Tomb of Marigold Churchill | |
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General information | |
Type | Funerary monument |
Location | Kensal Green Cemetery, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London |
Coordinates | 51°31′36″N0°13′40″W / 51.5268°N 0.2277°W |
Construction started | 1867 |
Governing body | General Cemetery Company |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
Official name | Tomb of Marigold Churchill |
Designated | 12 June 2001 |
Reference no. | 1246128 |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Eric Gill |
The Tomb of Marigold Churchill is located in Kensal Green Cemetery in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England. It commemorates Marigold, the fourth child of Winston and Clementine Churchill. Marigold died aged two in 1921 and the tomb at Kensal Green was her grave until her reinterment in the Churchill family plot at St Martin's Church, Bladon, Oxfordshire in 2020. Designed by Eric Gill, the tomb is a Grade II listed structure.
Marigold Churchill (15 November 1918-23 August 1921) was the fourth child of Winston and Clementine Churchill. She died of sepsis at the age of 2 years, 9 months, while on holiday at Broadstairs in Kent. Her death devastated her parents. [1] She was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery three days after her death, in a private ceremony attended only by the Churchill family. Photographers who had come to the cemetery left at Churchill's request. [2] In 2020 her body was exhumed and reburied in the Spencer-Churchill family plot at St Martin's Church, Bladon in Oxfordshire. [3]
The tomb takes the form of a cross. It is carved in Hopton Wood stone, [4] a particularly fine form of limestone much used for gravestones. [lower-alpha 1] [6] The monument originally comprised a pedestal, with "exquisite" Gill lettering, topped with a shaft depicting the crucifixion. The wording on the pediment reads: "HERE LIES // MARIGOLD // DEAR CHILD // OF WINSTON // AND CLEMENTIME // CHURCHILL // BORN NOV 15 // 1918 // DIED AUG 23 // 1921 // R.I.P". The upper part of the memorial was stolen in 1992 and was replaced by a stone cross. [7] The designer was Eric Gill. [lower-alpha 2] [8] It is a Grade II listed structure. [4]
Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of North Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, it was founded by the barrister George Frederick Carden. The cemetery opened in 1833 and comprises 72 acres (29 ha) of grounds, including two conservation areas, adjoining a canal. The cemetery is home to at least 33 species of bird and other wildlife. This distinctive cemetery has memorials ranging from large mausoleums housing the rich and famous to many distinctive smaller graves and includes special areas dedicated to the very young. It has three chapels and serves all faiths. It is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries in London.
Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Richard John Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough,, styled Earl of Sunderland until 1883 and Marquess of Blandford between 1883 and 1892, was a British soldier and Conservative politician, and a close friend of his first cousin Winston Churchill. He was often known as "Sunny" Marlborough after his courtesy title of Earl of Sunderland.
Clementine Ogilvy Spencer-Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill,, was the wife of Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and a life peer in her own right. While legally the daughter of Sir Henry Hozier, her mother Lady Blanche's known infidelity and his suspected infertility make her paternal parentage uncertain.
Sarah Millicent Hermione Touchet-Jesson, Baroness Audley, was an English actress and dancer and a daughter of Winston Churchill.
Major John Strange Spencer-Churchill, known as Jack Churchill, was the younger son of Lord Randolph Churchill and his wife Jennie, and the brother of former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Sir Winston Churchill.
Diana Spencer-Churchill was the eldest daughter of British statesman Sir Winston Churchill and Clementine Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill.
Bladon is a village and civil parish on the River Glyme about 6+1⁄2 miles (10.5 km) northwest of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England. It is where Sir Winston Churchill is buried. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 898.
St Martin's Church in Bladon near Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, is the Church of England parish church of Bladon-with-Woodstock. It is also the mother church of St Mary Magdalene at Woodstock, which was originally a chapel of ease. It is best known for the graves of the Spencer-Churchill family, including Sir Winston Churchill, in its churchyard.
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Ditchley Park is a country house near Charlbury in Oxfordshire, England. The estate was once the site of a Roman villa. Later it became a royal hunting ground, and then the property of Sir Henry Lee of Ditchley. The 2nd Earl of Lichfield built the present house, designed by James Gibbs, in 1722. In 1933, the house was bought by an MP, Ronald Tree, whose wife Nancy Lancaster redecorated it in partnership with Sibyl Colefax. During the Second World War Winston Churchill used the house as a weekend retreat, due to concerns that his official country house, Chequers and his private country home, Chartwell, were vulnerable to enemy attack. After the war, Tree sold the house and estate to the 7th Earl of Wilton, who then sold it in 1953 to Sir David Wills of the Wills tobacco family. Wills established the Ditchley Foundation for the promotion of international relations and subsequently donated the house to the governing trust.
Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom between 10 May 1940 – 26 July 1945 and 26 October 1951 – 6 April 1955, was the eldest son of Lord and Lady Randolph Churchill, and grandson of the 7th Duke of Marlborough.
Mary Soames, Baroness Soames, was an English author. The youngest of the five children of Winston Churchill and his wife, Clementine, she worked for public organisations including the Red Cross and the Women's Voluntary Service from 1939 to 1941, and joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1941. She was the wife of Conservative politician Christopher Soames.
The English coastal city of Brighton and Hove, made up of the formerly separate Boroughs of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, has a wide range of cemeteries throughout its urban area. Many were established in the mid-19th century, a time in which the Victorian "cult of death" encouraged extravagant, expensive memorials set in carefully cultivated landscapes which were even recommended as tourist attractions. Some of the largest, such as the Extra Mural Cemetery and the Brighton and Preston Cemetery, were set in particularly impressive natural landscapes. Brighton and Hove City Council, the local authority responsible for public services in the city, manages seven cemeteries, one of which also has the city's main crematorium. An eighth cemetery and a second crematorium are owned by a private company. Many cemeteries are full and no longer accept new burials. The council maintains administrative offices and a mortuary at the Woodvale Cemetery, and employs a coroner and support staff.
Oscar Wilde's tomb is located in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France. It took nine to ten months to complete by the sculptor Jacob Epstein, with an accompanying plinth by Charles Holden and an inscription carved by Joseph Cribb.
Hopton Wood stone is a type of limestone quarried west of Middleton-by-Wirksworth, Derbyshire, England. Described as "very fine, almost like marble" and as "England’s premier decorative stone", it is particularly suited to carving, making it popular for tombstones, sculpture and building.
The Royal Naval Division Memorial is a First World War memorial located on Horse Guards Parade in central London, and dedicated to members of the 63rd Division (RND) killed in that conflict. Sir Edwin Lutyens designed the memorial, which was unveiled on 25 April 1925—ten years to the day after the Gallipoli landings, in which the division suffered heavy casualties. Shortly after the war, former members of the division established a committee, chaired by one of their leading officers, Brigadier-General Arthur Asquith, to raise funds for a memorial. Progress was initially slow. The committee planned to incorporate its memorial into a larger monument proposed by the Royal Navy for Trafalgar Square. When the navy abandoned that project, the RND's committee decided to proceed independently. They engaged Lutyens, who, after negotiation with the Office of Works, produced a design for a fountain connected to the balustrade of the Admiralty Extension building.
Operation Hope Not was the code name of a funeral plan for Winston Churchill titled The State Funeral of The Right Honourable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, K.G., O.M., C.H. that was started in 1953, twelve years before his death. The detailed plan was prepared in 1958. Churchill led the country to victory in the Second World War (1939–1945) during his first term as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. While in his second term he was struck by a major stroke in 1953 that caused concern for his health. The British Government started a meticulous preparation, as officially decreed by Queen Elizabeth II, to be of a commemoration "on a scale befitting his position in history". As remarked by Lord Mountbatten, Churchill "kept living and the pallbearers kept dying" such that the plan had to be revised several times in the years before his death in 1965.
The Royal Berkshire Regiment War Memorial or Royal Berkshire Regiment Cenotaph is a First World War memorial dedicated to members of the Royal Berkshire Regiment and located in Brock Barracks in Reading, Berkshire, in south-east England. Unveiled in 1921, the memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, based on his design for the Cenotaph on Whitehall in London, and is today a grade II* listed building.
The Tomb of Charles Spencer Ricketts is located in Kensal Green Cemetery in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England. It commemorates Commander Charles Spencer Ricketts, an officer in the Royal Navy. Designed in 1868 by William Burges, the tomb is a Grade II* listed structure.
The statue of Winston Churchill in Woodford, London, is a bronze sculpture of the British statesman, created by David McFall in 1958–9. The statue commemorates Churchill's role as the member for the parliamentary constituency of Woodford. Churchill was elected to the Epping seat in 1924 and held it until 1945 when the new constituency of Woodford was created. Churchill then held this seat until his retirement in 1964. The statue is a Grade II listed structure.