'Hit-and-run' death boy's mum makes emotional graveyard row plea to King Charles

27 December 2023 , 17:27

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Tragic William Brown was killed earlier this month after being struck by a vehicle (Image: Folkestone Herald)

The grieving mother of a seven-year-old boy who died in an apparent hit-and-run has made a direct plea to King Charles urging him to allow her son to be buried in a closed graveyard which was "dear to his heart".

William Brown was killed when he was knocked down outside his seafront home in Sandgate near Folkestone, Kent while retrieving a football from the road. His grieving mum Laura Brown, 41, hopes to bury her son at St Mary and St Eanswythe's Church, which is attached to the primary school where William was a year 3 pupil, but nobody has been buried in the grounds in more than 100 years, since it was closed by Order of the Privy Council.

The local vicar has given William's family his blessing, but they must apply to the formal body of advisers to King Charles III - made up of senior politicians - for permission. However, the Privy Council's next meeting isn't until February - meaning the schoolboy's family are unlikely to be able to bury him until March or April at the earliest.

Laura Brown handed the King's security team a letter urging him to push through their appeal

Laura has written to the King in desperation, pleading with him to fast-track their application, and on Christmas morning drove three and a half hours to the Sandringham Estate to hand her letter to the monarch's security team in person. She says her campaign is the only thing that kept her going over Christmas.

She said: "I want to appeal directly to the King and the Privy Council. I am begging you, please let us bury our son. We need closure and we want him to be at rest. And he deserves to be laid to rest in a place that he loved. Please come together and make this Christmas miracle happen.

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"It's giving me hope and faith to carry on. The only one who can make this happen is the King. I know it sounds extreme, but he has the final say." Beauty therapist Laura, whose six-year-old daughter Pearl also attends St Eanswythe's Primary School, said she cannot bear the thought of William being alone in the morgue.

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She added: "Nobody has been buried at St Eanswythe's since 1857, but they did make an exception once in 1898. The Reverend has called me to give us his blessing to bury William there, and he did an application with me, but we still need the Privy Council and the King to agree.

"We have been in talks with the Privy Council and it's on their radar, but they only meet once a month. This is time-sensitive. I don't want him to be on his own in the morgue without us for months, especially at Christmas." The 41-year-old - who took William's Christmas presents to the mortuary on Wednesday - said she wants his friends to be able to visit his grave on their way to and from school.

She said: "William went to the primary school next to the church and we would walk through the graveyard on our way to and from school every day. He spent a lot of time playing in there - collecting conkers and picking wild garlic for our dinner. He loved that place.

The parents hope King Charles can step in and speed things up (PA)

"The school would go to that church every week. We are a Christian family and we would attend services there for the harvest, at Easter and Christmas. William was a child of God. I went to his Nativity play last week. He wasn't there but I could feel him everywhere. All his friends said how much they loved him and missed him.

"If he was buried there, they could visit him after school and say hello. It would bring so much comfort to so many people. I go there every day because Pearl is still at the school, so we could visit him all the time. There's nowhere else more fitting for him. We need something positive to come out of this tragedy."

William died after being involved in a collision with grey Peugeot van and a red Citroen car on the Sandgate Esplanade at around 5.35pm on December 6. Police and ambulance crews attended the scene, where the schoolboy was pronounced dead.

At an inquest opening into William's death at Oakwood House in Maidstone, Kent last Friday Katrina Hepburn, Area Coroner for Canterbury and South East Kent, gave the seven-year-old's cause of death as "severe head injuries". A local man was arrested in Dymchurch on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving, causing death by careless driving, failing to stop at the scene of a collision, and perverting the course of justice on December 7.

The 49-year-old was later bailed to return to the police station on 6 March 2024, pending further enquiries. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice, which looks after the Privy Council, said "William Brown's death was a tragedy and our thoughts remain with his family and friends. We can confirm that an application for the use of St Eanswythe's Church burial ground has been received and the application will now be considered by the Privy Council."

Emily-Jane Heap