National Monuments Act, 1930

Burials in national monuments.

17.—(1) Where the Commissioners or a local authority are the owners or the guardians of a national monument which is an ecclesiastical building, the Commissioners may, if and whenever they think it necessary or desirable so to do, by order prohibit the burial (save as is hereinafter mentioned) of the remains of deceased persons within such national monument or within such distance thereof as shall be specified in such order, but no such order shall be made in respect of a national monument of which a local authority are the owners or the guardians save on the application or with the consent of such local authority.

(2) The Commissioners may except from the operation of an order made by them under this section the burial of the remains of such one or more persons specified or identified in such order as they shall think proper, and, where there is in or under a monument in respect of which an order is intended to be made under this section a vault or other burial place in which the remains of deceased owners of such monument and the remains of deceased members of the family of such owners are entitled to be and usually are buried, the Commissioners shall except from the operation of such order the burial of such remains in such vault or other burial place.

(3) Where an order has been made under this section in relation to a national monument it shall not be lawful for any person, without the consent of the Commissioners or the local authority (as the case may be) who are the owners or the guardians of such monument, to erect any headstone, tombstone, railing, or other similar structure on or around any grave within or in the precincts of such monument.

(4) Every person who buries the remains of a deceased person or causes or procures the remains of a deceased person to be buried within or in the precincts of a national monument in contravention of an order made under this section or who erects any headstone, tombstone, railing or other similar structure or causes or procures any such structure to be erected on or around, any grave in contravention of this section shall be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds.