Biography – Cemetery Club

The Comedian

Life lived with a bang, ended with a whimper Look at the cover image on this biography, written by Thomas Edgar Pemberton. Dressed with long, theatrical whiskers and a quizzical, confused glance – this was an extraordinary gentleman, resembling a 19th century Tom Selleck, who commanded a fee of £235 a week (roughly £23,500 in…
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Studio For Sale

A flat in Hampstead is up for sale. Boasting over 1,332 sq feet of living space, a private terrace and close proximity to Hampstead High Street, this top floor flat – with its plain white walls, battered leather seats and eclectic set of metal map chests and chairs – has an asking price of £1.8…
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The Laundress

Reconnecting with a formidable woman from my family tree In the middle of Fulham, not too far from Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea Football Club, is a building that sticks out. In comparison to the streets of terraced housing that surrounds it – it doesn’t seem to fit. Over the last century or so this…
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The Top 7 Graves Associated with Dickens

The story of Ebenezer Scrooge from visits by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future is as familiar to us now as the story of Jesus laying in his manger. One of the most iconic scenes in the story is as the Ghost of Christmas Future shows Scrooge his own name on a headstone.…
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Mary Nichols and the Sleeping Angel

Undoubtedly one of the most beautiful graves in Europe, it is said that the grave Mary Nichols lay completely hidden under ivy of Highgate Cemetery until the 1980’s, when it was rediscovered by photographer John Gay. On the top of the grave lies a sleeping angel on a bed of clouds: it is easily one of…
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Bother the Men! The Grave of Mrs Howard Paul

A prestigious memorial eroded by time betrays the memory of an iconic Victorian woman. Her fine contralto voice was often used to excellent effect in imitating male tenors of the day and she was a master of comedy performance. But Mrs Howard Paul followed the pattern of women adopting their husbands name professionally. Four years…
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Six Olympians From the Past

Despite the setbacks of happening in the middle of a global pandemic, the Tokyo Olympics of 2021 has already seen an impressive haul of medals for Team GB: as of current time of writing we have thirteen golds, sixteen silvers and thirteen bronze medals, placing as sixth overall out of two hundred and six nations.…
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Young Sheldon

Whenever I start researching a cemetery, I always start by looking for a name. My own. Hopefully that won’t be interpreted by you as arrogance. My forename isn’t very common – I’ve only met two other Sheldon’s in my time: one a distant cousin and the other at a party donkey’s years ago. I am…
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The Man Who Taught the World How to Remember

On the 8th May 1919 an idea was suggested which shaped how we remember the First World War. I was on a deep-dive on the British Pathé website the other day (using the search term ‘cemeteries‘) and I came across this short clip that detailed a historic man’s grave: produced clearly with the intention of…
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Vesty

I’m in a cemetery today. I don’t want to be. Anyone who knows me will know one of my favourite jokes, considering my passion for cemeteries as museums of people, is to ‘threaten’ people with a blog post. “I’ll be writing about you one day!” I say, tongue in cheek. Earlier this month, it finally…
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The Music of Patrick Cowley

Cowley was instrumental in developing dance music in the late 70s/early 80s – and his death from AIDS in 1981 robbed the queer community one of its most promising talents Late night editing for Queerly Departed had my Spotify playlist deliver an unexpected tune that slaps. I liked the sound of it, turned up the…
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The Greatest Library of Them All

Libraries are a world you can get lost in. Earlier this week I paid a visit to my local cemetery, where I filmed a video about John Harris – the subject of one of my sixty second videos on Twitter. He’s buried in Queen’s Road Cemetery, Croydon. I explored his legacy to both the British…
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Killed By A Coffin

It’s an image that does the rounds on social media from time to time. I’m not the first to share it and it’s one of the initial images I found when I began my immersion into cemetery history. Kensal Green was the second cemetery I visited for this blog and its not an event you’d…
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Parliament’s Postie

Imagine being at the heart of communication in one of the most important buildings in the world! It’s 1903 and in his private office in Buckingham Palace, King Edward VII sits in his chair, pouring over a list of names. Making notes beside each one, the roll of names before him has been given Royal…
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The Top 6 Graves of Père-Lachaise

Here we go. Such has been my apprehension in attempting to write an entry about the most famous cemetery in the world that it’s taken me nearly a year to finally put my visit into words. How – how, dear reader – can you do justice to this place in one post? How can I convey…
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Victoria’s God-daughter

Dressed in the highest fashions of the 1860’s, a princess looks deeply into the camera as she takes direction from one of London’s busiest photographers. Surrounded by foliage and the ‘shelter’ of a tree with a classical column in the background to accentuate her status and class, effortlessly exuding a regal command that was only…
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