Words from the Gravestone Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bette Davis

Bette Davis was not stunningly beautiful in the conventional way of film stars and she had to fight to get her contract and the roles she craved. When she did, her acting took her to the heights. She won two Oscars and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute.

The inscription on her gravestone in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills was suggested by Joe Mankiewicz, who wrote and directed her great film "All About Eve".

Answer: Ludolph van Ceulen

This Dutch mathematician was so pleased with his achievement that he asked for
those digits to be inscribed on his tombstone. He died of unknown causes, aged 70 in 1610 in Leiden, where he was professor of mathematics.
Since then a team of scientists at Tokyo University have worked on further digits, but it is unlikely that those will be inscribed on their tombs - there are 1.2 billion of them!

Answer: Spike Milligan

Spike died of liver failure in 2002. He rose to fame as a member of the Goon Show. His family could not agree on the wording and for a while there was no marker on the grave. When the wording was chosen, even though it was not original, the church authorities would only accept it if it were written in Gaelic.
When Bill Horsman of the Goon Show Preservation Society heard of the chosen words, he said that they were typical of the lines Spike uttered and declared "We all fell about laughing when we heard."

Answer: Percy Bysshe Shelley

The quote is from "Ariel's song" in "The Tempest".
Shelley died in 1822 when his boat overturned off the Italian coast. His body was retrieved and cremated, but legend has it that his heart would not burn, so it was pulled from the ashes and given to his grieving widow. Not knowing what to do with it, she kept it in a drawer. Years later it was discovered and buried elsewhere, away from his own ashes.

Answer: Sir Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Churchill was the British Prime Minister (1940-45 and 1951-55), renowned for his stirring speeches.
General Eisenhower was the American forces leader.
Douglas Bader was the RAF pilot who became famous because he had lost both legs in flying accidents, but still insisted on flying a fighter plane.

Answer: An unknown soldier

Throughout the world there are graves in which lie the bodies of unidentified solder chosen to represent the many unknown soldiers who fell for their country and cause.

Answer: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The author of the Sherlock Holmes stories also wrote many other books of heroic heroes, including the Professor Challenger Series and several historical novels.

Answer: Sir Christopher Wren

Sir Christopher Wren was the architect of many London (England) churches, following the Great Fire of 1666. He designed St Paul's Cathedral, where he is buried and where this epitaph can be found.
There were several pharaohs of Egypt with the name Amenhotep. They were all responsible for the building of temples and statues. Amenhotep III in particular had a spectacular mortuary temple constructed.
Leonardo da Vinci, although not leaving any buildings, designed a great many, especially ones for military use.
John A B Koch started out as a handyman, but founded the great construction company that bears his name.

Answer: Penny

This is one of the many tongue-in-cheek gravestone epitaphs that can be found in English country churchyards. A penny was a coin in pre-decimal money. 240 pence made a pound, so they were not worth a great deal. The deceased's name was Penny.

Answer: young

This is another inscription from an English country churchyard. Was he well loved, and subject here to a bit of fun or is the implication that he was not a particularly good man? Who knows?