The Rev David Thomas was trying to settle a dispute with grieving relatives of George Hill who feared he had been buried in the wrong plot in their village churchyard.
But the 80-year-old rector ended up causing them more upset, after his gravedigger uncovered the coffin without getting permission from the authorities and without the family present.
Mr Thomas took photos of the freshly exhumed grave to prove that Mr Hill's body had been buried correctly, then drove to the widow's home and got a choirboy to push the pictures through the door. He has now been forced to apologise to the miner's family, who say they have been left shocked by the insensitive handling of their case.
Mr Hill's widow Martha and their daughter Mary had been tending his grave in a newly opened section of the cemetery at St John the Baptist near Lichfield since his funeral in February this year.
They were planning to erect a headstone to coincide with his birthday in December, but a dispute then broke out over the whereabouts of his burial plot. The family claim the rector admitted he did not know in which plot the coffin had been placed, while the church insists it was the relatives who were confused.
The family say they were horrified to discover that the only way to establish where Mr Hill had been buried was to have the coffin excavated and its nameplate checked.
Statement from the Diocese of Lichfield.
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