DIED 16TH. NOVEMBER 1902, AGED 69.
FOR MANY YEARS
WAR CORRESPONDENT OF "THE STANDARD"
AND WRITER OF MANY BOYS' BOOKS.'
I was more interested in finding George Borrow's grave, but unfortunately this cemetery is as untended in places as Abney Park in Stoke Newington, and without risking my legs being lacerated by brambles (which is something that later happened at Ladywell Cemetery ) there was no chance of finding it. In fact, there was no chance of finding it anyway.
However, I did find the grave of suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst (1852–1928), which was in a much better tended area.
And, by chance, I discovered this (obviously newly restored) one, although I made the mistake of including my own reflection:
'JOHN WISDEN
Born September 5 1826
Died April 5 1884
Sussex and All-England cricketer
Founder of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'
Luckily, the far more recent grave of the writer and critic Bernard Levin was easy to find, and this accidentally helped me to find others I didn't know about, as this seems to be one of the places where a number of writers, actors and artists, end up.
'BERNARD
LEVIN
1928–2004)'
Around the tombstone these words are inscribed: 'WORDS HAVE AN EXISTENCE OF THEIR OWN. THEY ARE NOT OURS TO COMMAND ALTOGETHER FREELY; BUT WITHOUT US THEY CANNOT COME TO LIFE.'
'BRIAN GLOVER
1934–1997
Wrestler Actor Writer'
'PETER
STUART-HEATON
1919–1997
WRITER, PAINTER,
BUSINESSMAN & FATHER
R I P'
Up to this point all the people mentioned are included in the Friends of Brompton Cemetery's 'Fifty Notable Personalities & Monuments', but not Peter Stuart-Heaton, and it's difficult to get much information about him online, apart from his books. Peter Stuart Heaton appears without the hyphen in a number of entries in the British Library catalogue, and in the 1940s wrote a series of books for children – The Holiday Train (1945), The Holiday Train Goes to America (1946), Dobbish the Paper Horse (1946), and finally The Holiday Train Goes to the Moon (1948). Apart from a book on jazz, all (Stuart-)Heaton's other books are about boating, particularly yachting.
'DAVID ANTHONY
MACSWEENEY
DOCTOR AND POET
26th JANUARY 1930
26th MAY 2010
'And therefore I have sailed
the seas and come
To the Holy City of Byzantium'
The quotation is from William Butler Yeats's 'Sailing to Byzantium' of course, and not Dr MacSweeney. In fact, he's a more elusive person to pin down than Stuart-Heaton, although he appears to have been a psychiatrist, and although the Times published his obituary, it's not freely available. I can find no record of publications by him.
'CHRISTOPHER GILBERT
FATHER,
JOURNALIST AND SPORTS FAN
1950–2004
LOVED AND MISSED
BY ALL WHO KNEW HIM'
Christopher Gilbert worked for the Daily Telegraph, and apparently talked about his glioblastoma multiforme tumour with relish, according to his obituary, which is here.
'HENRIETTA
MORAES
writer
and
muse'
According to Tim Hilton in the Guardian, Henrietta Moraes (1931–99), who published her autobiography Henrietta in 1994, spent a section of her life on drink and drugs and another section sober and clean. She was part of the bohemian London scene and a muse for artists: Francis Bacon painted her naked on a bed in 1963, and earlier this year it sold for over £20,000,000. Her obituary is here.
'SUSAN
EINZIG
Artist, Mother
Grandmother
Teacher, Friend
1922–2009'
Around the tombstone is inscribed 'MY EYES PACIFIST | MY BLOOD REVOLUTIONARY | MY HEART ANARCHIST | MY BRAIN SOCIALIST'. Susan Einzig was the illustrator of a great number of children's books, but is perhaps best remembered for her illustrations of Philippa Pierce's Tom's Midnight Garden. Her obituary in the Guardian is here.
No comments:
Post a Comment