The Bell family buried Patriarch Thomas in 2005 and for 17 years they have made regular visits to his gravestone at Holy Trinity Cemetery in Wingate.
A “perfect storm” of problems led to critical errors believed to be due to human error by stonemasons, an investigation has found.of
Sunderland’s vicar, Bob Cooper, said the mistake was a result of “tremendous sadness” following a number of wrong protocols.
A mason installed a headstone for Bell in 2005, but it was “placed on the wrong grave” due to an “inadequate process” and “poor record keeping,” Cooper said.
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He said the priest in charge of the burial at the time “did not keep records to the extent considered best practice”.
“The term ‘perfect storm’ is used all too often in modern parlance, but it seems especially apt in this case,” Cooper said.
“There can be no guarantee that historic cases like this will not happen again, as gaps will appear in the records of the Diocese of Durham and dioceses further afield for a number of reasons.”
Some of the recommendations will be implemented within the diocese to ensure that confusion does not recur.of
