The North Front Cemetery, standing under the shadow of Gibraltar’s imposing North Face on one side and the airport on the other, is the only cemetery still in use for burials in Gibraltar. Opened to internments in 1756 on the low peninsular between the “Devil’s Tower” and the neutral Ground it was opened due to serious concerns over the burial of corpses in the Red Sands which was not only the main water catchment area but also used by the military as a training ground. The constant threat of epidemic outbreaks necessitated a cemetery well clear of the garrison and North Front Cemetery was identified as a convenient burial ground for that purpose.

The cemetery was divided into five sections; Catholic, Church of England, Presbyterian, Wesleyan, and another section for the denominations. In 1848 another section for Jews was opened. A new portion of the Catholic section was consecrated on the 11th November 1878, by the then Vicar Apostolic Very Reverend Mgr. Scandella, Bishop of Antinoe. Today the cemetery is divided into three sections only, Christians, Jews and a smaller unconsecrated section.

North Front Cemetery is also an important military cemetery for members of the Armed Services who died in both World wars. It was used throughout the 1914 – 1918 War for the burial of sailors and soldiers who died on ships passing Gibraltar, or in the Military Hospital. These burials number 326, and are scattered throughout the different divisions of the cemetery. A Cross of Sacrifice was erected after the war, west of the cemetery, at the junction between Winston Churchill Avenue and Devil’s Tower Road. The number of war graves from the 1939-1945 War amount to 360. The majority are those of men of the garrison, but some are fatalities from officers and men who had been captured in France and had managed to escape to Gibraltar. Two of the war dead for this period belong to Gunners John Azzopardi and Charles Povedano members of the Gibraltar Defence Force enlisted with 82 H.A.A., Royal Artillery.

During the Spanish occupation it was common practice for all Roman Catholics to be buried in their church; they were deposited in a deep pit and quantity of lime covered the corpse to hasten decomposition. Many of the oldest grave inscriptions can still be viewed today embedded in the walls of the Cathedral of St Mary the Crowned and King’s Chapel.

Possibly the oldest known cemetery in Gibraltar and now virtually obliterated in Deadman’s Cemetery also known as St Jago’s Cemetery. It is believed that this was originally the site of an earlier graveyard which served the residents of the poor Spanish district known as “La Turba”. St Jago’s Cemetery stretched from Charles V Wall to the area now occupied by Lyonnaise Des Aux. It also carries the distinction of being the only cemetery within the city walls of Gibraltar. After the capture of Gibraltar in 1704 St Jago’s was extensively used as a Protestant burial ground both for civilians and the Garrison’s rank and file. In 1932 many of the remaining gravestones were removed on the orders of Governor General Sir Alexander J. Godley, G.C.B,K,C,M,G and placed in Trafalgar Cemetery were they were saved from entire destruction. The earliest headstone now set into the eastern wall of Trafalgar Cemetery is dated to 1738.

North Front cemetery is host to a number of important and famous personalities including two Governors of Gibraltar, General Sir Lothian Nicholson (who died whilst in Office) and Lt. Gen. Sir Kenneth Anderson. Also interred in the Jewish section is Gibraltar’s long standing Chief Minister Sir Joshua Hassan. Although relatively unknown, North Front is also the resting place of Victoria Cross winner Thomas Henry Kavanagh (d.1882) and George Campbell Henderson who was posthumously awarded the George Cross following the Bedenham explosion in 1951.