Sudeten Cemetery - Tomslake, British Columbia
Posted by: T0SHEA
N 55° 33.575 W 120° 05.076
10U E 683860 N 6160923
At the northern edge of the tiny community of Tomslake stands a Roman Catholic Church, its cemetery, a small museum, and a memorial to the Sudeten German refugees who founded the community.
Waymark Code: WM14G6E
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 07/03/2021
Views: 0
Sudeten Cemetery
Sudeten Cemetery is located in the Peace River Regional District in Tomslake, British Columbia. According to Find a Grave there are 232 recoded memorials and the oldest recorded is Karl Fister born November 15, 1896 and passed away on September 3, 1956 at the age of 59 years of age.
Mr. Fister is the oldest known interment, however, in 1943 the Catholic Church received permission to use the Churchyard for a cemetery. It is indicated at Find a Grave that the cemetery was also known as Maria Hill Roman Catholic Cemetery, which I can not verify.
Most of the headstones appear to be fairly new, some are black with white lettering. Some of the personal sentiments are in German, such as; Hier Ruhet in Frieden Unser Sohn, translate: Our son rests here in peace.
Featured Gravestone:
Hier Ruhet in Frieden
Unser Sohn
Horst E. Langer
1928 - 1953
Close to the entrance is a small columbarium and the cemetery cross is near the rear fence line.
There is a small church near the cemetery and is the only church in the vicinity, the building is still used today for weddings and funerals. At the rear of the church is the Tomslake Museum, housed in a school teacherage building from the Tate Creek Elementary School which was moved next to the Church in 1986.
This small rural church was built by the Sudeten German refugees shortly after they arrived at Tupper Lake, now Tomslake, in 1939. A simple wood framed rectangle with a small narthex at the front and a shed roofed vestry off the rear, a small, simple, steeple stands at the peak of the gable roof over the entrance.