David Octavius Hill (1802-70)

Painter and Secretary of the Royal Scottish Academy, Hill is now remembered as a photographic pioneer. Working with his associate Robert Adamson from Rock House on Calton Hill, they produced some 3,000 calotypes from 1843 until the death of Adamson in 1848.

The calotype process, invented by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1839 and impoved upon by Adamson, required exposures of several minutes and bright sunlight. In this respect, their output is quite remarkable given that they were unable to work during the winter months.

A great number of their photographs included members of the Free Church, which Hill used in creating his best remembered painting The Free Church of Scotland (1843-66).

The bust was sculpted by his (second) wife, Amelia R Paton (1820-1904) who also worked on the Scott Monument in Princes Street and became the first woman to receive a major public commission for the Livingstone Monument in Princes Street Gardens.

Sam Bough (1822-78), Artist.	John Anderson (1833-1900), Zoologist.
John Goodsir (1814-67), Anatomist.	Robert William Thompson (1822-73), Engineer.
Even in well maintained graveyards damage happens, the photographs above were taken in 1999 and 2001. I suspect the damage occurred when the tree behind Mary Turnbull's memorial was being felled.
The angel marking the grave of Jane Gallwey is certainly one of the most beautiful I've found on my travels. The inscription reads, "Sacred to the beloved memory of Jane Gallwey who died 26th July 1879, erected by her loving daughter Lindsay".
The celtic cross, above, marks the grave of Elsie Maud Inglis (1864-1917)

Major General Sir Hector MacDonald (1853-1903), born the son of a crofter in Easter Ross began his military career as a private in the 2nd Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders. During the Afghan campaigns he won his commission with spectacular acts of bravery and superb leadership. In South Africa he distinguished himself against the Boers and virtually saved the whole of the British army at the Battle of Omdurman.

But he also had enemies, he was accused of homosexuality and on his way home to answer the charges committed suicide. He was buried in great secrecy at the Dean and rumours began to circulate that in fact he had faked his death and had taken on the identity of his German cousin Colonel von Mackensen who, by coincidence, had died the very same day.

Months later it was announced the von Mackensen was not really dead but had just been seriously ill. By the end of the Great War Colonel von Makensen had developed amazing military skills and had risen to the rank of Field Marshall. Eventually he became Commander-in-Chief of all German and Austrian armies at the Eastern Front.

At the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, an aging von Mackensen was seen sitting next to Hitler. Was this really MacDonald ? And does the coffin in the Dean contain merely stones as has been rumoured ?