Remembrance Sunday Wreath Laying

Jane Clouson memorial

Jeff Hart led a well attended tour of the cemeteries last Saturday. One of the highlights of any visit is the Jane Clouson memorial.

Lionel de Jersey Harvard: Brockley's Ivy League link

Lionel de Jersey Harvard was the only descendant of John Harvard (who gave his name in 1638 to the prestigious Ivy League University in the USA) ever to attend Harvard University. The direct descendant of John Harvard's brother, Thomas he entered the University in 1911 having gained a place with some assistance from Harvard president Lowell when he learned that Lionel was interested in attending. (NY Times entry)

Born in Lewisham on the 3rd June 1894 he attended St Olaves Grammar School and St Saviours School(Southwark) before entering the University after spending time working as an Insurance Broker. His arrival having sailed from Liverpool was well publicised and he appeared a popular student. Addressing the assembled graduates after his own graduation he stated that 'I have had four years here full to the brim of happiness'. Known as 'Johnny' to his contempories. he had planned to become a medical missionary on graduation. Two days after graduation he returned to England to enlist and in September 1915 he was gazetted to the Granadier Guards. He had attempted to enlist in 1914 but was unsuccessful. Having married Mary Barker shortly before he went into training in Chelsea with the First Battalion of the GG and went to Flanders in February 1916. The regiment was then occupying positions in the Ypres Salient, transferring to the Somme front where he received a bullet wound in the chest at Les Boeufs. Following his promotion to First Lieutenant in June, 1917, he rejoined his battalion in France.

In July he was back at Ypres and took part in the taking of Pilkem Ridge and other important engagements. In the Cambrai advance he saw heavy fighting at Fontaine Notre Dame, and later in stemming the enemy's onrush when the British line was pierced. At home he had now, besides his wife and his parents, a new born son Peter, With the great March Offensive in 1918 he was in the front line at Arras, having been commissioned as a Captain, when on the 30th March he was killed instantaneously by a shell explosion and was buried in the civilian cemetery at Boisleux-au-mont near to Arras. A superior Officer said of him after his death that he was 'One of the most conscientious and fearless Officers that I have ever known'. His only brother Lieutenant Kenneth O'Gorman Harvard' 2nb Batt GG (a second brother died in infancy) was killed by a sniper at Pilkem Ridge on the 1st August 1917 and is buried near Langemarck.

Lionel Hall is named after him at Harvard University and the annual Lionel de Jersey Harvard Fellowship was founded in his memory in 1928 which enabled students from Harvard to spend a year studying at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University (John Harvard alumnus). His easily located family grave lies a few yards from the Dissenters Chapel at the ladywell side of the cemetery.

George Lacy Hillier: Amateur Cycling Champion at ALL(!) distances, 1881.

As the Tour De France begins, the FOBLC remembers George Lacy Hillier who was the cycling superstar of his time. He was born in Sydenham in 6/6/1856. The attached a picture of him, was taken about 1878, when he lived in Chichester and raced for the Chichester and District Bicycle Club.

Among various honours, he was for many years the English champion over all the then recognised competition distances, and also competed on the continent. Probably his most famous race was the 10,000 metre race on the Leipzig track in 1885, where he not only won the first prize but broke the record for that distance.

Hillier went on to be a magazine editor and writer and was also member of the Stock Exchange, like his father before him. He was an important figure in the planning and raising the finances to build Herne Hill Velodrome, the last of the many famous Victorian racing tracks. There were plans to tear this famous track down but it has now been saved. For more information about the Velodrome see the links below.

Hillier died in 11/02/1941 and is buried in the Hillier family vault in the Ladywell Cemetery.

http://www.hernehillvelodrome.com/about/history
http://www.freemantransport.com/blog/2009/12/herne-hill-velodrome/

Thanks to Geoff Margetts, a cycling enthusiast based in Germany, for the information.

ANNUAL REPORT for 2010-11 TO THE AGM OF FRIENDS of BROCKLEY AND LADYWELL CEMETERIES JUNE 2011

The Friends group was formed in July 2007, and now has a membership of 51 as at the end of March 2011. Although about 40 members live in and around South-east London, others live further away, including Canada.

The Friends group had 7 open meetings during the year, excluding the 2009 AGM, plus one other committee meeting.

7 “work sessions” have taken place, including two in conjunction with the Council’s Nature Conservation Department’s Nature’s Gym. Work has varied from ivy clearance from the chapel to scraping grass from the paths near the old toilets to filling builders’ bags with leaves. Numbers have been steady at 3 or 4 members for rather uninspiring but essential work to complement the work done by Cemeteries’ staff. The loss of labour from Envirowork and then Glendale plus the expected cuts in the Bereavement Services’ budget and possibly staff losses means that the level of maintenance carried out by the Council is expected to fall.
The development of the bird hide has been put on hold.
The group has discussed restoration of memorials, including the Hither Green & Sydenham airship deaths memorial in the Ladywell Cemetery, but recognise that specialist skills are required.

One of the advances in this year has been the advent of public guided walks. Jeff Hart kicked off with one in April for FONC members; this was followed in May by one as part of the Brockley Max Festival. Including these, a total of 6 have been held. Thanks are due to the members who have led these walks, and the members who have come along in support. Knowledge is built up with each successive walk, and members continue to research and pinpoint particular memorials of interest.

A highlight of the year was the dedication of a new memorial to Ernest Dowson, decadent poet. Members assisted Philip Walker who instigated the project; over 80 people attended the dedication in August, and the event featured on national news.

The group again took part in an Armistice evening event organised by John McKiernan. The evening was again well attended and despite lack of funding was a success. John McKiernan attended a feedback session with the Group. He also updated the group on his future plans.

We held our first Remembrance Day event, laying wreaths at the two war memorials and picking three relevant points of interest in between.

Our second noticeboard was installed in the Brockley Cemetery in July. Colin Burgess and his colleagues are to be thanked for carrying out the work.
The noticeboard was the result of a successful application made to the Ladywell Ward Assembly for a further grant of £1000 from the Locality Fund.

The group had stalls at the following events in the year: at the Friends of Nunhead Cemetery Open Day (May), and Gordonbrock School Annual Carnival (June), and at an event in Ladywell Fields organised by Living Streets and the Council’s People & Rivers Project. This Project also organised an evening nature walk in the Brockley Cemetery, led by Nick Bertrand, in September. A number of Friends attended despite the short notice.

The group is represented on a committee of local groups, granted funds from the Council’s Ward Locality Fund, developing a walking tour map of Ladywell, which includes part of the Ladywell Cemetery. The group is also represented on the Council’s Biodiversity Partnership.

The Friends remained a member of the National Federation of Cemeteries’ Friends, and attended the 2010 AGM hosted by the Friends of West Norwood Cemetery.


The website and BlogSpot, managed by Patrick Napier, continues to be the channel for enquiries from within the UK and abroad about friends and relatives buried in the Cemeteries. Members of the group have assisted in identifying and photographing particular graves, and writing them up for the Blogspot. As a result members have been able to supply information to enquiries from Australia and Canada, and in turn have been supplied information from people who have particular interests.
It is hoped to develop a publishing programme using the research information.

I would like to thank members for their continued enthusiasm and support over the past year; also to Jeff Hart, the Co-ordinator of Friends Of Nunhead Cemetery for his guidance, and to Nick Pond and Jessica Kyle of the Council’s Nature Conservation Department for their advice; also to Colin Burgess, Irene Kemp and Shirley Bishop, the Council Officers responsible for the Cemeteries for their co-operation in the past year.


Geoffrey Thurley
Chair

BROCKLEY MAX GUIDED WALK

Around 40 people joined members of the Friends’ group in a guided walk round the two Cemeteries on Saturday 28th May. Appreciation was shown by attendees, and about £53 was donated towards our funds. Many thanks to all who shared the guiding, and who contributed to this successful event and of course to Brockley Max

First to the Corinthians: the story of England goalie Harry Albemarle Swepstone

Thanks to Mike Guilfoyle for uncovering this story of a notable sportsman buried in the Brockley & Ladywell Cemeteries

Harry Albemarle Swepstone (1859-1907) who was born in Stepney, East London, made his England debut against Scotland in 1880. During this match he was beaten by a 'cannon shot' from the Scottish 'Rooney', Centre Forward George Kerr. Harry had the dubious distinction of conceding 18 goals in six international matches as England goalkeeper between 1880 to 1883. When the famous Corinthian amateur football club was formed in 1882 to improve the flagging fortunes of the England football Team (sound familiar?!) and challenge the then supremacy of the Scottish Football Team, he suggested the name, which was accepted unanimously. The football club later came to be known as the Corinthian-Casuals in 1939, and was based in Tolworth after moving from Crystal Palace.

The world famous Brazilian Corinthian Paulista club founded in 1910 was inspired to adopt the name, following an historic football tour undertaken by the London based club. Real Madrid adopted the Corinthian's white shirts for their iconic strip. The team now play in the Isthmian League Division One South. Harry also played for Pilgrims FC and was an FA Cup winner in 1879/80. A solicitor by profession he practised at Bishopsgate and served on the FA committee in 1883/84. Harry died on the 7 th May 1907 and is buried with his wife, Emmie and daughter who pre-deceased him aged just 10 years old. The family grave(which is sadly neglected and damaged) lies a few yards from that of the newly restored grave of the poet Ernest Dowson in the Ladywell section of the cemetery.

For more see:

http://www.englandfootballonline.com/TeamPlyrsBios/PlayersS/BioSwepstoneHA.html- facts & figures + brief life story


http://www.flickr.com/photos/rugby_pioneers/473413891/sizes/l/ -England Football Team -1881-HAS -Fourth from left standing..



http://footballpubcast.clubfans.co.uk/2011/01/08/the-story-of-corinthians/- for more on the history of the Corinthian-Casuals..

NUNHEAD CEMETERY'S ANNUAL OPEN DAY – SATURDAY 21 MAY 2011 11.00-5.00

Admission to the Open Day is free and there will be woodcraft demonstrations, birds of prey, choral performances in the open air chapel and, for 2011, a sculpture show in the mausoleum. There will also be guided cemetery tours and other attractions including face painting, and the celebrated 'Bug Hunt' for children and refreshments.

The FOBLC looks forward to welcoming you at its stall there!

The cemetery is in Linden Grove, SE15 with Nunhead rail station nearby. Bus routes P12, 78, 343, 484 .

The 100th anniversary of the tragic sinking of the SS Yongala and its Brockley connection

It's exactly 100 years today since the coastal trading ship SS Yongala sank in a tropical cyclone off the coast of Queensland, Australia on March 23rd 1911. The disaster became known as the 'Townsville Titanic' as all 122 passengers and crew were lost. The only body recovered was that of a racehorse called 'Moonshine' washed ashore some days later. That loss had a profound impact on Townsville which at that time had a population of just 15,000.

There is a Brockley link in the person of 21 year old Robert Walton Cook who was a crew member on the ill fated voyage and whose grave lies in the Brockley & Ladywell Cemeteries.


The centenary of one of Australia's greatest maritime mysteries has been marked with the Yongala story appeared on ABC News, a national current affairs program in Australia. Click here and select Play Video, to see the fascinating history of the Yongala "What Lies Beneath".

Photos from Guided Walk Saturday 5th March

Mike talks Zeppelins in front of the Deptford Airship Deaths memorial

FOBLC Chairman Geoffrey gives some background on the Rossi family

Mick explains about surrogate war graves by the Zincraft headstone