A city council has apologised for burying people in the wrong graves in its cemetery amid claims it has lost the burial site of two baby twins.
The blunder was exposed during a public meeting where it was said there had been at least two mix-ups in the cemetery in Coney Hill, Gloucester.
Councillor Alastair Chambers said the case of the allegedly lost twins happened about 10 years ago and emerged after he raised the issue at a council meeting last week.
A man, who did not want to be named, told him that his twins only lived for about a day after they were born.
He bought a grave for them in the cemetery but was later told the council could not say where they were buried and he still does not know now.
The councillor added that a woman, who also did not want to be named, recently discovered that a grave she had bought eight years ago for herself, so she could be buried next to her late parents, had been filled with another woman’s body.
The error was seemingly because that person had the same distinctive first name as her but not the same surname, he said.
Gloucester City Council declined to comment on those two cases but apologised to the family and friends of two people who it said were buried in the wrong locations at the cemetery.
Councillor Alastair Chambers said the case of the allegedly lost twins happened about 10 years ago
The blunder was exposed during a public meeting where it was said there had been at least two mix-ups in the cemetery in Coney Hill, Gloucester (pictured)
It followed its deputy leader saying at the council meeting that he had not been aware of the matter.
Councillor Declan Wilson added: ‘It sounds like something out of a horror movie.
‘Certainly something like this needs to be addressed pretty much immediately.’
Council bosses said they had followed all procedures to move the graves to the correct spots and had been working sensitively with the families involved.
It is not known when the mix-up happened but it is thought that the two burials happened in wrong locations for unrelated reasons.
The council said that at no point were families of the deceased present at the wrong burial.
Cllr Chambers said: ‘I am both shocked and deeply saddened to learn that the city council has been burying bodies in the wrong graves.
‘It’s hard to believe that such a devastating mistake could even happen.’
Gloucester City Council apologised to the family and friends of two people who it said were buried in the wrong locations at the cemetery
He said he suspected that the errors had been due to the incompetence of staff at the cemetery.
The councillor claimed dead people’s names were still being entered in a ledger that dated back to Victorian times rather than being listed on a computer.
He added that people told him they came to him about the matter because of his previous investigation into the city council-run cemetery.
That was in November 2023 and concerned groundskeepers driving mini diggers and other heavy machinery over some graves, damaging headstones.
As well as standing up for people last year when the council began removing decorative borders placed around the graves of their loved ones.
Of the latest issue at the site, he said: ‘It’s pretty horrific. Tragic. It’s unimaginable for the grieving relatives.’
A spokesperson for Gloucester City Council said: ‘During members’ questions at the council meeting on 27 March 2025, it was requested that an investigation be carried out into incorrect burials at the cemetery.
‘The council is aware of two graves in recent years that have been placed in the wrong location within the cemetery grounds.
It is not known when the mix-up happened but it is thought that the two burials happened in wrong locations for unrelated reasons
‘We have followed all processes and procedures to move those graves to the correct locations in the cemetery and have been working sensitively with the families involved to resolve these.
‘We apologise to the family and friends of the bereaved and we would like to reassure the public that we have worked with and supported the families throughout this process.
‘Our thoughts and feelings remain with the family and friends of the deceased.’
It declined to comment on whether an old fashioned ledger system was being used at the cemetery and whether this might have contributed to the mistakes that were made.
