East Sheen Cemetery, London
Visited March 2014
East Sheen Cemetery, near Richmond, was originally known as Barnes Cemetery when it opened in 1906. It adjoins Richmond Cemetery, with only a hedge marking the boundary. It sits in what was once woodland, and a number of mature trees still surround the cemetery. Both cemeteries are still in use, and the chapel in East Sheen is used for services for both East Sheen and Richmond cemeteries. To get to it is a short walk up what feels like a country lane off a busy main road into Richmond
Being a 20th century cemetery there aren't any large Victorian melodramatic tombs here, but there
are some splendid early 20th century memorials. The most famous,
and rightly so, is the wonderful over-life sized bronze angel draped in
mourning over a stone sarcophagus. This is the Lancaster Memorial dating
from the early 1920s and it is Grade II
listed - and it may be my favourite ever memorial.
Other monuments include the stone soldier standing at the grave
of William Rennie O'Mahony, and there are other lovely graves among some other quite plain ones. A lovely place to visit, although as it's
still in use to take care not to intrude on mourners.
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