A pensioner who travelled across the world to research his family history called for action today over the "disgusting'' state of a cemetery where his relatives are buried.

And John Cox, who emigrated to Australia from Shipley in 1954, is demanding to know what has happened to the headstone which marked his relatives' last resting place at Windhill Cemetery.

The 67-year-old retired businessman said he had spent hours at the cemetery looking in vain for the grave where his brother and sister - who both died in infancy - grandparents, cousins and an aunt and uncle are buried.

He is furious that the stone cross which marked their grave has disappeared and sickened by the general condition of the cemetery.

Mr Cox said he was horrified to see more than a dozen gravestones had been left on the ground after either falling over or being knocked down by vandals.

One monument has been smashed open and filled with empty beer cans and other rubbish with the surrounding area littered with refuse, including broken beer bottles.

Several headstones had been daubed with grafitti. One was marked with a swastika and on another the message, 'This dood is dead, ha-ha', had been scrawled beneath the inscribed tribute.

Mr Cox, who lives in Adelaide and is staying with relatives in the Shipley area, said he planned to write to the Council about the missing headstone and state of the cemetery.

He said: "I was absolutely appalled by what I saw. The general condition of the place is disgusting - it looks as if nobody's maintaining it at all and I want them to do something about it.

"It's a place of rest that's now an eyesore - it's desecration.

"There are a number of military graves there. Those boys were heroes who died for their country, but the state of the cemetery is an insult to them."

He added: "We're putting together a family history and want to put photos of all the graves in an album for the next generation. I also just wanted to be able to say 'hello' to my relatives but I spent four hours there and could find no sign of the grave."

A Council cemeteries spokesman said: "We understand Mr Cox's distress at not being able to find his relatives' grave but he was advised to contact the cemeteries department who would have been able to direct him to its exact location.''

She said an officer had visited the cemetery and located the grave, adding: "There is no headstone, however - the official records we inherited when we took over the cemetery in 1963 do not mention headstones on any graves so we are unable to say whether one is missing.''

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.