A SENSE of humour in death can be found on many gravestones, particularly in America.

Boot Hill, in the appropriately named Tombstone, Arizona, has these markers:

Here lies Lester Moore, Four slugs from a forty-four. No Les, No Moore.

And: Here lays Butch, we planted him raw. He was quick on the trigger, but slow on the draw.

The cemetery in a small town in Colorado has: Here lies a man named Zeke, Second fastest draw in Cripple Creek.”

Spike Milligan got the last laugh when he left instructions that his epitaph should read: I told you I was ill.

Sadly, church authorities in East Sussex objected and a compromise was reached only after protracted negotiations.

Milligan was an Irish passport holder and the wording was finally accepted – written in Gaelic.