The Angel of Cookham

The Angel Cookham Churchyard
(c) Nicola Carpenter 2012

Taphophilia is a passion for and enjoyment of cemeteries. The singular term is a taphophile.


Angel monument to George Pendrill, Arthur Reed Louch and William Louch, Holy Trinity Churchyard, Cookham Berkshire.

"To The Memory Of - George Pendrill who died at Sutton Courtney, Berks July 8th 1890 aged 34 years.  Also of Arthur Reed Louch third son of the late Henry Louch Esq of Poplar London.  Who died at Sutton Courntey, Berks.  November 1st 1897 aged 58 years.  Also of William Louch twin brother of Arthur Reed Louch who died at Sutton Courtney, Berks June 8th 1901"

Arthur Reed and William Louch were born in 1839 in Poplar London to Henry, a ropemaker and Ann Louch nee Masterman.  On the 1841 Census they're shown living with their parents and sisters Ellen Masterman and Ada Reed at Manor Cottage, Poplar London.  Henry Louch was to die in 1848 and the family rope making business dissolved by his son Henry Louch in 1859.

"NOTICE is hereby given, that the Partnership heretofore subsisting between us the undersigned. Anna Louch, Henry Louch, and John Thompson, under the firm of Reed, Louch Brothers, and Thompson, at Love-lane, Shadwell, in the county of Middlesex, Rope Makers, has been dissolved by mutual consent, so far as regards the undersigned

John Thompson.—Dated the 27th day of December,

1859.  Anna Louch.  Henry Louch.  John Thompson."

In 1851 both Arthur and William were attending a boarding school in George Lane Woodford Essex.  Arthur and William split briefly in 1861 when Arthur was serving on a vessel in Pembrokeshire as an engineer and William, now a civil engineer was boarding with a Samuel Grey in Swindon GWR railway village, built by Brunel to help house the many railway workers and their families.  However in 1862 they can be found both serving in the Wiltshire Rifle Volunteer Corps 11th Company, Arthur as a Lieutenant and William as an Ensign.

In 1871 they were back living with their mother Anna and sister Louisa at The Elms in Hackney.  Both Arthur and William are listed as being ropemakers.  In 1881 Arthur and William have moved to Great Marlow and are living at Quarry Chalk Pits along with George Pendrill.  Arthur and William are again listed as engineers and George is an Engine driver.  1891 find the brothers living together aged 49 at The Green, Sutton Courtney in Abingdon, then Berkshire (now Oxon).  They're now listed as 'living on their own means'.

Sadly the twin brothers were to be separated by death with Arthur dying in 1897 and William in 1901.  His brother's passing must has come as a shock to poor William, who had to get used to living without his twin for a further four years.


George James Pendrill was born on 1st June 1856 in Rotherhithe Surrey to James a barge builder and Caroline Rachel Pendrill nee Gorsuch.

This monument and the research behind it has thrown up more questions than answers.

What event or reason that caused Arthur and William to leave the Wiltshire Rifle Volunteers to return to the family business of rope making?  Why was George Pendrill living with Arthur and William in Great Marlow and why did he move with them to Sutton Courtney? 

And most confusing of all...

Why was George Pendrill buried along with Arthur and William and not in his own plot or that of his family?


The Angel in the churchyard of Holy Trinity in Cookham was to inspire Sir Stanley Spencer.  He painted a picture of The Angel with the church tower in the background in 1953

The Angel, Cookham Churchyeard 1953

Sir Stanley Spencer looking at The Angel
in Cookham Churchyard

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** Update, I have since e-mailed Holy Trinity Church in Cookham asking for more information about the angel monument.  Unfortunately they had no further information to give.  However they did manage to find an identical angel monument in a Tiverton churchyard.  I am currently trying to find out if there is a connection between the two angels.

Winged Heads, Skulls, Crossbones

Taphophilia is a passion for and enjoyment of cemeteries. The singular term is a taphophile.


All photographs taken at Holy Trinity Churchyard, Cookham Berkshire.

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Sir Stanley Spencer of Cookham

Taphophilia is a passion for and enjoyment of cemeteries. The singular term is a taphophile.


Gravestone of Sir Stanley Spencer CBE RA, Holy Trinity Churchyard, Cookham Berkshire.

"To The Memory Of
Stanley Spencer
Kt CBE RA
1891 - 1959
And his wife
Hilda
Buried in Cookham Cemetery 1950

Everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.  He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love - 1 John 4:7"


Sir Stanley Spencer was born at Fernlea, High Street, Cookham on 30th June 1891 to William, a music teacher and Anne Caroline Spencer nee Slack.  On the that day a crow fell down the chimney and flapped about the living room until released. The family thought it a good omen and named Stanley after Stanley Spencer, a prominent balloonist of the era.

Fernlea

Much of Stanley's early education was at the village school run by his sisters, he eventually attended Maidenhead Technical School where his artistic training began, before enrolling at Slade School of Fine Art at University College, London.  Here he won the Composition Prize for ‘The Nativity’, and oil on canvas painted in 1912

The Nativity - 1912

In 1915 Stanley volunteered to serve with the Royal Army Medical Corps where he served as a orderly at The Beaufort War Hospital.  In 1916 he volunteered to serve with the Royal Army Medical Corps in Macedonia where he served with the 68th Field Ambulance Unit.  He later requested to be transferred to the Berkshire Regiment.  Stanley's experience of the horrors of war were to forever mark his attitude towards life and death, an influence that can be seen in many of his religious paintings.

Towards the end of the Great War Stanley was commissioned by the the War Artists Advisory Committee to paint visions of war from Macedonia.  Stanley painted what is now referred to as 'Travoys Arriving with Wounded at a Dressing Station at Smol.'  The painting is kept at the Imperial War Museum.

Travoys Arriving with Wounded at a Dressing Station at Smol

In 1925 Stanley married Hilda Carline, who at that time was a student of Slade School of Fine Art.  They had two daughters together, Shirin and Unity. 

Hilda, Unity and Dolls - 1937

However Hilda and Stanley were to divorce in 1937 when the girls were 7 and 11 due to Stanley's obsession with another woman, Patricia Preece.  A week after his divorce Stanley had married Patricia, but it was not to be a happy marriage.  Patricia was a con artist and a lesbian, whose interest in Stanley only extended as far as his money.  She somehow managed to persuade Stanley to sign over his house to her.  Patricia continued to live with her lover Dorothy Hepworth and the marriage was never consummated, yet when her 'relationship' with Stanley fell apart she refused to grant him a divorce. 

Hepworth, Preece, Spencer and guest
at Stanley's wedding to Patricia Preece in 1937

Stanley was to forever regret his decision to leave Hilda and his daughters for Patricia.  When Hilda's mental health began to fail, Stanley would visit her, but the damage to their relationship was already done.  In 1950 Hilda died of cancer.  Stanley continued to write love letters to Hilda long after her death.  In 1945 Stanley had moved to Cliveden View House in Cookham Rise, a house built by his builder grandfather Julius Spencer and previously lived in by his sister Annie.

Stanley was to become a familiar sight in Cookham, pushing a battered black pram that contained his canvas and easel.

Sir Stanley Spencer with his pram in Cookham Lane - 1958

In 1959 Stanley was knighted, later that year on 14th December he died of cancer at The Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital in Taplow Buckinghamshire.

1954 Portrait of Sir Stanley Spencer by Ida Kar
© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Dunkelsbuhler - Angels and Diamonds

Taphophilia is a passion for and enjoyment of cemeteries. The singular term is a taphophile.


Angel monument to Kathleen Dunkles, Frances Dunkels and Ernest Dunkles.

"Kathleen Dunkles 15 August 1906
Frances Dunkles 16 December 1953
Ernest Dunkels 12 September 1956"

Ernest Dunkles was born Ernest Dunkelsbuhler in London, Middlesex in 1880 to German parents Anton and Minna Dunkelsbuhler.  Anton was a famous diamond dealer who owned Anton Dunkelsbuhler & Company.  Ernest became a barrister and assumed the surname Dunkles in 1895, perhaps he felt it would be easier for his clients and neighbours than Dunkelsbuhler.

In 1909 Ernest married Frances S Van Nostrand, who travelled to England from New York on the ship Germanic on 9th June 1897.  On the Incoming Passengers List her occupation is listed simply as 'Lady'.  The lived together in Woodhurst Maidenhead and in 1916 Ernest enlisted and served in The Great War.  Frances passed away in the December of 1953, but not before giving Ernest four children.  Ernest was to follow his wife three years later.

Kathleen Dunkles was born Fanny Dunklesbuhler in London, Middlesex in 1878.  She was Ernest's elder sister.  Sometime between 1891 and 1906 Fanny changed her name to Kathleen, possibly a middle name, and took to using it instead of Fanny.  Ernest was to name his first daughter born in 1910, Kathleen after his sister.

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Julie from Taphophile Tragics and Sydney Eye asked a question relating to last week's Manlove post.

But there was another daughter , if I interrpert 'elder & beloved daughter' correctly.  I wonder what happend to the younger daughter.

Joseph and Eleanor had three children during their marriage, two who survived them.  Joseph Swailes Manlove born in October 1881 in Islington Middlesex and Dorothy Mary Manlove born on 27th December 1901 in Maidenhead.

Joseph became a bank cashier and married Alice Gertrude Maunder on 7th October 1909 in Marylebone London.  Joseph died in 1937 Tonbridge Kent.

All that I can find out about Dorothy is that she didn't marry and died a spinster in 1988 in Maidenhead.  It is possible that she rests in the same cemetery as her parents and elder sister.  A challange for my next visit?

Windows Into The Past - Ceramic Gravestone Memorials

(c) Headstones and History

Ceramic photograph memorials allow us a peek into the grave and a glimpse into the past.

Ceramic photographs started in 1854 when two french invented patented a method for fixing photographic images onto enamel or porcelain by firing in a kiln.  At first these enamels were used for home viewing before paper photos replaced them.  Soon after the custom of adding ceramic memorials to gravestones spread throughout southern and eastern Europe and into America.

Sadly due to weathering and sometimes vandalism, these wonderful windows into the past are disappearing. Laurel Mellien at Headstones and History has been taking photographs of these vanishing memorials, in the hopes of preserving what remains.

(c) Headstones and History

Showing signs of damamge.
(c) Headstones and History

(c) Headstones and History

(c) Headstones and History

Even pets were memoralised
(c) Headstones and History

For more information on the history of ceramic and enamel photograph memorials please click here.

To more fantastic ceramic memorial photographs and further information on gravestone symbolism, visit Laurel Mellien's Facebook page Headstones and History.

All photographs copyright of Headstones and History and reproduced with permission.

** Originally posted on Herding Cats



Manlove

Taphophilia is a passion for and enjoyment of cemeteries. The singular term is a taphophile.

Monument to Winifred Florence, Eleanor Amelia and Joseph Henry Manlove.  All Saints Cemetery, Maidenhead Berkshire.

"In Loving Memory of

Winifred Florence, elder & beloved daughter of J.H and E.A Manlove
Born May 2nd 1884 - Died 28th Nov 1909
Thanks be to God which Giveth us the victory
Through  our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor 15. 57

Also

Eleanor Amelia Manlove
Bleoved wife of J.H Manlove
Born Feb 26th 1861 - Died May 15th 1928
"With Christ which is far better"

And of

Joseph Henry Manlove
Born June 8th 1856 - Died Oct 26th 1938

At Rest"

Joseph Henry Manlove was born in Maidenhead Berkshire in 1856 to Richard George Manlove, a coach builder and his wife Hannah Manlove nee Marks.

Joseph, now an Iron Foundary Manager, married Eleanor Amelia Wright in Hackney in 1880 and their second child Winifred Florence was born in the May of 1884.  Winifred was to die in the November of 1909 aged 25 years.

Eleanor Amelia was the daughter of John Wright a London Greengrocer and his wife Mary Ann born in London in 1861.



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Le Blanc Smith - Sinking of The Tanjong Penang

Taphophilia is a passion for and enjoyment of cemeteries. The singular term is a taphophile.


Monument to Gladys Le Blanc Smith, All Saint's Cemetery, Maidenhead, Berkshire.


"In Ever Loving Memory of

Gladys

The Dearly Beloved And Most Devoted Wife Of

Fredrick Stuart Le Blanc Smith

Born January 8th 1884 - Died August 2nd 1913."


Gladys Le Blanc Smith was born Gladys Haig on 8th January 1884 at Bray Court, Windsor Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire to John Haig, a Distiller from Scotland and Jane Mary Ann Davis.

In 1910 Gladys married Frederick Stuart Le Blanc Smith, a member of The London Stock Exchange at All Saint's Church, Boyne Hill, Maidenhead.  The 1911 Census shows them living at Cairns, King's Grove, Maidenhead.  Soon their marriage was blessed by the birth of their daughter Beatrice (Betty), but tragically death was to take Gladys away from her young daughter in the August of 1913.

The outbreak of world War II saw Beatrice joining the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, where she served in the Far East on the 'Evacuation Ships'.  Beatrice was on the SS Kuala on 12th February 1942 when it came under enemy aircraft attack, killing many of the nurses, women and children aboard.  When the SS Kuala evenutually sank off of Pom Pong Island, Beatrice was one of the few survivors.  However fate was not kind to her. 

Fellow Nurse Margot Turner recounts -

"During the night of 16-17^th February, all women, children and wounded were taken off the island in rowing boats and placed on board the ‘Tanjong Penang’, a small cargo boat which was very crowed.

On the morning of the 17^th February 1942. She was hit by gunfire at 9.30 p.m. on that day and sank in about 5 minutes.

I was lying next to Sister Beatrice le Blanc Smith and there were people dead and dying all round us. Beatrice got a nasty wound in the buttock… My first thought was for the women and children in the hold; but a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse) struggling up from there to the deck, her dress covered in blood, said that the hold had had the full force of one of the shells and was absolutely smashed. In any case I realised that there was nothing I could do as the ship was already at a steep angle and obviously just about to turn over. Beatrice and I just stepped into the sea and were very lucky not to be sucked down when the ship suddenly turned over and sank.

The cries and screams of the wounded, the helpless and the dying, were quite terrible."


Before the ship sunk the officers had managed to throw a few small rafts overboard and Le Blanc Smith and Turner got hold of two and tied them together.  Both Beatrice and Margot had managed to save sixteen people from the sea, including six chidren, two of whom were under a year in age.  Sadly Sister Beatrice was not to make it, sucumming to her wounds on 18th February 1942

Beatrice is commemorated on the Singapore Memorial Collum 114.

Singapore Memorial

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** Originally posted on Herding Cats

Grinstead - Death of an Empire

Taphophilia is a passion for and enjoyment of cemeteries. The singular term is a taphophile.

Angel monument to Charles Grinsted, Daisy Grinsted and Agnes Sarah Grinsted.  All Saint's Cemetery, Maidenhead Berkshire.

"In Ever Loving Memory of -

Charles Grinsted who passed away December 12th 1928 aged 65 years
Also Daisy, his daughter who died October 6th 1908 aged 12 years
Also his beloved wife Agnes Sarah, died Oct 7th 1935 aged 71 years."

Charles Grinsted was born in 1863 in Mile End, Old Town, London to Thomas Place Grinsted and his wife Emma Shakel.  Some time between 1881 and 1891 Charles married Agnes Sarah Bushell and followed in his father's fishmonger footsteps by opening a fishmongers shop at 2 King Street Maidenhead.  Eventually branching out into 4, 6 and 8 King Street.

Their fifth child and fourth daughter Daisy was born at 2 King Street in 1897, sadly she was to die at the age of 12 in 1908.

Charles continued to build his mini empire to become a bookmaker and licensed game dealer until his death in the December of 1928.  Agnes remained at 4 King Street along with her daughter Lily, Lily's husband Freddie Cook and their daughter Norah (who was born on the kitchen table of number 4 King Street on 9th July 1911) until her death in October 1935.  Lily, Freddie and Norah carried on the family business, adding butchery to their skills, until the 1950s when Windsor and Maidenhead Council compulsorily purchased the King Street shops and demolished them to make way for the New Market development.  Norah moved to The Crescent, Maidenhead.

King Street Maidenhead c1950

Sadly Norah Cook passed away on 14th March 2011, just months shy of her 100th birthday.  The last remaining grandchild of Charles and Agnes Grinsted, bringing an end to the empire. 

Norah's Obituary can be found here - The Maidenhead Advertiser:  Obituary: Fun-loving Maidonian, 99, was last granddaughter in dynasty.

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Weather Worn and Forgotten

? Aged 71 Years

Mary ?

Taphophilia is a passion for and enjoyment of cemeteries. The singular term is a taphophile.

Two weather worn and eroded gravestones found at St James the Less, Stubbings, Burchetts Green and St Luke's Churchyard, Maidenhead, Berkshire.

The only information that can be gleaned from these stones is, 'Aged 71 Years' and 'Mary'.

An all too common sight in Britain's churchyards and cemeteries.  The poorer classes were not able to afford the marble and granite markers of their rich counterparts.  Having to make do with softer local stone or Limestone.  Sadly decades and even centuries of wind and rain has stripped them of their identities and thrown them into worn obscurity.

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The Nash Children

Taphophilia is a passion for and enjoyment of cemeteries. The singular term is a taphophile.

Monument to James, Florence Catherine, Albert George and Alfred Henry Nash, St Michael's Churchyard, Bray, Berkshire.

"Sacred To The Memory of
James Nash died Feb.y 9th 1878 aged 3 years

Florence Catherine Nash died Feb.y 3rd 1881 aged 11 months
Albert George Nash died Jan.y 18th 1882 aged 5 years
'Of such is the kingdom of heaven'
Alfred Henry Nash died June 1st 1887 aged 3 years"

James, Florence, Albert and Alfred were all the children of James and Martha Catherine Nash, nee Lewis.

James Nash snr was born in Maidenhead Berkshire in 1853, he later became a house painter before he married Martha Catherine Lewis in 1874. The couple soon moved to King Street in Maidenhead and started their family with the arrival of James in 1875 and followed by Albert George in 1876, Frederick William in 1879, Florence Catherine in 1880 and Alfred Henry in 1884, Frank Edward in 1886 and Bessie Louise in 1889. Tragically three were to die in the space of nine years.

In 1891 their mother Martha Catherine Nash passed away, yet she seems to have been buried elsewhere and not with her beloved children.

Poor James had lost three of his children and his wife within 17 years of their marriage. How must this have affected James and his remaining children, the youngest Bessie being a mere three years old at the time?

James continued to live and work in King Street with his surviving children until his death at the relatively young age of 51 in 1904. Did so much grief in such a short time prove too much for James? We shall never know.

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Alfred Beague Gundry - Drowned

Taphophilia is a passion for and enjoyment of cemeteries. The singular term is a taphophile.

Monument of Alfred Beague Gundry, St Michael's Churchyard, Bray, Berkshire

"Sacred to the memory of Alfred Beague Gundry. Youngest son of Walter Eustace Gundry ESQre late of Bridport Dorset who was drowned by the upsetting of a boat on the Thames at Bray Weir on the 18th April 1862 aged 26 years

~ Sincerely beloved and deeply lamented. What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know here after.

I am the resurrection and the life (rest illegible) ~"

 

Alfred Beague Gundry was indeed the youngest son of Walter Eustace Gundry and Susan Jarvis, born in 1836 in Bridport Dorset. He came from an rather upper class family his father being an accountant and his elder brothers employed as Bank of England Clerks, they all lived in the affluent Pembroke Square in Kensington, London.

 

On the 1861 Census a year before his tragic and untimely death Alfred is listed as an accountant boarding at 14 Everett Street in Finsbury, London.

Quite what was Alfred doing mucking about in a boat on the river Thames on that fateful day in April? In the Victorian era, mucking about on the river pleasure boating or 'punting' was very much in vogue. Anybody who was anybody was to be seen bobbing about on the river. Pleasure punts in use in England were first built around 1860 and reached the peak of their popularity in the 1910s.

 

However punting was not an easy pastime.

 

"Punting is not as easy as it looks. As in rowing, you soon learn to get along and handle the craft, bit it takes long practice before you can do this with dignity and without getting water up your sleeve." ~ Jerome K Jerome. Three Men in a Boat (1889).

Alfred may have simply been inexperienced and got into difficulties, which the weir only added to. Rather surprisingly at the time, not everyone who partook in the activity of punting on the river was able to swim.

Bray Weir taken in 1883 by Henry W Taunt

So sad that a day of pleasure and mucking about in boats should end so tragically and cut short the life of a young man.

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