John Burghersh Forbes (1819-1895) joined the 4th Light Dragoons (later the 4th Hussars) at an early age. He was fighting in the Crimean War at the age of 35 and was wounded in the charge of the Light Brigade in 1854 at Balaclava. Forbes was taken prisoner. After his discharge from the army, Forbes became Regimental Sergeant Major of the Northumberland Hussars. For the last 25 years of his life he was Riding Master at the Riding School on Northumberland Road. He received a full military funeral with his oak coffin carried on a gun carriage drawn by six horses.

Dr Dennis Embleton (1810-1900) was physician at the Newcastle Infirmary between 1853 and 1878 and the first Professor of Medicine in Newcastle. Embleton's dispenser at the infirmary was James Crossley Eno. Eno's Fruit Salts was a laxative drink for which Embleton apparently provided the recipe.

William Edward Curtis (1889-1969) was Professor of Physics at Newcastle University for nearly 30 years from 1926. He was once of Britain's chief atomic research pioneers and a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1962 he became a CBE for services to education. The public lecture theatre in the Herschel Building at Newcastle University was named the Curtis Auditorium in his memory.

Edward Brough (1846-1933) was a grocer and benefactor born in America. He was brought to Tyneside aged two. He went on to work for a firm of provision importers and then was a partner in a wholesale provision business importing butter and eggs. At the age of 42 Edward and his eldest son John William set up their own wholesale provision business at a shop in Farrington Court, Bigg Market. They branched into retail and had a shop in Blackett Street. Their successful business was sold to the Meadow Dairy Co Ltd in 1919. The Broughs were generous to local charities, especially the Poor Children's Holiday Association. They donated a house in Whickham to be used as the Edith Brough Children's Home. In his will Edward left each of his employees a year's wages.

Eileen Maud Blair (1905-1945) was the first wife of George Orwell (real name Eric Arthur Blair), journalist and novelist. Eileen was the daughter of a customs collector. She was born Eileen O' Shaughnessy in South Shields and attended Sunderland High School then went to Oxford University. She later managed a typing bureau. Eric Arthur Blair married her in 1936. During World War Two Eileen produced the BBC radio programme The Kitchen Front. Her husband was a BBC war correspondent for the Indian Service. In 1945 Eileen died of a heart attack following a routine operation at a private clinic in Fernwood House, Clayton Road, Jesmond. George Orwell's most celebrated novels were Animal Farm and 1984. He died in 1950 in London aged 47 from tuberculosis.

Gustavo Barawitzka (1856-1936) was the founder and proprietor of the Criterion Restaurant in Market Street. He arrived on Tyneside from Italy in the 1870s and obtained British nationality in 1901. In 1891 he organised a banquet to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the storming of Rome which led to the unification of Italy. His impressive monument is in classical style and stands in the south-west corner of the cemetery.

St. John's Church is 12th century in origin. In 1589 340 plague victims were apparently buried at St. John's. Prisoners from Northumberland executed at the Castle or outside the Westgate were normally buried at St. John's, such as Clement Roderforthe, gentleman, who was executed at the Castle on 22 August 1599. In 1613 six executed prisoners were buried at St. John's, and three on 11 August 1744 (two for coining and one for horse stealing). Building alterations in the 19th century found re-used early grave covers and a water basin in the church construction. In 1875 many gravestones in the floor of the church were covered with concrete and tiles. The church floor was completely renewed in 1968-72. The will of John Vergoose, 1502, requested that he was buried in front of the altar of St. Thomas the Martyr. In 1544 Nicholas Carr asked to be buried in St. John's near to his wife. In 1571 John Wilkinson (merchant draper, Sheriff 1555 and Mayor 1561) asked that he could be buried near the organs. In 1576, Cuthbert Nicholson, late servant to William Dods, Newcastle tanner, asked that he was buried in the church near his mother. In 1623, Oswald Chaitor, linen weaver and parish clerk of St. John's was buried in the chancel. A memorial plaque to Adam Askew, physician, survives in the south transept. He was buried in the family vault in 1773. His family owned the Redheugh estate from 1748 to the 1880s. Askew Road is named after them. Surviving wall tablets - Nathaniel Clayton (1709-1786) north wall of chancel. He was preacher at St. John's for 50 years. Clayton Street is named after his grandson John. Richard and Rachel Grainger, south wall of nave. St. John's was their parish church but Richard was buried at St. James in Benwell in 1861 and Rachel was buried in Lanarkshire in 1842. Thomas Meham (1715-1782) south transept. Thomas was an ironmonger at The Close. His son operated Busy Cottage Iron Works in Jesmond Dene. In 1762 the churchyard was enclosed by a brick wall with railings above. Elm and lime trees were planted inside the wall. A few gravestones from inside the church were moved to the churchyard. In 1784 St John's Lane was built to link Bigg Market and Westgate Street across part of the churchyard. In 1825 the churchyard measured 2913 square yards. The parish hall was built in 1957. Gravestones were moved. The 'beastly looking' churchyard was transferred into a 'green oasis' at an estimated cost of £5870. In 1990 the churchyard was landscaped. Today very few gravestones remain. Surviving monuments - Ralph Waters Senior (1720-1798), artist. A table-top tomb in the west end of the churchyard. Brand's 'History of Newcastle' includes several of his engravings. One of his most popular paintings is 'St. Nicholas' Church from the South East'. John Cunningham (1729-1773), pastoral poet and Robert Carr (died 1783), printer. Thomas Slack paid for a ledger stone for Cunningham which survived until 1887 and Joseph Cowen paid for a stained glass window in the south transept. The surviving tombstone was paid for by public subscription and was unveiled by Dr Thomas Hodgkin in 1887. St. John's churchyard in fact had a poet's corner. The gravestones of Edward Chicken (1698-1747), Thomas Thompson (1773-1816) and William Watson (1796-1840) are now missing. Other gravestones - the six children of Anne Slack (1719-1778), hostess, writer, printer and bookseller, the table tomb of Soloman Hodgson (1761-1800) printer and newspaper proprietor. Dated C12th.

A 14th century effigy of a medieval knight. Built into a tomb recess in the south transept. It is thought to predate 1325. It may have commemorated a contributor to the early 14th century church rebuilding programme. Some believe that it is Peter le Marechal, sword bearer to Edward I and an esquire of Edward II's household. He died in 1322 during border warfare and was buried in St. Nicholas' Church. The knight is cross-legged with his feet resting on a lion. He is dressed in a long chain mail coat and has a sword and shield. He has armour plated shoulder protectors (ailettes). Hunter Blair description - unknown person. Dates to circa 1310 - 1320. Sandstone, rather worn and mutilated but in fair condition. The head sits on two cushions and is dressed in a mail hood with fillet. The knight wears a mail hauberk with fingered mittens fastened by straps at the wrist. The hands are joined in prayer. He also wears a loose long sleeveless surcoat with a plain narrow belt. The legs and feet are in mail with leather knee-cops. The right leg is crossed over the left. The feet are armed with prick spurs and rest on a lion. The shoulders are protected by ailettes. The mail is depicted by interlaced rings. The sword has straight quillons and a round pommel attached by interlaced thongs to a broad sword belt around the hips, which is buckled at the left side. The shield is long, pointed and concave. It is held by a strap over the left shoulder. Between its point and the scabbard is a small figure with outstretched hands. There are armorials in low relief on the shield. In the absence of colour the knight cannot be identified. Dated C14th.

Family vault of M. and H.M. Salisse. A stone sarcophagus with a bronze female figure mourning over it. Josephine Esther Salisse (1905-1924) was from Thornton Heath in Surrey. She died suddenly at her aunt's home in Stratford Road, Heaton, aged 19.

Monument of an angel to John James Lightfoot (1877-1897), apprentice joiner. John James was crushed to death aged 19 during restoration of the 200 year old Green Tree beerhouse in Robson's Entry, Sandgate.The building collapsed killing 4 people and injuring 12. The disaster was sketched by the Chronicle's artist and published on 6 March 1897 the day after the accident. The article describes the scene - 'in the house to the east there was a yawning space where the wall had tumbled in; behind the hole a staircase stood, but seemed, like the sword of Damocles, to have no more than a hair-strength to support it'.