Sir Joseph Dodge Weston is one of the most distinguished citizens of Bristol to be buried in Arnos Vale Cemetery.

Born into a family of Iron Merchants

Weston was born in Kingsdown, the son of Thomas Weston and his wife Mary. His father was a wealthy iron merchant at Redcliffe.

Joseph joined the family  firm and he developed the business to include iron foundries, cotton manufacture and railway wagon and carriage building. His shipping interests thrived during the time of emigration to Australia.

Councillor, Mayor and Member of Parliament

In his middle age Weston developed an interest in politics and became a city councillor for Bristol in 1868, serving on the council until 1892. He was Mayor of Bristol from 1880 to 1884. He played a very prominent role in the development of public libraries, putting money into the building of the first branch library at St Philips in 1876. He presided over Bristol’s purchase and development of the docks at Portishead and Avonmouth.

A radical?

In 1885 Weston was elected MP for Bristol South but lost the seat in 1886. In 1890 he became Liberal MP for Bristol East, a large working-class constituency with an unassailable majority, and was returned unopposed in the 1892 election. His obituary in The Times described him as ‘a Radical in politics’, and a satirist writer in 1893 said ‘He might be a socialist if Socialism were more respectable and not so dreadfully lowering!’

Weston was widely respected by the citizens of Bristol for devoting much of his energy towards the development and wellbeing of the city. It was no surprise when he was awarded a knighthood.

Death and Burial

Weston died in 1895 after developing bronchitis following influenza. He has a most impressive family grave: the largest Celtic cross in the cemetery marking one of the largest vaults. It contains not only his body but 15 members of the Weston family, with a further seven members in an accompanying vault including twin infants who died shortly after birth. The cross is a distinctive reddish colour, not because it has gone rusty but because the stone is covered in red lichen.