The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery

After returning to Paris from exile on Elba, raised new forces and took an army north, towards Brussels, to attack the allied British and Prussian armies under Wellington and Blucher. As is well known, he lost to the allies at and fled. Fearful of capture by the vengeful Prussians or assassination by dissatisfied Frenchmen, he surrendered to the British. He hoped for a new life in the USA or a quiet retirement on an estate in England, but the allies were having none of that and sent him to the remote island of .Helena, an important stopping point for ships sailing from South Africa to England, at that time it was run by the British East India Company.

Kensal Green Cemetery is the last resting place of many who fought at Waterloo and those who witnessed his last days in exile.

Join us for our special event on Saturday, 20th June to find out more. We will delve into the history of Napoleonic wars, their impact on Britain and Napoleon’s last days on St. Helena.

After lunch, we will take a tour of the cemetery, see memorials to many of those witnesses and tell stories of their experiences.

❗St.Helena to Kensal Green Exploring Napoleon’s Final Chapter

🗓 10:30 Saturday, 20th June 2026

👉Book your place: https://www.kensalgreen.co.uk/events.php

It was our pleasure last week to finally meet Hans Noordam, creator of the website The Androom Archives and long term supporter of KGC. When we asked Hans which was his favourite memorial, he had no hesitation in choosing Wilkie Collins. His first visit to the cemetery, back in the late eighties, was specifically to see Wilkie's grave as he is a huge admirer of the great novelist and a longstanding member of the Wilkie Collin's Society.

Hans is probably the original cemetery blogger - he started so early in fact, way back in 1995, that the concept of blogging didn't even exist. Instead he had to create his own website from scratch (no off the shelf templates in those days) using very basic HTML to create hand-coded pages. It would have been a slow and frustrating process but luckily Hans has a background in IT and didn't let the difficulties put him off! He has been updating his website and adding new names and cemeteries for over 30 years and The Androom Archives now has 4573 grave locations from 18 countries in far too many cemeteries for us to count, each location with photos and a short biography. For KGC alone he has 160 entries. This labour of love shows no sign of coming to an end; Hans visited the cemetery last week to add more locations to his archive!

You can see the Androom Archives here: https://www.androom.com/

Book 12 of the KGC book club is Geraldine Roberts 'The Angel & The Cad' recommended by Sue Richardson Capel. It is, according to The Times, the "shocking tale" of the marriage between Catherine Tylney-Long, the Angel of the title, an heiress who was supposedly the richest commoner in England and the Right Honorable William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley, the 4th Earl of Mornington, the cad who was in reality was neither right nor honorable, nephew of the Duke of Wellington, a gambler, philanderer, rake and a most miserable husband.

Catherine was the most eligible spinster in England with numerous suitors vying for hand in marriage (and the vast fortune that came along with). She could have become the Queen of England as the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV was amongst those eager to woo her. But she fell for the dashing William Wellesley-Pole, heir to the Irish Earldom of Mornington, a decision she would rue for the rest of her short life. Two months before the wedding her husband added her surnames to his own by Royal License to become William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley, allowing his friend Byron to dub him 'Long-Pole'.

Long-Pole burned through Catherine's fortune and was forced to go into exile to escape his creditors, abandoning his wife and three children in the process. Catherine died in 1825 at the age of 35 and Long-Pole married again, this time to the wife of a Coldstream guard he had been conducting an affair with. He was responsible for the selling off of the contents of Wanstead House, one of London's grandest homes and Catherine's property, and its subsequent demolition. He is buried in the catacombs beneath the Anglican Chapel where this photo was taken.

Geraldine Robert's book is the only available full length retelling of this fascinating story and is a timely reminder that life in Regency England, even for the wealthiest and most privileged women, was not remotely like 'Bridgerton' and that handsome men are far more trouble than they are worth...

3 June 1912 died Kitty Melrose (born Agnes Butterfield), the vivacious star of the Edwardian stage. Her last and most successful stage appearance was at the London Adelphi Theatre in the musical The Quaker Girl, which opened on 5 November 1910 and ran for 536 performances.

In 1912 Kitty, aged 30, was found dead in her apartment at Smith Square, Westminster, having taken her own life by sticking her head in the gas oven, causing asphyxiation from carbon monoxide poisoning. Her family blamed her death on heartbreak caused by her fiancé, Edward Lawson-Johnson, breaking off their engagement. Described as a 'man about town' by the press, Lawson-Johnson was supported financially by his family and they had forbidden him to marry her.

She is buried in square 43 of Kensal Green Cemetery.

Sculptor Edmonia Lewis (1844-1907) may not be, strictly speaking, one of ours, as she is buried next door in the other Kensal Green, St Mary’s Catholic Cemetery but as St Mary’s don’t have any social media presence or any Friends group to celebrate their heritage we feel obliged to step in when something momentous happens. The occasion is Edmonia Lewis’ first major museum retrospective held, a mere 119 years after her death, at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. Official recognition of Edmonia’s artistic legacy has taken some time, not only because she is a woman but also because she is of mixed black and native American heritage; her mother was Mississauga Ojibwe, born in Albany, and her father a black servant. She was born in 1844 in Greenbush. New York and raised in Newark and Niagara Falls. When she was 15 her brother sent her to study at Oberlin College in Ohio, one of the few educational institutions in the US that accepted women or people of colour. Despite Oberlin’s liberal attitudes Edmonia encountered racism and prejudiced behaviour and never completed her course of study; in 2022 the college awarded her a posthumous degree.

In 1866, aged 22, Edmonia left the US and went to Rome to study sculpture in the studio of the American neo-classical sculptor Hiram Powers. Her work gained attention, partly perhaps because as The Athenaeum put it she was an ‘interesting novelty’ but also because she was genuinely talented and produced powerful and impressive work. In 1872 she returned to the United States where she produced her most famous work, the monumental ‘Death of Cleopatra’ for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The following year Ulysses S. Grant commissioned her to sculpt his portrait bust.

She spent her later years in Paris and in 1901 moved to London where she lived in virtual anonymity. Until as recently as 2010 where, when and how she died were completely unknown. After researching Lewis’ life since the 1980’s US cultural historian Marilyn Richardson probably couldn’t believe her luck when the 1901 census went on line and she found the artist’s name at 37 Store Street in Bloomsbury (just around the corner from the British Museum). With the help of a London based US lawyer, Scott Varland, she eventually located Lewis’ will and probate records. These showed that Lewis died on 17 September 1907 in the Hammersmith borough infirmary on Goldhawk Road, had been living at 154 Blythe Road, W14 and left effects worth £489 0s 1d. The cause of death recorded on her death certificate was nephritis, then called Brights disease, a chronic inflammation of the kidneys. Burial records revealed that she was interred in St Mary’s Catholic cemetery where her grave is marked by a flat ledger style stone on which all traces of any inscription have long since weathered away. The anonymity of the grave led another admirer, Bobbie Reno, the town historian of East Greenbush, a suburb of Albany, to set up a GoFundMe page to raise the money necessary to create the new marker you see there today.

Further information: https://thelondondead.blogspot.com/2022/06/seeing-wonderful-things-edmonia-lewis.html

A unique opportunity for history enthusiasts to walk among the memories of Waterloo and St Helena:

St Helena to Kensal Green – Exploring Napoleon’s Final Chapter

A talk and guided walk

🗓 Saturday, 20th June 2026
🕥 10:30 AM
📍 Kensal Green Cemetery, London W10 4RA

Kensal Green Cemetery is the resting place of many veterans of the Battle of Waterloo: the conflict that sealed Napoleon’s fate. It is also home to the Admiral who transported Napoleon to St Helena, along with several others who met and spoke with him during his exile.
The day will begin with an engaging historical talk exploring these dramatic events, followed by lunch and a guided tour of the cemetery. Together, we will visit the graves of those who witnessed and shaped this extraordinary period of history.

Join us for a fascinating journey into the final chapter of Napoleon’s story.

Book your place: https://www.kensalgreen.co.uk/events.php

The Last Chance Saloon - still time to lodge your objections!

The Masons Arms – a brief history (part two of two).

In the old photo of the Masons Arms above, you can just make out the sign ‘J. A. Middleton’ on the front façade. An article in the Paddington Times (Sept. 1908) reporting on the Wembley Dog Show includes among the prize winners “Dalmatians, 3rd in the open class, J.A. Middleton, “Mason’s Arms,” Harrow-road” so it is likely that he took over the pub from James Copper approximately 1904-1908, but further research is needed.

However, by the 1911 census William J. Osgood is the ‘licenced victualler’, with his wife Mary, brother Frank, and seven servants living at the ‘Masons Arms Hotel’. They ran the pub for the next ten years before the licence was transferred in 1921 from W.J. Osgood to F.W. Kennedy. Frederick William Kennedy, his wife Mary, daughter Freda, and five servants are living at the Masons Arms on the 1921 census. When Frederick died on 14 December 1925 the licence passed to William George Manning, who only held it for a few years before transferring it onto Frank Ernest Hill in 1929.

The Hills were popular licensees with Frank running various clubs and outings, including the Knickerbocker Club and the Masons Arms Cork Club, and his wife Emmie Hill organising dances to raise money for St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington. However, they soon moved onto other hostelries including The Swan Hotel, Bayswater. Frank died in 1948, Emmie died in 1955 and they are buried together in Kensal Green Cemetery.

In 1934 the licence was transferred from F. E. Hill to Norman Dean, but by the 1939 register it is Edward A. Palmer who is the ‘licenced victualler’ living at the Masons Arms with his wife Irene, his widowed father Alexander Palmer, and Irenes’ widowed mother, Ruth Skidmore. Alexander died in 1952 and Ruth died in 1958 – both were cremated and ashes scattered at West London Crematorium. Edward and Irene Palmer remained at the pub until 1963, after which they appear to have moved to Devon.

Throughout its history the Masons Arms has been a venue for various social clubs and functions: from William Charlton’s shooting parties; the formation of The Sterling Harmonic Society under George Lander, musical performances by the Kensal Rise Musical Society in the 1900s; billiards matches under James Copper; and Frank Hill’s clubs battling it out over games of dominoes, cribbage and darts; plus others too numerous to mention. But perhaps most notably it was the headquarters of the Queens Park Harriers, who still exist today. The History section on their website states they were founded in 1887 and “the beginnings of the club can be traced back to when a group of boys from St Judes Institute, Queens Park, decided to form a sports club which included among its activities both athletics and football. The football section apparently disagreed with the Vicar and broke away to form a club which eventually became Queen’s Park Rangers.”

Whilst the ‘football section’ were based at pubs further down the Harrow Road, the runners - the Queen's Park Harriers - established the Masons Arms as their headquarters in 1893. There was a bi-weekly training programme, competitive races, with committee meetings, the AGM and prize-giving functions held at the pub, and apart from a short break, these were still taking place at the Masons Arms in 1939 and beyond.

Text and St Judes photos by Meriel Smith

The Masons Arms – a brief history (part one).

So far, the first mention of the ‘Masons Arms’ found is a newspaper item in March 1861 in which William Charlton of the Masons Arms Beer house, Kensal Green, applied for a licence for his premises. This was his first application but the landlord of the Plough and others opposed it, and the application was rejected. The 1861 census shows William Charlton ‘Beer Retailer’ living at the Masons Arms, with his wife Maria and their five children, plus a servant.

Following the granting of the licence in 1862, William offered regular shooting parties (ducks and other birds) which highlights how rural this area still was at the time, although in 1865 William wrote a letter to the Kensington Vestry “calling attention to the disgraceful state of the footpath in front of his house”. William died on the 24 October 1869 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. The Masons Arms passed to his wife Maria and we find her on the 1871 census living at the pub as the ‘Licenced Victualler’ with her five children and two servants. Maria had moved away from the area by the time she died in 1882 but is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, alongside her husband.

In 1881 the licence was transferred from Maria Charlton to George Lander. George was the son of George Lander, a stonemason, who had moved his family to Kensal Green in the 1830s after being employed by the cemetery. George junior initially followed in his fathers’ footsteps giving his occupation as ‘mason’ at the time of his 1878 marriage to Annie Kezia Hambly. But the 1881 census shows him as the ‘Licenced Victualler’ living at the Masons Arms with his wife, infant daughter, wifes’ sister, and three servants.

An item in the Building News of April 1886 “for rebuilding the Masons’ Arms, Harrow-road, Messrs. Raymond and Webbe, architects,…” and a report on the 11th Middlesex (Railway) Rifles Club Dinner in the Willesden Chronicle (Dec. 1886) “The spacious building that has lately been reared on the site of the old house is one well qualified for such gatherings, the clubroom being adapted for a large company. Certainly those who were present on Saturday found that the worthy host, Mr G. Lander, had made excellent arrangements for their comfort” indicates that the building we see today dates from this time.

Although George moved away from Kensal Green onto other hostelries, he is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, alongside his wife and children. In 1890 the Masons Arms was sold at auction and the license transferred from George Lander to George William Harris.

The next twenty years of the pubs’ history is a little chaotic with many names mentioned, as the licensee, proprietor, and manager were often different people who ran other pubs and did not live on site.

We do know that from about 1896 to c.1908 the proprietor was James Copper, who was popular with everyone except one Mrs Emmeline Johnson, a former manageress of the pub, who took him to court in 1904 for slander – he accused her of drunkenness and she claims he was watering down the whisky! In the old photo of the pub above, although a lamp is partially blocking the view, we believe that the name over the door of the pub is ‘J. Copper’ dating the photo to his tenure.

Text and grave photo by Meriel Smith

Objections to the developers plans to demolish the Masons Arms need to be made via the Brent Council planning site by 28 May:
https://pa.brent.gov.uk/online-applications/advancedSearchResults.do?action=firstPage

We have launched a project to record wildlife (birds, plants, insects, mammals) at Kensal Green Cemetery.

Any visitor with a camera or recording device can join in (iPhone is easiest, but there are workarounds).

Click on the green bird in the top banner of our website pages to see our project on iNaturalist, and to set up your account if you would like to contribute. The page will take a few moments to load - please be patient.

Download the iNat app for iPhone to start recording your finds while at the cemetery. Anyone who is keen, but needs further help, please join our email group by contacting the project manager (jokgc) through iNat.