A fine and private place; Edward Adolphus Seymour, 11th Duke of Somerset (1775-1855) Kensal Green Cemetery

The grave's a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace

Andrew Marvell – ‘To his coy mistress’

Andrew Marvell was wrong; the graffiti on the interior rear wall of the now bricked up mausoleum of the Duke of Somerset in Kensal Green quite definitely states that someone, possibly with the initials LL, “fucked here July 2000”.  A cold stone floor, in the blackened inhospitable interior of a drafty mausoleum, doesn’t strike me as a fine place to embrace but LL is clearly made of sterner stuff than I am. The late Duke and Duchess almost certainly never imagined that they would be sharing their final resting place with rutting teenagers. Luckily their coffins lie in a vault below the mausoleum, safe from prying eyes and sacrilegious fingers. Most of the recent Duke of Somerset (by recent I mean since the late 17th century) are buried in the parish church of Maiden Bradley in Wiltshire, close to the ancestral home. But Edward Adolphus, the 11th Duke chose to build this relatively modest mausoleum in Kensal Green Cemetery and to be buried away from his relatives. His descendants seem unconcerned with the poor state of repair of their ancestors grave. The door has long gone, the doorway bricked up, and the interior thoroughly vandalised.  The far wall once carried two shield-shaped marble slabs with the names and titles of the 11th Duke and his second wife surmounted by a ducal coronet and family crest; one of the marble slabs is now completely missing.  

Edward Adolphus Seymour was born on 24 February 1775 at Monckton Farley in Wiltshire; he was the third son of the tenth duke but both of his elder brothers predeceased him. He succeeded to the peerage on the death of his father in 1793. His mother was Anna Maria Bonnell, daughter and heir of John Bonnell of Stanton-Harcourt in Oxfordshire. His maternal grandfather had been a successful London merchant and no doubt the marriage between the 10th Duke and the commoner had brought a welcome injection of cash into the ducal family as well as freshening up the stale genetic lineage. Certainly Edward Adolphus developed an intellectual bent that was hitherto unknown in the Seymour family. He was educated at Eton and was created M.A. at Oxford on 2 July 1794. According to Edward Irving Carlyle in the 1927 D.N.B. “from an early age he devoted himself to science and mathematics, displaying genuine aptitude for both studies. He was equally well versed in historical and antiquarian knowledge.” He was a fellow of the Royal Society, the Society of Antiquaries, the Linnean Society, and a member of the Royal Asiatic Society. He was vice-president of the Zoological Society and president of the Royal Institution, the Royal Literary Fund, and the Linnean Society. In 1820 he was elected president of the Astronomical Society but resigned the position after just a few days in post at the request of his friend Sir Joseph Banks who felt that astronomical phenomenon should be in the sole remit of the Royal Society. He was bearer of the orb at the coronation of William IV in 1831 and of Victoria in 1838 and was made a knight of the Garter in 1837. He was the author of two books on Mathematics, ‘The Elementary Properties of the Ellipse deduced from the Properties of the Circle,’ (1842) and ‘Alternate Circles and their Connexion with the Ellipse,’ (1850). 

According to Fisher and Jenkins in The History of Parliament Edward Adolphus was “credited with ‘great amiability of temper and gentleness of manners’, he was reputedly henpecked by his Scottish wife, who carried domestic penny-pinching to ‘a very extraordinary length’.” When he was 25 the Duke fell in love with Lady Susan Hamilton, the daughter of the 9th Duke of Hamilton but Lady Susan’s rather formidable older sister Lady Charlotte took a shine to the diffident Edward and somehow coaxed him into proposing to her instead. Charlotte was three years older than her husband and was perhaps, at the age of 28, starting to worry that she had been left of the shelf. On their marriage in 1800 Charlotte brought cartloads of heirlooms from the Hamilton estate (including several Rembrandts, Rubens and Van Dycks, and much more), not always it seems with the agreement of the family. Thomas Creevy called her “a false devil” who robbed her elder brother of his birthright. She had a reputation of being mean, the artist Joseph Farington records in his diary, her dinner table as being “nothing but a leg of mutton at the top and a dish of potatoes at the bottom”. Charlotte died on 10th June 1827, a fortnight before what would have been their 27th wedding anniversary.  Whatever tensions there were in the marriage did not stop the couple producing children – they had seven. Charlotte died just two weeks shy of what would have been their 27th wedding anniversary in 1827. Edward did eventually marry again, but not until 1836 when he was 61 and his bride, Margaret Shaw-Stewart, was 30 years his junior.  

The burial plot and the mausoleum were acquired and built before the death of the Duke. It was sitting empty when the Duke offered it to the heirs of Lord Raglan, the commander of the British army in the ill-fated Crimean War, in 1855 when the general unexpectedly died of dysentery at Sevastopol. On 21 July 1855 the Longford Journal was confidently reporting;  

THE LATE LORD RAGLAN. Arrangements have been made for the reception of the late Lord Raglan, whose remains are expected to arrive in this country about the 24th instant, from the Crimea. They will be sent from Southampton on a special train of the South Western Railway, to his residence, No 5. Great Stanhope-street, London, and will be finally deposited in the mausoleum of his Grace the Duke of Somerset, All Souls’ Cemetery, Kensal-green, Harrow-road. The funeral will be as private as circumstances will permit.

Edward Adolphus Seymour, 11th Duke of Somerset

Lord Raglan was not buried at Kensal Green but close to the family home at Badminton in Gloucestershire. The Duke himself died at his home. Somerset House in Park Lane on the 15th August 1855 at the age of 80. The Morning Post reported on his funeral on the 24th:

FUNERAL OF THE DUKE OF SOMERSET Yesterday the mortal remains of the Duke of Somerset were consigned to the tomb. The funeral procession left Park-lane at 11 o'clock for the cemetery at Kensal- green, the mournful cortege, preceded by the customary attendants, consisting of a hearse and six horses and six mourning coaches, escorted by pages. The mourners were Lord Seymour, grandson of the late duke, Lord Archibald St. Maur, Lord Algernon St. Maur, and the Rev. Mr. Howarth (rector of St. George's, Hanover-square), be- ing in the first coach; Mr. Blount and Mr. Tollemache, sons-in-law of the deceased; Mr. J. Osborne, Lord Glenelg, Hon. Colonel Bruce, Mr. Stewart Nicholson, Mr. Currie, Mr. J. Festings, &c. The remaining coaches were occupied by the chief members of the late duke's household. In compliance with the wishes of the duke, the funeral was conducted on a very unostentatious scale — the armorial bearings on the hearse and the bearer of the ducal coronet being dispensed with on the occasion. The funeral procession reached the cemetery shortly before 12 o'clock, and the body was borne to the chapel, when the solemn service was commenced by the Rev. Mr. Howarth. After the ordinary prayers, the body was conveyed to the mausoleum, situate at the north- western corner of the grounds, where the burial service was concluded at about half-past 12 o'clock. It may be as well to add that the present duke is on a cruise with Mr. Bentinck, M.P., on board the Dream yacht, in the North Sea, and, it is feared, is still uninformed of his father's death, which will account for his absence at the funeral. His grace's eldest son was consequently the chief mourner.

His widow died at the age of 75 in 1880. This account of her funeral is from the London Daily Chronicle of 23 July 1880;

The remains of the Duchess (Margaret) of Somerset were laid to rest yesterday side by side with these of her husband, the late Duke of Somerset, in Kensal-green Cemetery. The mausoleum, which is situate in that portion of the grounds known as the General Cemetery, was yesterday opened for the first time since the interment of the late duke, now a quarter of a century ago. Facing the iron-grated entrance to the vault there are let into the wall two shield-shaped marble slabs, one of which bears the name and titles of Edward Adolphus St Maur, Duke of ‘Somerset, who died August 15, 1855; and the other the name of Margaret, Duchess of Somerset, his wife with a space left for the date of her death. At the foot of the latter shield is the passage from the Book of Ruth, “Where thou diest I will die, and there will I be buried.” The whole is surmounted by the ducal coronet and family crest. At half-past twelve the funeral cortege which consisted of the hearse, drawn by four horses, five mourning carriages, followed by the family coach and several private carriages, moved away from the residence of the deceased duchess, Somerset House, Park-lane, and took its way along Bayswater-road and Westbourne terrace to Kensal Green, which was reached at the appointed time. Here the coffin, the outer casing of which was of polished oak with brass handles and coronets, and having on its breast a plate bearing the plain inscription, “Margaret, widow of Edward Adolphus, 11th Duke of Somerset, died July 18, 1880," was borne into the chapel, where, as at the grave, the funeral service was read by the chaplain, the Rev. H. C. Johnstone, M.A. From the chapel to the mausoleum a procession was formed, in which the chief mourners were Lord Algernon St Maur, the Lord Chief Baron, Sir Michael Shaw Stewart, Admiral Sir William Houston Stuart, Mr. Tollemache, Mr, Percy St. Maur, Mr. Ernest St. Maur, Sir Herbert Maxwell, Sir John Heron Maxwell, Colonel Alexander, Mr. J. A. Shaw Stewart, Mr. Collyer Bristow, and Mr. Edward Ross. Some flowers were placed upon the coffin as it was lowered into the vault.

Dog day afternoon; Paddington Old Cemetery, Willesden Lane, NW6

And there were dogs, more dogs. Devoted dog-tendance—by schoolchildren, by women in fairly high style, by certain homosexuals. One would have said that only the Eskimos had nearly so much to do with dogs as this local branch of mankind. The veterinarians must be sailing in yachts, surely.

Saul Bellow – Mr Sammler’s Planet

There seemed to be more dogs on parade in Paddington Old Cemetery than I have ever seen anywhere in London with the possible exception of Crufts. It was a sunny September afternoon and there were, as far as I could see, no mourners whatsoever in the cemetery. There were dozens of visitors though, large numbers arrive on foot but also a steady stream of them kept arriving by car and parking in front of the fenced off chapels; every single one, pedestrian or driver, was accompanied by at least one canine, often two sometimes three. Bowls of water are scattered throughout the cemetery for the comfort of canine visitors, most of whom were off the leash and roaming at will. It was a very middle-class collection of hounds, certificated pedigrees (french bulldogs, golden retrievers, dachshunds), and designer crossbreeds (cockapoos, labradoodles, schnoodles), predominated. There were no youths from council estates with squat, muscular, short muzzled, bull baiting breeds, shuffling their way along the paths on overdeveloped thighs and frightening the native bourgeoisie. It was all very genteel. There wasn’t even any dog shit on the ground; every single owner was responsibly collecting their pooch’s still warm stools in black plastic bags and disposing of them out of sight. I have never seen so many dogs in a cemetery.    

Even for those without a penchant for dog watching Paddington Old Cemetery is worth a visit. It does not have any really outstanding monuments but there are quite a few interesting ones and the cemetery has more than its fair share of occupants with colourful pasts. Paddington was one of the first municipal cemeteries (as opposed to private ones like nearby Kensal Green or Highgate), opening in 1855 just three years after the 1852 Metropolitan Internment Act began the process of closing London’s churchyards and parish burial grounds to further internments. The Paddington Burial Board acquired 24 acres of land close to what was then the still rural village of Willesden. The cemetery was designed and laid out by Thomas Little, a mainly ecclesiastical architect who designed the gothic chapel at Nunhead (best known today perhaps because George Devey, a much better architect, spent nine years working as his pupil). Little designed the twin chapels with porte cochere and central belltower which luckily still stands at the centre of the cemetery (though it is in the habit of shedding masonry at inopportune moments and so is now completely fenced off to prevent lumps of Kentish ragstone dropping onto the dog walkers). The cemetery still has its two original lodges but both of these have been sold off and are now private residences. 

The cemetery is now immaculately kept but this was not always the case as reported by the Marylebone Mercury on Saturday 03 July 1937;

PADDINGTON CEMETERY Councillor Turner asked whether a letter had recently been received from a relative of persons buried in the Willesden Lane Cemetery, complaining of desecration alleged to be due to wanton neglect, and stating that "the scene beggars description and has to be seen to be believed"; and did the writer complain that, by reason of the overgrowth around it, he and his wife had great difficulty in finding graves of departed relatives, and there were other bereaved persons in similar straits? Were letters of complaint received but not presented to the Committee? Councillor Mrs. Seale M. chairman of the Cemetery Committee, said several letters of complaint had been received. It was impossible to cut all the grass at the cemetery at one time. There were 32,410 graves, and not sixty per cent were looked after by the people themselves. The others had to be cut by the Council. Letters of complaint were placed before the committee, investigated and dealt with.

By the 1980’s the cemetery had become the responsibility of Westminster Council, a responsibility that weighed heavily on the shoulders of the council leader Dame Shirley Porter. Paddington was one the cemeteries that Dame Shirley wished to divest the council of and sold off for a nominal sum (usually a pound) but unlike the other three (Hanwell, East Finchley and Mill Hill) the sale of Paddington never became a scandal for the simple reason that it was bought by a responsible owner, Brent Council. With no intention of milking their asset Brent simply continued to run the cemetery as a cemetery, raising a large section of the ground in the southern part to allow new burials to take place.  

Paddington’s most famous burial is a relatively recent one, Michael Bond, who died at the age of 91 at his home near Paddington and is best known, of course, as the creator of Paddington, the bear from darkest Peru with a liking for marmalade and a penchant for creating chaos. The bear had popular since the early 1960’s (I eagerly read the books as a schoolchild in South Yorkshire, having seen Thord Hird read the stories on Jackanory) but Bond didn’t live to see his creations greatest triumph, taking tea with the Queen at the 2022 Jubilee just before Her Majesty also shuffled off the mortal coil. Bond’s grave is decorated with small Paddington statues left by admirers. There is also a potted plant, perhaps a reference to another of his creations, the BBC TV series The Herbs.  

Other interesting burials include jockey Captain Martin Becher; the identification of his burial site was reported in the Liverpool Echo of 11 November 1996:

GRAND National expert Reg Green has solved a 130-year-old racing mystery. The super sleuth has tracked down the unmarked grave of Aintree legend Captain Becher in a London cemetery. The flamboyant jockey gave his name to Aintree's brook fence after toppling into the water during the 1839 race. For decades his final resting place has baffled race historians. Now race officials are planning to mark Becher's contribution to the famous steeplechase by buying a new headstone. The plot was grassed over in 1963 when officials at Paddington Old Cemetery in Kilburn destroyed several damaged, unsafe and forgotten gravestones. Records show Captain Martin Becher, 67, was buried on October 15, 1864. His wife Susan and son Ernest, five, are buried with him… Aintree marketing manager Joe McNally said: "It is a terrific piece of detective work. We want to get a new headstone but we need permission of living relatives who I want to get in touch with us."

No new headstone was ever put up for Becher (whose party trick was leaping onto a mantelpiece from a standing jump apparently, impressive for a short man) presumably because no living descendants were traced. Becher is famous for not winning the Grand National but another cemetery resident, Danny Maher won the Epsom Derby three times (1903, 1905, 1906) and the Ascot Gold Cup in 1906 and 1909. He was born in 1881 in Hartford, Connecticut and had a successful career in the US before coming to Britain where he won an astonishing 1421 races. He died in 1916. 

The Dundee Courier (and many other newspapers) reported on 08 April 1930 on the funeral at Paddington of actress Anita Foy Tipping;

ACTRESS BURNED TO DEATH WOMEN IN TEARS AT GRAVESIDE. Moving scenes wore witnessed at Paddington Cemetery yesterday, where the funeral took place of Miss Anita Foy Tipping, the young actress and dancer, who was burnt to death at Twickenham Film Studios when her frock caught fire. Scores of women, among them many of Miss Tipping's colleagues from studio, gathered near the grave. When the cortege arrived, and the plain oak coffin was carried to the grave, many of the women were in tears. The brief service the graveside was conducted by Father Herbert Vauglian, of Brondesbury. Scores pf magnificent wreaths had been sent, and these were piled up about neighbouring graves. Among them was enormous wreath of daffodils in the form of cushion three feet square from the "boys and girls of the 'Here Comes the Bride' Company." Nearly all the wreaths were composed of spring flowers, and the senders included Mr and Mrs Julian Wylie, members of ‘Cinders’ company, the Film Artists' Guild, and Twickenham Film Studios.

Nita Foy, as Anita Tipping was professionally known, was a chorus girl in West End theatres and was currently appearing in ‘Here Comes the Bridge’ at the Piccadilly Theatre, at the time of her death. She and five other girls from the chorus line had been given parts in a ballet scene for the fil ‘Spanish Eyes’ by Twickenham Film Studios. The scene was being shot on the last day of the production and could only be filmed when the girls had finished at the theatre. It was well after midnight when the exhausted actress was invited to his dressing room by Donald Calthorp, the star of the film for a brandy and soda. Calthorp told the inquest at Richmond Coroners Court that “she came in, and sat down on the sofa, which is beside an electric radiator, and I pulled out a small bottle of brandy… and poured a little out and said, “Would you like soda, or water, or plain?” Mr Coote, the assistant director, then put his head in the door and said, “All ladies are wanted on the set.” Miss Tipping was then standing and I noticed that her eyelashes were white with powder. I said to her, “Surely you cannot go on. We always darken our eyelashes - it is better for the camera.” She said, “Oh, have you got any wet black?” and I pointed at a little red tin on a shelf over the radiator. I remember turning to the door… There was a flash behind me… I turned round and saw that Miss Tipping was a sheet of flame.” The chorus girls were dressed in crinolines for the ballet scene and it was this that caught fire on the electric radiator. 

Meller and Parsons (London Cemeteries - An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer) mention the mausoleum close to the Lidiard memorial; “a lavish exercise in the fourteenth-century Gothic style including a sculpture of the Ascension in the tympanum, fearsome over-sized gargoyles and a three-sided apse with shattered fragments of stained glass in the lancet windows. It is a tragedy that such an extraordinary building has suffered from neglect and vandalism.” The broken windows at least allow you to peer in and see the coffin still sitting on its shelf. Meller and Parsons do not name the occupant of the mausoleum, I presume because, Like me, they could not make out the name inscribed on the step. 

They also mention the ‘early examples of porcelain photographs of the deceased’ such as the ones below; 

Respeito pelos mortos; Cemitério da Lapa, Porto

It is a long uphill trudge to the Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Lapa from the centre of Porto. Our hotel was close to the Rotunda da Boavista which meant he had a more or less gradient free walk across the north of the city to the Cemitério da Lapa and meant we didn’t have to make that long climb on a hellishly hot day. It turned out to be a flying visit; we had set out to walk there on the 15th August without realising that it was a feriado, a public holiday to mark Assumption Day (marking the Virgin Mary’s ascent into heaven), which meant that the cemetery closed early. When we first arrived, there were a few other people there visiting graves or, a very typical sight in Portuguese cemeteries, busying themselves with sweeping brushes and dusters, tidying up the family mausoleum. After an hour the place was deserted until a grumpy official from the church tracked me down and began ostentatiously tapping his watch and pointing to the exit. When I did not scurry away immediately, he pulled a large set of keys from his pocket and shook them at me; the meaning was clear, ‘bugger off or I’ll lock you in.’ 

The cemetery attached to the Igreja da Lapa is one of Portugal’s most famous burial grounds. Legal authorisation for the construction of a cemetery next to the church was granted by Dom Pedro IV to the Lapa Brotherhood in July 1833, in the final weeks of the year long siege of Porto during the Portuguese civil war.  High mortality rates during the siege and the subsequent cholera epidemic had rapidly filled up existing burial spaces in the city. The catholic authorities were also aware that the liberal government of Dom Pedro was planning to pass laws forcing municipal authorities in Portugal to open public cemeteries, a very controversial measure at the time. Lapa was a private Catholic cemetery and effectively became, when consecrated in 1838, the first modern cemetery in the country.  

The original cemetery was designed like an Italian Campos Santos with large vault- chapels at the edge of the cemetery surrounding a central section which was the space for smaller monuments. The vault-chapels were private chapels which had space for 8 or more coffin burials on shelves that were then enclosed with a stone carrying the deceased’s epitaph. Only the wealthiest families could afford a vault-chapel. The middle section of the original cemetery was the space for more modest memorials, though it has to be said that most of these are fairly spectacular and clearly were extremely expensive. The poor were buried elsewhere! The cemetery proved to be extremely popular and within ten years additional land had to be acquired to extend. Further extensions followed during the 19th century until there was no available adjacent land to extend onto.

One of the most striking aspects of the cemetery Cemetery is its architectural diversity. It boasts a variety of tomb styles, from neoclassical and neo-Gothic to Art Nouveau and modernist designs. This architectural eclecticism reflects the changing tastes and trends of the eras in which the tombs were constructed, offering a visual journey of bourgeoise funereal fashion through time. Elaborate angels, saints, and mournful figures can be found adorning many graves. Dotted around the cemetery are notices inscribed in stone enjoining 'Respeito pelos mortos', respect for the dead. In its time Lapa was a trendsetting cemetery for northern Portugal and its design and memorials were used as templates for other cemeteries such as Agramonte. 

The tomb of António Francisco Ferreira da Silva Porto (24 August 1817 – 2 April 1890) describes him as ‘o grande sertanejo’, the great explorer of the interior of Angola. He was famous enough at the turn of the 19thh century for his death and funeral to be reported in the provincial English newspapers:

Silva Porto, the old pioneer of Portuguese exploration in Africa, has been buried at Oporto, and extraordinary public honours were paid the remains of the deceased on being conveyed from Lisbon to Oporto. Members of the Royal Family and the Ministers walked immediately behind the coffin. Cardinal Ferreira dos Santos Silvas pronounced the absolution over the remains of the Portuguese explorer, Silva Porto, at the Lapa Church in Oporto. immense congregation was present, including representatives of the King and Queen and Royal Family, the Minister of Marine, and other prominent officials.

Tamworth Herald - Saturday 18 April 1891

 

Churchill's personal tragedy; Marigold Churchill (1918-1921), Kensal Green Cemetery

DIED AT BROADSTAIRS MR. AND MRS. WINSTON CHURCHILL BEREAVED Taken ill while on holiday at Broadstairs with her two sisters and only brother, little Mistress Marigold Frances Churchill, the three-year old child of Mr. Winston Churchill, Colonial Secretary, and Mrs. Churchill, died last night. In charge of a nurse, the children arrived in Thanet some time ago, to stay at the residence of Col. Charles and Mrs. Grant. Marigold was then apparently in her usual health but was taken suddenly ill about a week ago. Up to yesterday it was understood the complaint from which she was suffering had not been satisfactorily diagnosed. On Monday evening her condition was so serious that the father cancelled his engagement to attend the bedside, to which Mrs. Churchill, who had been on a visit to the Duke and Duchess of Westminster, had hurried. Both were present last night when their child died.

East Kent Times and Mail - Wednesday 24 August 1921

Reviewing the TV drama ‘Churchill’s Secret’ The Times (28.02.2016) noted that the death of his young daughter “was the personal tragedy that haunted Winston Churchill throughout his lifetime but has gone largely unnoticed.” The opening scene of the production showed Churchill imagining two-year-old Marigold as she ran on the beach at Broadstairs in the days prior to her death in 1921. It would have been a feat of imagination rather than recollection for Churchill to summon up an image of his daughter playing on the beach as neither he, nor his wife Clementine, were with their children at Broadstairs. Churchill, as always, had urgent government business to attend to and Clementine was visiting the Duke and Duchess of Westminster. The French governess was nervous of reporting Marigold’s ill health to her parents and delayed sending a telegram to Clementine until the child was in serious danger. Clementine travelled to Broadstairs and having seen her daughter immediately summoned Winston. Both parents were at Marigold’s bedside when she died; according to Churchill biographer William Manchester Clementine “shrieked in agony, like an animal in mortal pain,” when she realised her daughter was dead.

Mr. CHURCHILL'S LOSS The funeral took place Kensal Green yesterday Mr. Winston Churchill's three-year-old daughter. Marigold Frances Spencer Churchill, who died August 23 at Broadstairs. The service was conducted the Rev. B. C. H. Andrews, chaplain, and only members of the family were Present.

Daily Herald - Saturday 27 August 1921

The funeral took place at Kensal Green just three days later. It was a private ceremony but press photographers appeared in the cemetery; confronted by Winston and asked to leave they departed without taking a single shot. There seems to be only one photograph of Marigold in the public domain; taken with her mother the little girl has her back to the camera and her face is not clearly visible.

Marigold’s memorial, attributed to the now notorious Eric Gill, is grade II listed. The rather simple cross is in fact a replacement for a much larger Gill stone column and sculpted crucifix that was stolen. The original inscription is still in place on the square sectioned base.  Marigold was the only Churchill buried in the cemetery and the family had often expressed its wish to disinter her and rebury her with the rest of the family in Bladon churchyard in Oxfordshire, close to the ancestral home at Blenheim Palace. An article in issue 87 of ‘Telamon’, the magazine of the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery says that “the task of re-interment was completed earlier this year.” (2019). On February 27 2022 the International Churchill Society’s website stated “The Churchill family have announced that the body of Marigold Churchill, the fourth child of Winston and Clementine Churchill, was quietly moved in 2020 from its original resting place at Kensal Green Cemetery in London and reinterred at the churchyard of St. Martin’s, Bladon, where Marigold’s parents, sisters, and brother are all laid to rest.” It isn’t clear why the family would be announcing this two years after the event and neither is it clear whether it actually happened in 2019 or 2020.