This is a post prompted by a holiday. Sometimes a seemingly straightforward question opens up an intriguing puzzle that can raise more questions than it answers. Recently we were in Cornwall, and while out for a coastal stroll, we happened on the parish church at St.Levan. I have a huge soft spot for graveyards and an indulgent wife. So we stopped for a look. Gravestones, graveyards and memorials are always interesting ( but that’s for another post) and St.Levan was no exception. The one that that stood out most was a substantial headstone erected in memory of Richard Maddern to which was appended the epitaph of his son. Richard Oliver Maddern “died on board HMS Rattler in 1863 on his passage from Nagasaki to Yokohama” when he was only 23. I had to read this a couple of times. At first, I assumed he was a sailor, not an unreasonable assumption in a coastal Cornish village. But when I checked the listing for Cornish Naval deaths 1730-1960 (available at www.opc-cornwall...