Putney Vale Cemetery

Putney Vale Crematorium

Putney Vale Cemetery and Crematorium in southwest London is located in Putney Vale, surrounded by Putney Heath and Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park. It is located within 47 acres of parkland. The cemetery was opened in 1891 and the crematorium in 1938. The cemetery was originally laid out on land which had belonged to Newlands Farm, which was established in the medieval period.^[1]

The cemetery has two chapels, one being a traditional Church of England chapel and the other being used for multi-denomination or non-religious services. It has a large Garden of Remembrance.^[2]

There are 87 Commonwealth war grave burials from World War I and 97 from World War II in the cemetery. Six Victoria Cross recipients have been buried or cremated here.^[3] The burials are scattered throughout the grounds of the cemetery and a Screen Wall Memorial has been erected to record the names of those whose graves are not marked by headstones. Those who have been cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium also have their names recorded on these panels.^[4]

Notable burials and cremations

The memorial to strongman Eugen Sandow

Funerals held at Putney Vale include those of:

• Julie Alexander, actress and model
• Dev Anand, Indian film actor
• Peter Arne, actor
• Sir Edward Hulton, 1st Baronet, newspaper proprietor
• Arthur Askey, comedian and actor
• Sir Stanley Baker, Welsh actor and film producer
• Sir Henry George Outram Bax-Ironside, British diplomat, ambassador to Venezuela, Chile, Switzerland and Bulgaria
• James Beck, actor noted for his role as Private Walker, the Cockney spiv in the sitcom Dad's Army
• Admiral 1st Baron Beresford, following state funeral at St Paul's Cathedral.
• Major-General Charles Guinand Blackader, WWI general
• Lillian Board MBE, silver medal-winning Olympian
• Kate Carney, famed music hall singer and comedian
• Howard Carter, archaeologist and Egyptologist, noted as a primary discoverer of the tomb of Tutankhamun.^[5]
• Admiral Herbert Charles Campbell da Costa, Royal Navy flag officer in First World War
• Harry Cunningham Brodie, MP for Reigate (1906-1910) and major in Middlesex Yeomanry
• Sandy Denny, singer, songwriter and member of Fairport Convention
• Henry Fielding Dickens, barrister and the eighth of 10 children born to author Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine.^[6]
• Kenelm Lee Guinness, local resident and member of Guinness brewing family, early motor racer and entrepreneur behind the famous Putney Vale-made KLG spark plugs
• James Hunt, Formula One Grand Prix world champion^[7]
• Hattie Jacques, comedy actress who appeared in many Carry On films^[8]
• John Ingram, 32, a grave digger at Putney Vale who died in a freak accident, hit in the chest from a stray bullet from the rifle range at Wimbledon Common. Buried yards from where he fell, leaving a pregnant wife and infant daughter. Every May 22, local resident John Cooper lays flowers on the man's grave.^[9]
• J. Bruce Ismay, chairman of White Star Line and a passenger of its ship RMS Titanic, and wife Julia Florence Ismay
• Alexander Kerensky, exiled former Russian prime minister and leading figure in the Russian revolution of 1917, until Vladimir Lenin took over
• Sir John Lambert CMG KCVO, soldier and diplomat
• Lady Hazel Lavery, painter
• Sir John Lavery, painter
• Rosa Lewis, hotelier of the Cavendish, Jermyn Street, known as the "Queen of Cooks" and "Duchess of Duke Street"^[10]
• Sir John William Lorden, resident of Ravenswood, Putney Hill and former president of the National Federation of Property Owners and Ratepayers^[11]
• Daniel Massey, Canadian-British actor and Golden Globe award recipient
• Hilary Minster, British actor
• Kenneth More, character actor post-Second World War
• John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn OM, politician, ashes buried here after cremation at Golders Green
• Kenneth Nelson, actor ("The Boys in the Band")
• Joe O'Gorman, music hall performer and founder of The Variety Artistes Federation.
• Jennifer Paterson, TV chef of Two Fat Ladies fame
• Lance Percival, actor and singer
• Jon Pertwee, noted Doctor Who actor.
• Roy Plomley OBE, creator of the world's longest running radio programme, BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs
• Nyree Dawn Porter OBE, actress
• Sir Edward J Reed, 19th century constructor of the Royal Navy, MP, author and railway magnate
• Alfred Joseph Richards, First World War recipient of the Victoria Cross
• George Reid, former prime minister of Australia
• Sir Ronald Ross, discoverer of malaria transmission by mosquitoes
• William Scoresby Routledge, British ethnographer, anthropologist and adventurer
• Charles Rumney Samson, pioneer naval aviator.
• Eugen Sandow, the Prussian known as the father of modern bodybuilding
• Richard Seaman, noted pre-Second World War Grand Prix drivers for Mercedes-Benz, who still maintain his grave
• Vladek Sheybal, a Polish character actor
• Joan Sims, comedy actress including Carry On films
• Edwin Tate, son of Henry Tate of Tate & Lyle sugar refining fame, in a family mausoleum inscribed with the family motto "Thincke and Thancke"^[12]
• Vesta Tilley, born Matilda Alice Powles, a male impersonator, who was a star in both Britain and the US for over 30 years.
• Annie Zunz, Irish wife (née Bassett) of German iron magnate Siegfried Zunz
• Siegfried Rudolf Zunz, German iron merchant who had come to London from Frankfurt-am-Main in 1860, built Ivyhurst in Edge Hill Wimbledon, SW20 (only the lodge to Ivyhurst remains, the large detached house was replaced in 1935 by Edge Hill Court, a U-shaped block of flats). Childless Siegfried in his will instructed his executors and trustees to give £25,000 (about £1.9 million today) to a London hospital to build and maintain forever a ward named “The Annie Zunz ward”, and that a life-sized photograph of Annie was to be hung in that ward. The surplus of his estate was to be given to other London hospitals to support Annie Zunz wards.^[13]

References

1. "Wildcroft Manor". wildcroftmanor.com.
2. Wandsworth Borough Council website
3. Burial Location VC Holders South West London
4. "cwgc.org.uk". cwgc.org.uk.
5. "Howard Carter at Findagrave".
6. David A. Perdue. "Dickens Fast Facts". charlesdickenspage.com.
7. "James Hunt at Findagrave".
8. "Hattie Jacques at Findagrave".
9. "Ingram, John". PBase.
10. "Rosa Lewis, Cavendish Hotel London". The Cavendish London.
11. "Glasgow Herald - Sir John Lorden and Rent Restriction".
12. "Tate family, Thincke and Thancke, family motto of the Tate family". PBase.
13. "Annie Zunz". Flickr.

External links

• Photo Gallery of Putney Vale Cemetery
• Find A Grave at Putney Vale Cemetery
• Profile of Putney Vale Cemetery
• Putney Vale Cemetery on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website
• Putney Vale Crematorium at Remembrance Online

Coordinates: 51°26′25″N 0°14′38″W / 51.44028°N 0.24389°W