It doesn't add up! Family's anger after council orders them to remove 'offensive' sudoku headstone tribute to late father mathematician

Allan Robinson's family commissioned puzzle engraving for headstone

The mathematician, 66, was an avid fan of the brain teaser

Parish council say inscription 'contrary to guidelines' and order removal



When retired mathematician Allan Robinson passed away after a battle with cancer, his grieving family chose an epitaph that he would have heartily approved of – a sudoku puzzle and equation.

It did not take long, however, before zealous officials on the parish council had formed their own rather bizarre opinion of the gravestone.

They ordered Mr Robinson’s widow Angela to remove the highly personal engravings because they are ‘contrary to guidelines for headstone inscriptions’.

Widow Angela Robinson is furious that Farndon Parish Council, Cheshire, has ordered that the Sudoku puzzle engraving on her husband Allan's headstone be removed

And despite the tasteful – not to mention cerebral – nature of the designs, the council said the stone has to be changed so that standards at the graveyard are ‘kept high for the benefit of all’.

Mrs Robinson, 67, who was married to her late husband for 44 years, said: ‘What really got to me was they said we were lowering standards of the burial site. Well, that’s just not true.



‘The engravings aren’t offensive at all; we’re talking about a three inch square puzzle and a small numerical equation. It’s about honouring my husband’s memory.’

Mr Robinson was a sudoku fanatic, completing puzzles every day, while the equation was taken from his PhD thesis, which he dedicated to his wife in the early years of their marriage.

Mrs Robinson’s son, Paul, 40, added: ‘It is a very personal memorial that surely is not causing any harm, regardless of petty rules. Jobsworth springs to my mind.’

Allan Robison's family, including son Paul and wife Angela, pictured together, have been ordered to remove Sudoku engraving commemorating the 66-year-old, pictured right, who died last year



Mr Robinson, who worked for oil giant Shell in a research laboratory, died aged 66 in May last year, following a battle with lung cancer.

He was buried in the cemetery at Farndon, near Chester, where the couple lived, and the gravestone was put up in November. But this August Mrs Robinson received a call from the parish council to say a spot check of graves had revealed her husband’s tombstone did not comply with their guidelines.

Then last month she was sent the letter ordering her to remove the engravings altogether.

Suzi Pollard, clerk to the parish council, said the stonemason had failed to submit a draft copy of the proposed headstone inscription to the council before it was erected, and asked for it to be changed.

To add insult to injury, the letter wrongly referred to Mr Robinson as ‘Mr Allen’.

Mrs Robinson, who has two children and four grandchildren, said there are other graves with unusual engravings, such as animals and football crests. ‘Until the others are removed as well I’m going to refuse to change Allan’s grave,’ she said.