ABOUT US
The Cemetery is open daily from 9am to 3pm
The list below contains a selection of notable individuals and groups buried in our graveyard.
May Probyn (Poet)
BORN 12 Apr 1856 - DIED 29 Mar 1909
May Probyn was born in Wales or in France. Her parents were British and she had three younger siblings after the family returned to England. She was educated in Brussels. Her work wasn't popular and therefore little is known about her. In 1881 the "Westminster Review" reviewed her "Poems" (1881) and wrote 'Who May Probyn may be we know not'. Her poems show a witty social criticism and is different from the often sentimental poetry that other female poets from the Victorian era wrote. Her poem "Is it nothing to you" was included in the "Oxford Book of English Verse" (1939 edition). May Probyn was a friend of W.B. Yeats. She died in 1909 was buried here in the Parish cemetery. The inscription on her grave reads: 'That, being dead to this world, she may live to thee'.
Marianne Stokes (Painter)
1855–1927
Marianne Stokes (1855–1927), born Marianne Preindlsberger, was an Austrian painter. She settled in England after her marriage to Adrian Scott Stokes (1854–1935), the landscape painter, whom she had met in Pont-Aven. Stokes was considered one of the leading women artists in Victorian England.
Charles Adrian Scott Stokes RA (Landscape Painter)
1854 - 1935
Charles Adrian Scott Stokes RA(1854–1935) was an English landscape painter. Born in Southport, Lancashire, he became a cotton broker in Liverpool, where his artistic talent was noticed by John Herbert RA, who advised him to submit his drawings to the Royal Academy. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1872 and exhibited at the Academy from 1876.
John Francis Bentley (Ecclesiastical Architect)
30 January 1839 – 2 March 1902
John Francis Bentley (30 January 1839 – 2 March 1902) was an English ecclesiastical architect whose most famous work is the Westminster Cathedral in London
Henry Clutton (Architect)
March 19, 1819 – June 27, 1893
Katharine Bradley (Writer) and Edith Emma Cooper (Writer)
27 October 1846 - 26 September1914 12 January 1862 - 13 December 1913
Katharine Bradley was born on 27 October 1846 in Birmingham, the daughter of Charles Bradley, a tobacco manufacturer,
and of Emma (née Harris). Bradley's elder sister, Emma, married James Robert Cooper in 1860, and their daughter, Edith Emma Cooper
was born on 12 January 1862. Emma Cooper became an invalid for life after the birth of her second daughter, Amy, and Katharine Bradley, being her sister, stepped in to become the legal guardian of her niece Edith Cooper.
Bradley published first under the pseudonym Arran Leigh,. Edith adopted the name Isla Leigh for their first joint publication, Bellerophôn.
Their first joint publication as Michael Field was "Callirhöe and Fair Rosamund" in 1884. While they were always well connected, the early critical success was not sustained (this is often attributed to the joint identity of Field becoming known).
Katherine Harris Bradley & Edith Emma Cooper
Both women were Received into the Church in 1907. Edith died of cancer in 1913, as did Katherine less than a year later, having kept her diagnosis secret whilst she nursed and cared for her terminally ill niece, companion and dear friend.
They had lived together and were buried together, with a now-lost marble having been put up in 1926. Whilst the plot number is known, the gravestone is no longer visible. Both ladies now form part of literary and possibly LGBTQ history and, as with all those buried in our cemetery, are still cherished and prayed for as loved members of the Parish.
John Joseph Casimir Jones, CB, CVO (4/3/1839-1929) Chief Commissioner Dublin Metropolitan Police (28/1/1893-26/7/1901)
4 March 1839 - 1929
He was born on 4 March 1839 in Short Castle, Mallow, Co. Cork married on 8/2/1872 Theresa Mary (b.1851), He was appointed a 3rd Class Sub Inspector in the (Royal) Irish Constabulary on 1 August 1857.
He was appointed a musketry instructor at the RIC Depot, Phoenix Park, Dublin from 1 October 1876 to 29 November 1878 and promoted County Inspector on 29 November 1878. He resigned on 28 January 1893 on his appointment as Chief Commissioner of the Dublin Metropolitan Police until 17 January 1901. Awarded a CB in 1899, a CVO on 26 April 1900 and awarded the 1900, Queen Victoria Royal Visit to Ireland Commemoration Medal, He died at 15, Ennerdale Road, Richmond, Surrey, England on 26 July 1929 & his wife Theresa died on 20 February 1936. They are buried together in the church graveyard.
Arthur William à Beckett (Journalist)
25 October 1844 - 14 January 1909
Arthur William à Beckett (25 October 1844 – 14 January 1909) was an English journalist and intellectual.
Frances Margaret Taylor (Superior General, Founder of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God)
(20 January 1832 - 9 June 1900)
Frances Margaret Taylor, whose religious name was Mother Magdalen of the Sacred Heart (20 January 1832 – 9 June 1900) was an English nurse, editor and writer, nun, and Superior General and founder of the Roman Catholic religious congregation the Poor Servants of the Mother of God.
In September 1959, Frances Taylor's remains were transferred from the churchyard to the chapel of the Generalate and Novitiate of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God at Maryfield Convent, Roehampton, London, and placed in a vault in front of the Sacred Heart altar.
The first prayer for Mother Magdalen's beatification, the first stage towards canonisation, was published in 1935. A cause for the beatification of Mother Magdalen Taylor was opened by Cardinal Basil Hume in 1982. By a decree of the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Mother Magdalen was declared venerable on 12 June 2014.
There are also buried here some 80-100 Sisters of the Order.
Sir James Marshall (Noble Order of the Knights and Ladies of Sir James Marshall)
(1829–1889)
James Marshall was born in Edinburgh. James wanted to join the Army but lost his right arm in a shooting accident. Instead, he went to Exeter College in Oxford and, upon graduating, was ordained as an Anglican almost at once. In November 1857, however, he became a Catholic but was not permitted to be ordained, as they considered that a priest would need both his arms. In 1863, he became the Classics master at the Birmingham Oratory school; and, in 1866, was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn. In May 1873, he was appointed the first Chief Magistrate of the Gold Coast (now Ghana) in West Africa, and went on to become a Senior Judge of that country's Supreme Court and, ultimately, its Chief Justice. In October 1877, he married Alice Young of Corby, Lincolnshire. Five years after that, he retired and was knighted. It is considered that Sir James was responsible, almost single-handedly, for introducing Roman Catholicism to the Gold Coast. Every year on the first Sunday in May, a delegation of the Noble Order of the Knights and Ladies of Sir James Marshall make the pilgrimage from West Africa to lay a wreath on his tomb at St Mary Magdalen church, Mortlake. They are dressed in black suits with purple, brown and green sashes, and are led by two men with drawn swords, and two women with short spears. The cause for his canonization has been submitted.
Guilaume, Comte de Vezlo
(1894 - 1901)
The cemetery includes another mausoleum, commemorating the very young Comte de Vezlo, Guilaume Henri (1894–1901). A plaque near the mausoleum’s entrance also commemorates his mother, Annette Rosamonde Basio, the Comtesse de Vezlo, who died in 1938.
Monsignor Charles Duchemin (Priest)
(1886 - 1965)
Msgr Duchemin was born in 1886. He came to Wandsworth as a solicitor in 1911 and was greatly influenced by the parish priest of St Thomas a Becket - Fr (later Canon) John Cooney. As a result he decided that his real vocation was to be a priest and started his studies at the Beda College in Rome in 1914. He was ordained in 1918 and returned to England to work as an assistant priest in Peterborough. In 1921, he asked to be transferred to Southwark and was sent as assistant priest to his mentor, Fr Cooney, at West Hill, Wandsworth. After six years of untiring ministry at St Thomas', he was appointed a Monsignor and Rector of the Beda College where he himself had studied. He held this post for 33 years - a much loved and respected Rector. He died, aged 79, in 1965.
Information from 'This Most Extraordinary Mission: A History of the Parish of St Thomas of Canterbury, Wandsworth 1841 - 1991' - Richard Milward MA
Redemptorist Priests and Brothers (CSSR)
15 members of the order (1899-1922)
Sir John Lionel Burke,
12th Baron Glinsk, Co Galway (1818-1884) and Katherine Elizabeth Camilla Lady Huntingtower (1821-1896). (Now extinct titles?). Also buried here are their daughter Mary Tollemach; and James Mason and his daughter Lucy Mason, 1932
Fr Henry Rawes, Superior of the Oblates of St Charles (24 April 1885)
Sisters of Notre Dame (4 or 5 Sisters –early 20th century)
Richard Van Zellen, Portuguese Vice Consul (1848-1899) and his wife Mary. Also Alexis Arundell (Jan 1877); Edward Arundell (Feb 1877). (relatives of Lady Burton?)
Canon John Wenham (March 1895) First Parish Priest of this Church and responsible for building it. Provost of St George’s Cathedral, Southwark.
Plunkett and Riddell family (1871- 1927) Members of the family of the Earl of Fingall, Co Meath. (Now extinct title?)
Major General Alexander Stewart Allan (Dec 1881) and Edith Allan (April 1892)
William Towry Law (son of Lord Ellenborough) died at Hampton Court Palace 31st Oct 1886. Also his widow Matilda (died June 1934)
