to her.

But he told the BBC he felt “let down” that he only found out he’d been grieving in the wrong place when he turned up recently to find Victoria’s headstone had been moved.

George salt has been grieving at the wrong grave for 30 years. Picture: BBC

“I looked down and was completely gobsmacked,” he said. “I thought, ‘where’s the stone gone?’

“I just wasn’t told. I feel so let down.

“When you go to a grave, you sit and talk and say what your troubles are but the annoying thing is you’re talking to a piece of ground where she isn’t there.”


George eventually found the headstone, which bears Victoria’s name and 16 others, in a different spot – over the public grave where she was actually buried.

Manchester City Council has offered its “sincere apologies” for the distress caused to George, and admitted the headstone had been moved due to an error in the 1980s.

It was only returned to its rightful place recently when cemetery workers checked their records and realised the mistake.

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