Grave Thoughts from England Trivia Quiz

Answer: Any of these

IHSOYS represents the name of Jesus in Greek. (I have used the nearest English equivalent for the actual Greek letters).
IHS was, in the middle ages, an abbreviation for the name of Jesus written in Greek (the language of the New Testament). I is the Greek Iota, H the Greek Eta and S the Greek Sigma.
A later interpretation was that they were the initials of the Greek phrase "Iesous Hemeterous Sotar" which means "Jesus Our Saviour".
A more recent interpretation is that it is short for the Latin phrase "Iesus Hominum Salvator", Jesus Saviour of Men.
You'd have to ask the person who ordered the inscription what they intended it to mean, but in modern times it is almost certainly simply meant to represent the name of Jesus.
IHS also stands for In Hoc Signis (In This Sign), the words the Roman Emperor Constantine heard when he had the vision of the cross and the assurance that he would win the coming battle in the name of Christ. (Thanks to player cwmruambyth for this additional information). It seems unlikely that this would be what the person ordering the inscription had in mind though.

Answer: Roman Catholic

This frequently found phrase reflects the Catholic belief that prayers for a dead person can help them get through Purgatory faster. I apologise if my explanation shows my imperfect understanding of this matter.

Answer: In a church floor

As well as "ledger" being a description of a large book, it is also used for a large flat stone. The lower of a pair of millstones for instance is called a ledger. In the context of burials, a ledgerstone is a flat stone or slab covering a grave. In old churches one finds many ledgerstones on the floor of aisles and trancepts, often covering the actual grave, but also sometimes acting simply as a memorial. Bath Abbey, for example, has the greatest number of ledgerstones in England: a total of 891 encompassing a wide cross-section of society.

Answer: Epitaph

An epitaph is defined as the inscription on a tomb, and is also a brief composition written on the occasion of a person's death.

An epigram is short pithy or witty saying. Another definition is a short poem leading up to a witty or ingenious ending.

An epilogue is a summary, or more often the final part of a book or speech.

A epithet is a short phrase describing the characteristics of a person or thing, but not necessarily in connection with their death

Answer: Requiescat in Pace

Requiescat in Pace is the Latin phrase meaning Rest in Peace. It might be that the person ordering the inscription thought that the English translation was what it meant anyway.
The other answers are jokes; at least I hope they are.
Remain in Place might be appropriate for someone you were glad to see the end of.
Reunited in Paradise is a nice thought relating to a devoted couple.
Really Interesting Person might be appropriate for somebody you really liked.

Answer: A life cut short

A broken column is generally taken to indicate that the deceased died relatively young, or perhaps in the prime of life, before they had accomplished all that they might have done.
The symbol is also associated with Freemasonry, where it represents the character and spirit of an important person.
Generally the broken-off piece of the column is not present. However I have seen a memorial on the wall of Bath Abbey where the broken-off piece of the column is shown leaning against the upright piece of column.

Answer: Re-enterable, often by way of steps

The usual purpose of a vault is to provide burial places for members of a family, so they may be close together in death. In my Southampton Cemetery the entrance to a vault is covered by a flat stone, which when removed reveals steps leading down to walls where niches are provided in which the coffins are placed. Vaults are not filled in, but are left open with a strong roof to support any monument that might be placed on it. Sizes vary from a 4-grave vault to a 12-grave vault. Shortly after the cemetery opened, around 1850, Charles Deacon purchased a 12-person vault for his family, where one day he buried a child who had just died, together with three other children who had been exhumed from where they had previously been buried in a local churchyard.
Graves may be lined with bricks, which makes them more suitable for multiple burials, usually for family members.

Some grave plots are reserved for 'pauper burials' where there was no money forthcoming to pay for a better grave. These are unlined and may contain a large number of burials, usually in Victorian times of inmates of the local 'workhouse'. The record in our cemetery is 28 burials in a single plot!

Answer: Cenotaph

The famous Cenotaph in Whitehall, London, is a memorial to the dead of World War One, and later wars, but of course nobody is buried there. In Southampton Old Cemetery there are a couple of memorials to ship's chief engineers, who died of fever in the West Indies.

A number of Scottish engineers were employed by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company that ran a service between Southampton and the Caribbean, and in the West Indies ships and their crews faced dangers at sea from hurricanes and uncharted reefs, and when ashore from malaria and yellow fever.

Answer: GRO Death Index

Everybody who dies in England, regardless of their nationality, must have their deaths registered in the district in which they died, and a Death Certificate obtained, after which they may then be interred. All these registrations are listed in the General Register Office (GRO) index. The first few Belgian soldiers who were buried in Southampton had in fact died during the voyage from Ostend, and were dead on arrival. Their deaths were therefore not registered with the GRO.
Local newspapers were usually pretty good about recording these burials, but often had difficulties with the names, especially Flemish ones.
The cemetery burial register is complete, but again sometimes had mistakes in the names.
The tombstones are official Belgian war memorial design, with the inscriptions in both French and Flemish. They were installed in the early 1920's replacing the plain wooden crosses that had been used before.

Answer: Church of England or Episcopal

The act of Consecration is the dedication of a plot of land for burials, and is performed by an Anglican (Church of England) Bishop. After permission is obtained, a special service is held which often involves the Bishop walking the perimeter of the land.

At the conclusion of the service the Bishop signs the "Sentence of Consecration" after which members of the Church of England (Anglicans) may be buried in the consecrated ground. Anglican church burial grounds (churchyards) are consecrated as a whole, but municipal cemeteries must by law set aside un-consecrated areas for the burial of those of other, or no, faiths. Examples of other faiths buried in Southampton Old Cemetery are Methodist and Baptist in the Unconsecrated area, and Roman Catholic and Jewish each in their own designated area. Quakers have a separate burial ground elsewhere in Southampton.