Baden Powells at KG - The Friends of Kensal Green · PDF fileISSN 1753-4402 The Friends of...

ISSN 1753-4402

The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery

— the magazine —Issue 67 October 2012

In this issue:

BADEN-POWELLS AT KENSAL GREENThe Rev.Baden Powell

Agnes Smyth Baden-PowellSir George Smyth Baden-Powell KCMG MP

Frank Smyth Baden-Powell

THE BRUNEL FAMILY GRAVE

DANSON’S THE STORMING OF BADAJOZ

MONUMENTS AT RISK 2012

(above) The cross and stepped plinth above the principal Baden-Powell familymonument, covering three separate graves in Square 156, north-west of the

Anglican Chapel (below) Two of the most vulnerable of the 33 Listedmonuments on the Heritage At Risk Register 2012 (left: Slater; Right: Ward;

complete list on page 23 of this issue)

FoKGC Magazine • Vol. 67 • October 2012

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THE FRIENDS OF KENSAL GREEN CEMETERY

Registered Charity Nº 1106549

ENQUIRIES 07904 495012 (mobile)E-MAIL [email protected]

WEB SITE www.kensalgreen.co.uk

PRESIDENTDr. Jennifer Freeman OBE

CHAIRMANSigne Hoffos

SECRETARY-TREASURERGlenn Benson

[email protected]

TRUSTEESClaire Aston, Glenn Benson,

Dr. Jennifer Freeman, Signe Hoffos,Joe Hughes, Dr. Julian Litten,

Tim Robertson, Robert Stephenson,Henry Vivian-Neal

HEAD GUIDEHenry Vivian-Neal25 Rainham RoadLondon NW10 5DL

07951 631001

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARYTim Robertson7 Falcon Mews

Maldon CM9 6YN

MAGAZINE & WEBSITE EDITORSigne Hoffos

27 Dean RoadLondon NW2 5AB

[email protected]

Please address general enquiries to theFoKGC c/o General Cemetery Company,Harrow Road, London W10 4RA. For areply, a stamped addressed envelope

would be appreciated.

FOKGC MAGAZINEISSN 1753-4402

VOLUME 67 — OCTOBER 2012

2 The Depository3 News from the Friends5 The Baden-Powells at Kensal Green14 Agnes Smyth Baden-Powell17 George Smyth Baden-Powell18 Frank Smyth Baden-Powell19 The Brunel Family Grave21 Danson’s The Storming of Badajoz23 Kensal Green Cemetery

Monuments At Risk 201224 FoKGC & Related Events24 Opening Hours & Tours

COVERS:The single monument over the three

Smyth and Baden-Powell family gravesin Square 156 (photos: Signe Hoffos)

The Slater and Ward monumentsThe Brunel monument, 2010 and 2012Danson’s The Storming of Badajoz

The Magazine is published by The Friendsof Kensal Green Cemetery. Friends andothers are warmly encouraged to con-tribute photos, news and features relatingto Kensal Green Cemetery and its notablepersonalities (contact details, opposite).

All contents © FoKGC 2012except where otherwise indicated


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THE DEPOSITORY — FRIENDS’ PUBLICATIONS & GUIDESThese and other publications of interest to cemetery visitors are available after theweekly Sunday tour (details, page 24) or by post from Joe Hughes, 39 St. HelensGardens, London W10 6LN; www.kensalgreen.co.uk.

SPECIAL OFFER: KENSAL GREEN CEMETERYJames Stevens Curl, ed., Phillimore, 2001; 488pp; £20 plus £6.50 p&pThe definitive study, lavishly illustrated, with chapters from 12 distin-guished contributors, covering the history, architecture, monuments,landscape, geology and wildlife of the cemetery.

KENSAL GREEN CEMETERY: A CONCISE GUIDESigne Hoffos, 2008; 16pp, soft cover; £2.00 plus £0.50 p&pA pocket guide to 130 notable personalities and monuments at KensalGreen, with a brief history, biographical notes, map and 59 smallcolour photographs.

THEIR EXITSHenry Vivian-Neal, 2012; 236pp, soft cover; £12.50 plus £2.50 p&pSome 360 performers and writers buried, cremated or commemoratedat Kensal Green — actors, singers, dancers, designers, authors, com-posers, playwrights, impresarios, instrument-makers, stars of the halls,equestrians, funambulists, even one ventriloquist..

THE MONUMENT TO WILLIAM MULREADY RAHenry Vivian-Neal, 2008; 40pp, soft cover; £5.00 plus £1.25 p&pThe key to the incised images surrounding the monument of theVictorian genre painter William Mulready, with full-colour reproduc-tions of all the corresponding paintings and drawings.

A RAILWAY PANTHEONHenry Vivian-Neal, 2005; 28pp, A4; £3.00 plus £1.25 p&pKensal Green notables associated with railways — engineers, entrepre-neurs, architects, artists, contractors and critics — with biographicalnotes, drawings of each monument, and grid plan.

HOLDERS OF THE VICTORIA CROSS AT KENSAL GREEN CEMETERYHenry Vivian-Neal, 2006; 12pp, A5; £2.00 plus £1.25 p&pGuide to the 14 holders of the Victoria Cross buried at Kensal Green,with brief biographical notes, illustrations, and grid plan.

A BYRON TOUR AT KENSAL GREEN CEMETERYHenry Vivian-Neal, 2006; 20pp, A4; £3.00 plus £1.25 p&pTwenty notable personalities associated with Lord Byron, with briefbiographical notes, illustrations, and grid plan.

October 2012 brought good news and other news to the Friends ofKensal Green Cemetery. We are delighted to report that the consider-able efforts of Trustees Glenn Benson and Henry Vivian-Neal (FOKGCMagazine Nº 61) have been rewarded with the designation by EnglishHeritage of fully 20 new Grade II Listed monuments, and the promo-tion to Grade II* of the previously Grade II Listed monuments of HRHPrincess Sophia and Ninon Michaelis (Magazine Nº 56).

Kensal Green thus now has fully 153 Listed monuments, in additionto the Anglican and Dissenters’ Chapels, North Terrace Colonnade,Main Gate, boundary wall and railings, and parish boundary markers— more than any other cemetery. Briefly, the new listings are:

• Edward James Andrews (1810-1841), Sq. 92• Dr. James Miranda Barry (1795-1865), Sq. 67• Rev. John Frederick Blake (1839-1906), Sq. 115• William Burn (1789-1870), Sq. 129• Sir John Campbell (1778-1840), Sq. 33• Sir Ernest Joseph Cassel, PC GCMG GCVO (1852-1921), Sq. 114• Hester Maria Elphinstone, Viscountess Keith (1764-1857), Sq. 86• Major General George de Lacy Evans (1787-1870), Sq. 100-113• Robert Ferguson (1769-1840), Sq. 91• Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, FRS PSA KCB (1826-1897), Sq. 88• Henry Gardner (c1800-1879), Sq. 102• Annabella, Dowager Viscountess Glentworth (c1791-1868), Sq. 46• George (György) Kmety, Ishmail Pasha (1813-1865), Sq. 128• Adelina Lane (c1781-1834), Sq. 168• Edward Macklew (c1761-1833), Sq. 100• Eustace Meredith Martin (c1816-1892), Sq. 113• Admiral Sir Robert Waller Otway, Bt GCB (1770-1846), Sq. 90• Henry Russell (1812-1900), Sq. 176• Tigran Sarkies (1861-1912), Sq. 161• Peter Thomson (c1779-1851), Sq. 163

As the occasional approximated dates suggest, we know more aboutsome monuments than the people whom they commemorate, soresearch is ongoing — and already turning up some surprises.

FOKGC Magazine • Vol. 67 • October 2012

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NEWS FROM THE FRIENDS

know the cemetery well, to survey the33 now At Risk as preparation for theirconservation and repair.

For our part, the Friends would nowvery much welcome volunteers toassist in the management of all thosefunding proposals and projects. InSeptember, we were pleased to wel-come a team from the National Grid,who made short work of overgrowthand invasive saplings (Magazine Nº66). We would like to invite more cor-porate volunteers, and to develop acommunity network, but we need morevolunteer co-ordinators to organizeand manage these projects.

The present core of active Trusteesdo a great deal, but a few more handscould expand our work in many direc-tions: please contact the Friends if youcould help with volunteering, fund-raising, project management, or a bit ofhands-on help keeping the Dissenters’Chapel clean and well-maintained.

Two of our guides emeritus, Dr.Julian Litten and David Taylor Pescod,are also now retiring from regular guid-ing, although we hope to see them atspecial events and Open Day hereafter.We would also thus welcome newguides: Head Guide Henry Vivian-Nealhas compiled a substantial briefingpack, and prospective guides areencouraged to follow the regularSunday tours as observers in training.

Thus your editor humbly apologizesthat this issue of the FOKGC Magazineis arriving in sequence, but very late.The other overdue issues will followshortly, with news of a few more proj-ects now in the planning stages.


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Not so surprising, although a littledeflating, was the nomination of fully33 Listed monuments on the newHeritage At Risk Register; the full ros-ter appears on page 23 of this issue.This rewards the considerable effortsof the team of volunteers who surveyed133 monuments (and all 15 boundarystones) last winter on behalf of EnglishHeritage (Magazine Nº 65).

Hitherto, Kensal Green was coveredby just five entries in the Heritage AtRisk Register (Anglican Chapel, NorthTerrace Colonnade, boundary wall,‘monuments’ and ‘cemetery’). Now,only those monuments actuallydeemed to be in a highly vulnerableand deteriorating condition are specifi-cally identified as being At Risk —which is good news for the other 120Listed monuments, and the 65,000 orso in the cemetery at large.

The Anglican Chapel, North TerraceColonnade and boundary wall are stilldeemed to be At Risk, and the ceme-tery as a whole is still rated as‘generally unsatisfactory, with majorlocalized problems’ — which seemsfair enough, in light of the variousissues with buildings, monuments,landscaping, roads and paths, signage,archival records and the managementof burial space that we would all liketo address.

The positive aspect here is that,once on the At Risk Register, buildingsand monuments in peril are in a betterposition to receive the attention theyrequire. English Heritage has gener-ously undertaken to commissionOdgers Conservation Consultants, who

Man, Nation, MaidenPlease call it Baden.Further, for PowellRhyme it with Noel— Robert Baden-Powell

The clue to the pronunciation of Powell family name lies in their16thC ancestors, who spelt it Polle or Powle. The Georgian family’s for-tunes were enhanced by the first Baden Powell (1732-1802), who leftan estate worth £95,000 (over £100m today, relative to averageincome), with legacies of £10,000 to each of his three brothers, and£2000 apiece to his 17 nieces and nephews. ‘Baden’ was his mother’smother’s maiden name, carried forward as a personal name by latergenerations, and thenappended to the familysurname to create theBaden-Powells in 1869.

The extended familywas large, and compli-cated by inter-marriage.The eldest of those for-tunate brothers, DavidPowell (1725-1810),had 14 children, ten ofwhom reached matu-rity; a successful winemerchant, he left anestate of £300,000. Hisson Baden Powell(1767-1844) marriedhis own first cousinHester Powell (1776-1848), and two of theiryounger sons marriedsisters; their eldestson, the Rev. Baden


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THE BADEN-POWELL FAMILYFROM THE REV. BADEN POWELL TO AGNES BADEN-POWELL

Named sitters, back row: Major Baden Fletcher SmythBaden-Powell, 1st Battalion, Scots Guards; Miss AgnesBaden-Powell; Frank Baden-Powell; Colonel RobertStephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 13th Hussars. Front row:Sir George Baden-Powell MP; Henrietta Grace Baden-Powell; Warrington Baden-Powell QC, Admiralty Court(from H. W. Wilson, With the Flag to Pretoria, 1902)


Powell (1796-1860), married threetimes and also fathered 14 children,ten of whom reached maturity. In afamily of achievers, two of them nowstand out: Robert Stephenson SmythBaden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell(1857-1941), the Hero of Mafeking andfounder of the Boy Scouts, and his sis-ter Agnes Smyth Baden-Powell(1858-1945), who launched the GirlGuides. Twelve members of thisextended family are interred at KensalGreen, including the Rev. BadenPowell and Agnes Baden-Powell.

The Rev. Baden Powell22 August 1796 – 11 June 1860

His large family may have come as anunexpected development for the schol-arly Baden Powell. He studied at OrielCollege, Oxford (BA 1817, MA 1820),achieving first class honours inMathematics and making connectionsin ecclesiastical and scientific circles.Through his family, he was presentedwith the vicarage of Plumstead, Kent,soon after his ordination in 1821, theyear of his first marriage.

Although Baden Powell fulfilled hisclerical duties, and expressed many ofhis arguments through his engagingsermons (which he was invited todeliver even at Kensington Palace), hischief interests were academic. Hebecame a Fellow of the Royal Societyin 1824 (and its Vice President in1853), and Savilian Professor ofGeometry at Oxford in 1827; he was aFellow of the Royal AstronomicalSociety, President of the RoyalGeographical Society, a contributor tothe British Association for the

BADEN POWELL & HIS CHILDREN

The Rev. Baden Powell, born 22 August1796, Stamford Hill, son of Baden andHester Powell; died 11 June 1860.

First wife: Eliza Rivaz or Rivas (1798-1836), dau. Vincent Francis Rivaz (“formany years partner of John JuliusAngerstein of Lloyd's Coffee-house”),married 17 July 1821, no known issue.

Second wife: Charlotte Pope (1799-1844), dau. William and Mary HeatonWillis Pope, married 28 February 1837,four children:• Charlotte Elizabeth Pope Powell,

1838-1917• Baden Henry Powell, later Baden

Henry Baden-Powell, 1841-1901• Louisa Anne Powell, 1843-1896• Letitia Mary Powell, 1844-1865

Third wife: Henrietta Grace Smyth(1824-1914), daughter of AdmiralWilliam Henry Smyth RN and Eliza Anne(‘Annarella’) Warington, married 10March 1846, ten children:• Henry Warington Smyth

Baden-Powell, 1847-1921• George Smyth Baden-Powell,

1847-1898• Augustus Smyth Powell, 1849-1863• Francis (‘Frank’) Smyth Baden-

Powell, 1850-1931• Henrietta Smyth Powell, 1851-1854• John Penrose Smyth Powell,

1852-1855• Jessie Smyth Powell, 1855-1856• Robert Stephenson (‘Stephe’) Smyth

Baden-Powell, 1857-1941• Agnes Smyth Baden-Powell,

1858-1945• Baden Fletcher Smyth Baden-Powell,

1860-1937


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Advancement of Science, and an activeif ultimately frustrated member of the1850 Royal Commission for the reformof British universities. He was electedto the prestigious Mercer’s Companyby patrimony in 1822 (when his father,a wine merchant, was Master). Hewrote on mathematics, physics, theol-ogy and philosophy, played the organ,painted and sketched.

Although he travelled in conserva-tive High Church circles in his youth,by his last decade, the Rev. BadenPowell questioned many things,including the nature of mir-acles and the origins oflife. In the wake ofDarwin’s On theOrigin of Species(1859), he was one ofthe liberal clergy-men whose Essaysand Reviews (1860)argued that rationaladvances in sciencewere compatible withChristian belief. In hispiece ‘On the study ofthe evidences of Christ-ianity’, Baden Powell wroteof “Mr. Darwin’s masterly vol-ume …. a work which must soon bringabout an entire revolution of opinionin favour of the grand principle of theself-evolving powers of nature”.Darwin replied in the preface to histhird edition (1861) that “The‘Philosophy of Creation’ has beentreated in a masterly manner by theRev. Baden Powell, in his ‘Essays onthe Unity of Worlds,’ 1855. Nothing

can be more striking than the manner inwhich he shows that the introduction ofnew species is ‘a regular, not a casualphenomenon,’ or, as Sir John Herschelexpresses it, ‘a natural in contradistinc-tion to a miraculous, process.’” In SevenAgainst Christ: A Study of ‘Essays andReviews’ (1980), Ieuan Ellis describedthe furore over Essays and Reviews as“the story of the greatest religious crisisof the Victorian age”, but BadenPowell’s death in June 1860 precludedhis involvement in the ensuing contro-

versy and court case.With his career securelyunderway, the young

Baden Powell marriedEliza Rivaz or Rivas(1798-1836) in 1821;she died childlessnearly 15 years later.Eighteen monthsafter that, inSeptember 1837,Powell married

Charlotte Pope (1799-1844), sister-in-law of

his Oxford mentorRichard Whately. As she

was 38 and he was 41, theymay not have been planning a

family, but their first child was born ayear later, and three more quickly fol-lowed. The eldest had just turned six,and the youngest was only four monthsold when their mother died, in October1844. Seventeen months later, in March1846, the 49-year-old Baden Powell mar-ried the 21-year-old Henrietta GraceSmyth (1824-1914); again, their firstchild was born within a year, and nine


more followed before their father’sdeath in June 1860.

In fourteen years of marriage, Badenand Henrietta Powell had seven sonsand three daughters, all of whom car-ried their mother’s maiden name,Smyth, amongst their personal names.The first six were born in Oxford, therest at 6 Stanhope Street (now 11Stanhope Terrace), Bayswater.

In the 1850s, the Powells lost threeinfant children in as many years: two-year-old Henrietta in March 1854,two-year-old John in December 1855,and eight-month-old Jessie in July1856; all were buried at Kensal Green.

The Rev. Baden Powell himself diedof bronchitis and heart failure at 6Stanhope Street on 11 June 1860, andwas interred in Kensal Green Cemeteryfive days later, in the same grave as histhree infant children.

The Baden-Powell family

The 35-year-old Henrietta SmythPowell was left a widow with sevenchildren, the eldest only 13 and theyoungest just three weeks old (andchristened over two months after hisfather’s funeral). It may be a reflectionof the pressure she felt at this time thatthe children of her husband’s secondmarriage went to their mother’s rela-tions, and the census of April 1861found four-year-old Robert and two-year-old Agnes — the future foundersof the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides —staying with Henrietta’s parents inBuckinghamshire. Then, in April 1863,thirteen-year-old Augustus (‘Gus’) diedin Speldhurst, where he was buried.

Around this time, the family movedto 1 Hyde Park Gate South, Kensing-ton, progressing to 8 St. George’s Place,Hanover Square (where they lived fromat least 1880 to about 1900), andfinally 32 Princes Gate, Kensington, onthe eastern side of Exhibition Road —all fine and rather expensive houses.

With ‘effects under £3000’, the Rev.Baden Powell left his family secure butby no means wealthy. Marshalling herresources, Henrietta represented her-self as a woman of substance, a ‘lady’in the census of 1861, living on‘income from rents of houses’ in 1871,and an ‘annuitant’ in 1881. Shechanged the family surname to Baden-Powell through her attorney on 21September 1869, and by Royal Licenceon 30 April 1902. Such was the forceof her personality that she even con-vinced the College of Arms to quarterthe Powell arms with those of the con-tinental Duke of Baden, regardless ofany evidence of a familial connection.

The Smyth connection

If not ennobled, Henrietta GraceSmyth’s family were distinguished intheir own right. Her father, AdmiralWilliam Henry Smyth RN FSA FRASFRGS FRS (1788-1865) was hydrogra-pher to the Royal Navy and a notedastronomer, Vice-President of the RoyalSociety, founder-member of the UnitedServices Institution and the RoyalGeographical Society, and a director ofthe Society of Antiquaries. Of herbrothers, Sir Warington WilkinsonSmyth FGS FRS (1817-1890) was arespected geologist, Charles Piazzi


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Smyth FRSE FRS FRAS FRSSA (1819-1900) was Astronomer Royal forScotland, and General Sir HenryAugustus Smyth KCMG FSA FRGS(1825-1906) variously crushed the Zuluuprising of 1887 and was Governor ofMalta; her sister Jane Georgiana RosettaSmyth (1835-1923) married the zoolo-gist and curator Sir William HenryFlower KCB FRCS FRS (1831-1899),and her sister Ellen PhiladelphiaSmyth (1828-1881) married the meteor-ologist Captain Henry Toynbee FRASFRGS (1819-1909).

Henrietta’s mother, Eliza Anne(‘Annarella’) Warington (1788-1873),was the daughter of the British consulat Naples Thomas War(r)ington (1765-1850), banker and silk merchant, andhis first wife, née Anne Robinson(1749-1826). In her husband’s obituary,Annarella was praised “a lady of greatability and rare accomplishments, whothrough all his scientific labours ofevery description was his devotedcompanion and assistant.” The Baden-Powells’ intellectual pedigree wasbeyond reproach.

A claim to direct descent fromCaptain John Smith of Virginia (1580-1631) is less credible, as he diedunmarried and childless. However,through Annarella, there was a genuineif attenuated connection to the hero ofTrafalgar. By her mother’s first mar-riage, to Marmaduke Langdale Peirson(variously also Pierson or Pearson), shewas half-sister to Captain CharlesPeirson (1773-1800) of the 69th

Regiment, who notably served withNelson at the battle of Cape St. Vincent

(1797), and who married a niece bymarriage of Nelson’s sister Susannah.

Nelson spent some time in Naples,where not least he fatefully met Emma,Lady Hamilton. Family tradition toldboth of little Annarella’s sitting onNelson’s knee, and of her mother’spointedly washing the child’s hairafterward because it had been touchedby the notorious adulterer. Indifferentto this prejudice, Henrietta describedherself as Nelson’s ‘great-niece’, whichwas not utterly baseless, and certainlysimpler than ‘Nelson’s sister’s hus-band’s brother’s daughter’s husband’shalf-sister’s daughter’.

Henrietta was the dominant force inher own family, managing her chil-dren’s lives and finances well intotheir adulthood. Three of them lived athome until her death, even though theeldest, Henry Warington Smyth Baden-Powell KC (1847-1921) was adistinguished barrister, and Francis(‘Frank’) Smyth Baden-Powell (1850-1931) was a barrister by training and apainter and sculptor by vocation; theonly surviving daughter, Agnes SmythPowell (1858-1945), remained hermother’s companion. Even the threesons who achieved successful careersin the army and colonial service — SirGeorge Smyth Baden-Powell KCMGMP (1847-1898), Robert StephensonSmyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, OM GCMG GCVO KCB(1857-1941), and Major Baden FletcherSmyth Baden-Powell FS FRAS FRMetS(1860-1937) — regularly came homebetween postings. It is almost surpris-ing that four of them eventually


married, albeit all late in life: George atthe age of 45, Robert at 55, Frank at 56and Warington at 66.

Henrietta was intelligent, educatedand cultivated; she valued education,and encouraged all her children towork hard, and to achieve throughmerit what they could not acquirethrough wealth. She was certainly for-midable in her social ambitions andpretensions, but she also enduredmuch, intellectually gifted but pre-cluded by her sex from pursuing acareer like her talented brothers, mar-ried young to a twice-widowed manover twice her age, giving birth to tenchildren in little over thirteen years,losing four of them and her husbandbefore she was forty, and maintainingher large family on a limited income.George’s knighthood, in 1888, musthave been gratifying, but he died justten years later, well before his mother,leaving another widow with youngchildren. It proved to be Robert(‘Stephe’ to the family, for his god-father Robert Stephenson), whoultimately brought the greatest glory tothe Baden-Powells.

The hero of Mafeking

In his autobiography, Lessons from theVarsity of Life (1933), the founder ofthe Boy Scouts claimed that: “Thewhole secret of my getting on lay withmy mother. How that wonderfulwoman managed to bring us all up, sothat none of us did badly; and how shedid not kill herself with the anxietyand strain I do not know and cannotunderstand. Not only did she, though a

poor widow, feed, clothe and educateus, but she found time to do otherwork in the world particularly as oneof the founders of the Girls’ HighSchool Movement, which has done somuch for our womanhood today. It washer influence that guided me throughlife more than any precepts or disci-pline that I may have learned atschool.”

Certainly, young Stephe was moreinterested in outdoor pursuits than theclassroom, and his meagre academicqualifications hampered his initialprospects of promotion. By the end ofthe century, he had enjoyed an excitingbut unspectacular military career thattook him in India, Afghanistan andSouth Africa (where he served underhis uncle Sir Henry Smyth). Like hisbrothers, he was enterprising enoughto transform his experiences into news-paper articles, military memoirs andeven a handbook on Pig Sticking andHog Hunting (1889). His conduct dur-ing the Ndebele (Matabele) uprising inSouthern Rhodesia, when he orderedthe execution of a native insurgent,cast a shadow, but he was also aneffective leader and organizer, with aparticular aptitude for reconnaissance(‘scouting’). This may be the origin ofhis nickname ‘Impeesa’ (‘impisi’),which has a secondary meaning of‘spy’ or ‘scout’ in Ndebele; his gift forspin transformed the literal translationfrom ‘hyena’ into the zoologicallyimprobable ‘wolf that never sleeps’.

His strengths came to the fore at theoutbreak of the Second Boer War in1899. With limited resources, he


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shrewdly elected to garrison the strate-gic site of Mafeking rather than takethe offensive against overwhelmingodds. Under his direction, the townendured a siege of 219 days, followedwith acute interest by newspaper read-ers around the world thanks not leastto his compelling reports. News of therelief of Mafeking reached London on18 May 1900, unleashing a wave ofpatriotic celebration throughout theempire. Henrietta Baden-Powell, in thecharacter of the hero’s adored mother,became a celebrity herself.

Baden-Powell’s greatest achievementgrew out of his varied experience.During the siege of Mafeking, boys ofthe town were given a vital role asmessengers in a cadet corps. As his lastassignment in South Africa, Baden-Powell established a police force, witha uniform that included a distinctivecampaign hat and badges, and wrote amanual called Aids to Scouting (1899).

He spent another decade in thearmy, campaigning unsuccessfully forreform in the cavalry, but found a morereceptive audience in the youth ofBritain, to whom he was a dashing rolemodel. Building on work with theBoys’ Brigade, YMCA and other clubs,he wrote a manual for boys and ran hisfirst camp in 1907. Scouting for Boyswas published as an affordable part-work in 1908, to such enthusiasm thatthe Boy Scouts almost formed them-selves. The first national rally was heldat Crystal Palace in 1909, with boysand girls in attendance. The Sea Scoutswere formed in 1910, with a manualwritten by Warington Baden-Powell, a

keen yachtsman. With some persua-sion, the retiring Agnes undertook toadapt the model for the growing bandsof girls, and the Girl Guides were for-mally incorporated in 1915.

After years of prodding by hisdespairing mother, Robert Baden-Powell met and married Olave St. ClairSoames (1889-1977) in 1912, two yearsbefore Henrietta died. It was effectivelya handover — to his sister’s cost. Atthe first international jamboree washeld at Olympia in 1920, Robert BadenPowell was proclaimed Chief Scout ofthe World, but Olave had alreadyeclipsed Agnes as Chief Guide of theBritish Empire.

Lord Baden-Powell died in Kenyain January 1941 and is buried in St.Peter's Cemetery in the Wajee NaturePark, near Nyeri. His wife’s ashes weredeposited in the grave nearly fortyyears later, after her death in a Surreynursing home at the age of 88.

The Baden Powell graves

The Baden Powell family’s connectionswith Kensal Green Cemetery beginwith Henrietta Smyth Powell’s grand-father, Thomas Warington (1765-1850),and his second wife, née Jane Aspinall(1773-1862), whom he married inFlorence in 1827.

They were living in EdwardesSquare, Kensington, when Thomasmade his will in 1840. In a codicildated 16 January 1850, he directed thatif he died “in the parish of Kensingtonor in its vicinity”, he should be buried“respectably but without show orpomp in the Cemetery at Kensal Green,


either in the Catacombs or BurialGround as may be found most appro-priate” and “that at the same time asimilar place of interment may bereserved” for his wife.

He died at 16 Edwardes Square on16 May 1850; four days later, hiswidow purchased grave 8892 in Square156. It was of the standard size of 6’6”by 2’6”, and 10’ deep. In the nextdecade, three of Baden and HenriettaPowell’s children died in infancy, andwere buried with their great-grand-father. The Rev. Baden Powell died on11 June 1860, and was the last to beburied in the grave, five days later.

Thus, when Jane Warington died atthe very end of 1861, her step-grand-daughter Henrietta Smyth Powellprovidentially purchased two moregraves: 16026 to the north of 8892, and16027 on the south. Jane was buried in16026 in January 1862; she lies alonethere yet, and there were no burials inany of the graves for another 52 years.

Henrietta probably erected the sin-gle memorial that spans the threeadjacent graves, a tall grey Cornishgranite cross on a stepped plinth witha railed landing stone. The Rev. BadenPowell features prominently on thewestern side, facing the path, whileThomas and Jane Warington are com-memorated on the east (described asHenrietta’s grandparents). The infantsHenrietta, John and Jessie are namedon the southern face, which alsorecords the burial of their brotherAugustus at Speldhurst in 1863.

Henrietta Smyth Baden-Powell diedat 32 Princes Gate in October 1914 and

BADEN-POWELL GRAVESIN KENSAL GREEN CEMETERY

Square 156, Grave 88921850 Thomas War(r)ington, age 86

[maternal grandfather ofHenrietta Smyth Baden-Powell]

1854 Henrietta Smyth Powell, age 2[recorded as ‘Harriet’]

1855 John Penrose Smyth Powell,age 2

1856 Jessie Smyth Powell, age 8months

1860 The Rev. Baden Powell, age 63

Square 156, Grave 160261862 Jane Warington, age 88

[maternal step-grandmother ofHenrietta Smyth Baden-Powell]

Square 156, Grave 160271914 Henrietta Grace Smyth Baden-

Powell, age 901914 Florence Sydney Baden-Powell,

age 36 [wife of Frank Baden-Powell]

1933 Francis (‘Frank’) Smyth Baden-Powell, age 83

1945 Agnes Baden-Powell, age 86

Square 160, Grave 37255 1898 Sir George Smyth Baden-Powell

KCMG MP, age 501913 Frances Anne Baden-Powell,

age 50 [wife of Sir GeorgeBaden-Powell]


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step-mother and half-brothers; all threegirls were then living in TunbridgeWells with their aunt, née LouisaMargaret Pope (c.1800-1871).

She married Baden Powell’s collegechum Henry Bishop in 1833, and mayhave been the sister of another collegefriend, William Law Pope. Both Bishopand Pope became prominent church-men in Tunbridge Wells. The PowellPedigree, by Robin Baden Clay (2001),records that their aunt adopted the twoyoungest girls, while the eldest went tolive with cousins in Ireland around thetime of their father’s death in 1860,when their brother was dispatched tothe Bengal Civil Service.

Whatever their relationship withtheir step-mother and half-siblings, afair amount of money seems to havesettled on these children. Theyoungest, Letitia Mary Powell (1844-1865), died in Brighton aged only 21but left ‘effects under £4000’. After asuccessful career in India, BadenHenry Powell (later Baden-Powell,1841-1901) died in Oxford, aged 59,leaving an estate of £5680 at a timewhen a thrifty working class familycould scrape by on £1 a week. The eld-est, Charlotte Elizabeth Pope Powell(1838-1917) died unmarried in Ireland,while Louisa Anne Powell (1843-1896)married a cousin, the Rev. ThomasGodfrey Pembroke Pope, and spent therest of her life in Lisbon, where he wasEnglish Consular Chaplain and Canonof Gibraltar.

SIGNE HOFFOS, WITH THANKS TOMICHAEL LEVERIDGE AND JOE HUGHES

FOR ADDITIONAL RESEARCH

was buried in grave 10627. She wasjoined by Frank’s wife, Florence, justfive days later, by Frank himself in1933 and Agnes in 1945. Henrietta iscommemorated on the south side ofthe memorial, Florence on the northand Frank below his father on thewest. As so often, Agnes as the last ofthe family is the only one notrecorded, not having added her namein her own time, nor having an heirwho acted on her behalf. Althoughmany representatives of the GirlGuides attended her funeral, she wasovershadowed by Robert’s forcefulwife, and her contribution underval-ued. The Friends of Kensal GreenCemetery hope that the growing aware-ness of Agnes Baden-Powell’s criticalrole in the creation of the Girl Guideswill soon lead to the addition of hername on the monument, or a plaque inher honour on the grave.

The first son to marry, GeorgeBaden-Powell, is buried with his wife,née Frances Annie Wilson. Their grave,on the Mound in Square 160, ismarked by a plain Celtic cross.

Charlotte Pope Powell’s children

As close as the Baden-Powells werethroughout their lives, the four chil-dren of the Rev. Baden Powell’s secondmarriage are barely a footnote in theirstory. He was 42 when he became afather for the first time, and 48 whenhis second wife died. It is not surpris-ing that his young children were takenby their mother’s relations. Only theboy, Baden Henry Powell, appears inthe census of 1851 with his father,


education, and to stay with her motheras her brothers’ careers flourished.Thus she followed developments inaviation, like many of her interests, asan informed observer. She only becamean honorary companion of the RoyalAeronautical Society in 1938, while herbrother (eventually Major BadenFletcher Smyth Baden-Powell FS FRASFRMetS) had been an influentialPresident thirty years earlier.

Agnes’ talents came to the fore withthe evolution of the Boy Scouts. In anage that valued segregation of the sexes,the initial idea of a co-educationalscouting movement was regretfullyabandoned, but the meteoric success ofscouting for boys naturally attractedmany girls who, like Agnes herself,enjoyed lively outdoor pursuits. Thepresence of many enthusiastic girls atthe first national scouting rally atCrystal Palace in 1909 brought the mat-ter to a head, and Robert Baden Powellturned to his sister to launch a comple-mentary movement specifically for girlsand young women.

The modest Agnes did not aspire toauthority, but certainly understoodboth what scouting aimed to achieve,and the restrictions imposed on girls bywell-meaning adults and peers. Brotherand sister also appreciated the need toproject the girls’ movement as prepara-tion for lives of service andmotherhood — not encouraging hoy-

AGNES SMYTH BADEN-POWELL16 DECEMBER 1858 – 2 JUNE 1945

The death in infancy of the three sib-lings before she was born left AgnesPowell as the only girl in a family ofsix boisterous boys; moreover, thosedeaths created a gap of seven yearsbetween the four eldest boys (all bornwithin little more three years) and thethree youngest children. Thus, Agnes(‘Azzie’ to her intimates) was particu-larly close to her brothers Robert(‘Stephe’), nearly two years older, andBaden, not 18 months younger thanshe was. All three were infants whentheir father died, in June 1860.

Like her brothers, Agnes enjoyedcamping, fishing, shooting, sailing,swimming, cycling, tennis and golf.She was a born Victorian who lived tosee the last months of World War II;she liked to dance and learned todrive. Like her mother, she was artistic(skilled in crafts as various as metal-working and lace-making) and musical(playing the organ, piano and violin).Like so many of the Powells and theSmyths, she was interested in science,particularly natural history, aeronauticsand astronomy, and was conversantwith several languages. She kept birds,bees and butterflies in her Londonhomes (see p.xx).

A shared childhood interest in kitesand balloons led to her brother Baden’spioneering career in aeronautics, butAgnes was constrained by personalityand circumstance not to seek higher


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dens to compete with boys, but train-ing resourceful young women to copein any emergency, and perhaps even toventure as wives and workers into dis-tant colonies and protectorates.

Within a year, some 6000 GirlsGuides had joined the ranks, and theBoy Scouts’ manifesto was adapted asThe Handbook for the Girl Guides; or,How Girls Can Help to Build Up theEmpire (1912). Troops were to benamed for flowers, not animals (theBrownies were originally theRosebuds). But there werealso badges for skillssuch as telegraphy, andGuides mirrored theoriginal scouts ofMafeking as confi-dential messengerson the home frontduring World War I.

Also in 1912,Robert met and mar-ried the young OlaveSt. Clair Soames (1889-1977), every bit asforceful in her way as hisgood mother. She threw herselfinto his great project, and Agnes wassoon sidelined: after the Girl Guideswere formally constituted in 1915,Olave became chief commissioner forthe United Kingdom, then Chief Guideof the British Empire, and ultimatelyWorld Chief Guide. Agnes was giventhe honorary post of President, butobliged to cede even that in 1917 infavour of George V’s daughter PrincessMary; in 1918, Robert’s handbook GirlGuiding replaced her manual.

At the same time, the mildly eccen-tric and decidedly middle-aged Agneswas not the dynamic leader and net-worker that Olave proved to be, noreven a particularly gifted administra-tor. She was an exemplar of the GirlGuides’ values and achievements,accomplished in an impressive rangeof the skills, crafts and activities towhich Guides aspired, active and ath-letic even in her eighties. She worked

steadily in the capacity of Vice-President until her death,

travelling in uniform to visither troops, and gamely

camping under canvaswith girls a fraction ofher age.

Guides turned outin force at her funeral,yet her name wasnever added to thefamily monument that

commemorates hergrandparents, parents

and siblings. She wasunder-valued, and nearly

forgotten in the decades afterher death, but that tide is turn-

ing. In 2010, Amberley Publishingproduced her biography, The First GirlGuide: The Story of Agnes Baden-Powell by Helen Gardiner, and manyWeb sites now acknowledge her criti-cal role in the formation of the Guides.The Friends of Kensal Green Cemeteryhope that this renewed interest inAgnes Baden-Powell might now lead tothe honour she deserves on the Baden-Powell family grave, either on themonument or on a plaque beside it.


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by a hollow metal tube which connectedthe hives with the outside world, andthrough this the insects passed out in questof honey and in again with their loads.

They got, and still get, their honey inthe many London parks, and perhaps onaccount of the lack of competition MissBaden-Powell’s bees have from the firstproduced a lot more of this delectable sub-stance than insects belonging to friends ofhers who live in the country. Last year theBaden-Powell bees garnered over sixtypounds of honey, which was used either inthe household or given to friends. And soclose a study has Miss Baden-Powell madeof her bees and the kind of flowers theyaffect that as each bee returns she can tellwhether it has been to Hyde park, theGreen park, or across the river to Batterseapark in quest of supplies.

The glass hives are arranged in such away that the bees can be seen at work —at which ‘B.P.’ himself frequently watchesthem, and it was at his suggestion thatthey were provided with dwellings of vari-ous shapes in order that they might worktheir combs in different designs. In this waythe bees have written ‘God Save the King’and ‘Baden-Powell’ in honey, reproducedthe Prince of Wales’ feathers, and, quiterecently, drawn the outline of a bicycle inthe same substance.

No less striking than the Baden-Powellapiary, however, is its aviary. For if beehivesin a bedroom make an uncommon sight, sodoes a tree with live birds on it in a hall-way. One of the first things that strike theeye on entering the home of Gen. Baden-Powell is a small potted fir tree, about thebranches of which hop seven or eightcanary birds. They are absolutely free, andfly about the hall at will, sticking to thetree for the most part, however. Thesesongsters also belong to Miss Baden-Powell, who got the first eggs, shooing offthe mother bird for this purpose.”

In 1904, the American journalist HaydenChurch described a visit to the Baden-Powell family home at 32 Princes Gate,Hyde Park. He found Robert Baden-Powellsculpting a bust of his putative ancestor,Captain John Smith, but was particularlytaken with Agnes:

But by all odds the most picturesquemember of the Baden-Powell householdafter ‘B.P.’ himself is his sister, who isfamous as the only woman who has everkept bees in a London drawing room andinduced them to make honey there.

Bees always have interested Miss Baden-Powell, and it was when, about fifteenyears ago, Sir Benjamin Brodie offered aswarm of them to her that she determinedto try to keep them at the family's Londonhouse. Having their hives in the drawingroom was an afterthought worthy of aBaden-Powell. It must not be supposed,however, that the bees were loose in thedrawing room. The past tense is used inthis connection because at Princes GateMiss Baden-Powell has these queer pets ofhers in her own apartment. They occupiedthe drawing room of the family's otherhouse. The wall of the house was pierced


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effective MP, and held the seat untilhis death. Nonetheless, he found timeto visit Canada more than once, to pro-mote a rapid steamer service betweenVancouver and Yokohama, and then torepresent Anglo-Canadian interests ina long-running dispute with the USAover Bering Sea fisheries; perhaps intoken of this sojourn, he named hisprivate steam yacht Ontario. He alsocontributed to a new constitution forMalta, and continued to write articlesand essays, largely on political andcolonial themes, throughout his life.He was a Fellow of the RoyalGeographical Society and of the RoyalColonial Institute.

In April 1893, at the age of 45,George married Frances Annie Wilson(1862-1913), an only child whosefather made his considerable fortune inAustralia. They enjoyed only five yearstogether, and had two young childrenwhen George died of kidney disease atthe family home, 114 Eaton Square,London, on 20 November 1898, amonth short of his 51st birthday. He leftan estate of £4636 (easily equivalent to£2m today). Frances bought gravenumber 37255 in Square 160 on theMound, near the southern boundary ofthe cemetery, two days later for £37 16.She died of scarlet fever, and wasburied there in October 1913. She andher first-born may be the young womanand child in the photo on p.xx.

The second son of the Rev. BadenPowell’s marriage to Henrietta GraceSmyth was an enthusiastic traveller, anable colonial administrator, a capableMember of Parliament and, like hisbrothers, a keen yachtsman.

A century before gap-year backpack-ers, George Powell spent three yearstravelling through Europe, India,Australasia and South Africa — andpublished his first book, observationson the Antipodes — before enteringOxford in his mid-twenties.

He dabbled in the law but soonreturned to travel, working in Australiaas private secretary to the governor ofVictoria, Sir George Fergusson BowenGCMG (who also now lies in KensalGreen), and publishing a treatise on themerits of free trade by the time he wasthirty. He soon progressed to the WestIndies, as a commissioner investigatingthe sugar trade, which inspired apolemic against protectionism. Hisnext appointment resulted in a five-volume analysis of the administration,revenue, and expenditure of Britain’sWest Indian colonies, published in1884, for which he was created aKCMG in 1888.

In the meantime, he worked brieflyin South Africa, visiting Bechuanaland,Basutoland and Zululand, before hiselection to Parliament in 1885 asConservative member for Kirkdale,Liverpool. He proved a popular and

SIR GEORGE SMYTH BADEN-POWELL24 DECEMBER 1847 – 20 NOVEMBER 1898


Henrietta Smyth Baden-Powell workedto see all her sons educated forrespectable careers in the military, thelaw or foreign service. It may haveseemed a disappointment that herfourth son (the youngest of the boysborn so close together in the first yearsof her marriage) qualified as a barristerof the Inner Temple, but turned topainting and sculpture before makinga name in the law. In fact, Frankenjoyed a considerable share of thefamily’s talent for figurative art, andwas for some years the son best placedto earn money enough to assist hisworthy mother and siblings.

However, Frank had a taste for thehigh life, and was not always as oblig-ing as his mother would have liked.But he helped her and his sister whenhe could and, although Agnes decid-edly preferred her younger brothers,she and Frank lived together in theirlater years, albeit more of necessitythan affection.

Frank was well educated, at St.Paul's and Marlborough before BalliolCollege, Oxford (BA 1876, MA 1878).But his inclination lay in art, andalthough little remembered today, hewas soon and conspicuously success-ful, commanding fees of severalhundred pounds per canvas at a timewhen names now much better knownwere struggling to sell at all. He stud-ied in Paris with no less mentors than

Auguste Rodin and Carolus Duran, andexhibited there (including the Salon of1895, just a little after its heyday as theworld’s greatest art event). He alsoexhibited regularly at the RoyalAcademy from 1880.

Frank excelled in the popular genreof nautical history painting, with titlesincluding The Last Shot of the SpanishArmada, Nelson at St. Vincent (anallusion to his own family history, seep.xx), Trafalgar Refought, The Wreckof the Foudroyant, Nelson NearingTrafalgar, and an inevitable departureinto recent military history withColonel Baden-Powell at Mafeking.

In something of a Powell tradition,Frank came late to a family life of hisown. In 1902, as his art was slippingout of fashion, he married the affluentFlorence Sydney Watt (c.1878-1914);also in the family tradition, theybecame parents the very next year.Florence, like the wife of his brotherGeorge, was an heiress from theAntipodes, the daughter of the promi-nent land- and racehorse-owner JamesWatt of Napier, New Zealand; on herdeath, she left a personal estate of£56,128 (equivalent to some £24mtoday, in terms of average wages).

Frank died on Christmas Day 1833,and was buried in his family’s grave inKensal Green after a funeral in St.Mary’s Parish Church, Wimbledon. Heleft a rather more modest £1874.

FRANK SMYTH BADEN-POWELL29 JULY 1850 – 25 DECEMBER 1933

Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery were delightedto see the prominent role given to the greatVictorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel (rep-resented by the actor Kenneth Branagh) during theOpening Ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games.We were also amused to hear that some viewerswere allegedly confused by his stovepipe hat intowondering how Abraham Lincoln got into the storyof British industry; we can live with that sort ofmisapprehension. However, we were rather moresurprised when, a few days later, correspondentsunknown to the Friends wrote to the editor of TheTimes to deplore the state of the Brunel familygrave at Kensal Green, which they believed to beon the brink of collapse and saved only by theintervention of ‘the cemetery itself’.

As so often with stories of this kind, rumour cir-culated far and wide, and many volunteer hourswere spent assuring enquirers as various as BrunelUniversity and the SS Great Britain Trust that theirfears were literally groundless. To their credit, TheTimes published our response on 6 August 2012,but the half-truth continues to circulate fartherthan the rather less sensational facts.

The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery wouldlike to assure all parties that the grave of theBrunel family has neither been neglected nor atrisk. It was professionally restored by HoldenConservation in the first months of 2010, and isnow (as one of the FOKGC Trustees robustlyobserves) “as good as £15,000 could make it”. Itwas not in danger of collapse, but sinking to oneside, subsidence and mature trees being the bane ofmonuments as well as houses built on LondonClay. The entire monument was lifted and set asideto address the vault and foundations below, the


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Letter to the Editor, TheTimes, 31 July 2012

THE BRUNEL FAMILY GRAVECORRESPONDENCE IN THE TIMES, SUMMER 2012


which was not overwhelmed by dona-tions from the many professedadmirers of the Brunels and theirwork. However, contributions to therolling restoration fund are alwayswarmly appreciated, for the conserva-tion of deteriorating monuments andmaintenance of those recently restored.

We would most particularly like tothank D.J. Blackwell and PaulMortlock, two interested observerswho generously made donations to theFriends of Kensal Green Cemetery’srestoration fund in the wake of TheTimes correspondence.

We currently have the 33 monu-ments now formally At Risk to address(see p.4 and p.23), as well a number ofListed and other monuments whichwould benefit from modest interven-tion to prevent further deterioration.These include, for example, the memo-rials over the graves of the funambulistBlondin and the novelist WilliamMakepeace Thackeray, both of whichwarrant cleaning and minor repairs.

Donations can be addressed to TheFriends of Kensal Green Cemetery, c/oThe General Cemetery Company,Harrow Road, London W10 4RA.

marble block itself was repaired, andthe kerbs and chippings relaid.

The restoration was initiated by theFriends of Kensal Green Cemetery,with the cooperation of the GeneralCemetery Company, and conductedwith the guidance and support ofEnglish Heritage, The Royal Societyand The Brunel Museum. The Brunels'direct descendant Lord Gladwynunveiled the restored monument on 10April 2010, when Robert Hulse of theBrunel Museum led the tributes.

The monument was designed by SirMarc Brunel himself, but his choice ofwhite marble with raised lead lettering — not the best design decision fromthis otherwise inspired engineer —poses significant challenges for poster-ity. As invasive cleaning of the delicatelettering on the marble face was calcu-lated to cause greater damage thangood, the front of the monument doesappear slightly discoloured, for its ownpreservation. The Friends are currentlyconsulting with professional stone andmetal conservators to find a course ofcleaning that might improve theappearance of the block without com-promising the stone or lettering.

Thus, the monument was neitherforgotten nor neglected, but as a GradeII Listed structure on the NationalHeritage List for England was carefullyrestored in accordance with EnglishHeritage guidelines.

From the summer of 2009 onward,the Friends of Kensal Green Cemeteryconducted a fund-raising campaign,

The Brunel monument in the 1930s


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vast plain, at the confluence of theRiver Guadiana with the Rivillas. Themodel is constructed upon the banksof the lake of the Gardens, which,accordingly, serves for the Guadiana;on the right of the picture is a stonebridge of 28 arches, which communi-cates with Fort St. Christoval, on theextreme right; on the left flows theRivillas, which skirts the base of thewhole eastern line of fortification, andempties itself into the Guadiana, underthe walls of the Castle, which nearlyoccupies the centre of the picture; theleft of which is filled up with thedetached forts of San Roque and LaPicurina, the Cathedral of St. John,and other public buildings.

The picture has been modelled andpainted by Messrs. Danson and Sons,and is a remarkably clever and effec-tive work, equalling, if not surpassing,either of the picture models [previ-ously] exhibited upon the same site.

Still-life. however, is not one of theattractions of the Surrey ZoologicalGardens, and the proprietors have,accordingly, turned Messrs. Southby'spyrotechnic skill to historical accountin representing, in conjunction withthe picture model, the celebratedstorming of Badajoz in 1812, whichcost General Kellerman eightengineers, yet was taken by LordWellington, in the presence of twohostile armies amounting to 80,000

The scenic artist George Danson wasjustly celebrated for the enormouspanoramas that contributed so much tothe success of the spectacles held atthe Surrey Zoological Gardens inKennington, south London, in the1840s and ’50s. The masses gaped inawe and delight at vast renditions ofGreat Fire of London or NapoleonCrossing the Alps.

In 1849, Danson tackled TheStorming of Badajoz, the climax of athree-week campaign in the spring of1812 which proved one of the bloodi-est sieges of the Napoleonic Wars.Allied forces sustained around 4800casualties on the fateful night; theSurrey Gardens’ spectacle certainlystopped short of the massacre of some4000 French soliders and Spanishcivilians which followed in reprisal.

Danson’s panorama was comple-mented by a nightly son-et-lumière‘with new effects of real ordnance’ anda handful of uniformed men to simu-late the final assault, which had begunin darkness at ten o’clock at night.

The Illustrated London News of 26May 1849 was struck by both thepanorama and the staging:

BADAJOZ AT THE SURREY ZOOLOGICAL

GARDEN: The great holiday novelty atthis Establishment is a Picture-Modelof the Town, Castle, Fortification, andout-works of Badajoz, one of thestrongest cities of Spain, situate in a

THE STORMING OF BADAJOZGEORGE DANSON (1799-1881)


men, and certainly one of the greatestof the Hero’s ‘hundred fights’.…

The stages of the great struggle arerepresented with very dramatic effect,as the approach of the storming party,the instantaneous lighting of the wholefortress, the rush to the breach by realtroops, the roar of artillery, the confla-gration, the explosion, and the victory.The fearful reality with which thesemovements are enacted, forms a veryimpressive spectacle, accompanied bymusic and altogether producing a per-fect illusion. It would be well formankind if such scenes were confinedto planks and canvas, paint and pyro-techy, to show up the waste andwantonness of war! This by the way,however; and we recommend holiday-makers to see this artistic picture, aswell as to witness the evening specta-cle of the siege, in addition to the morepacific attractions of the Concert, therefreshing gardens, and their ‘zoologi-cal’ tenants.

However, a correspondent fromPunch was rather less impressed:

That steep castle which looks like alarge Stilton Cheese, or a big yellowsalad-bowl with a lot of green stuffinside, is Badajoz. The two little redsoldiers, who are doing sentry in themiddle of the mixture may be taken fora couple of spring radishes. You seethe bridge which runs across the water— it is so life-like, that the Ducks givethemselves a headache every day inknocking against the side, in the hopeof getting through it.

The cannons begin to roar, and theanimals also. The glass case in which

they are kept, is lighted up a glowingred, and it looks so hot you fancy everypane must crack like a roasted chestnut.

The trumpets bray their loudest,every drum and every heart is beatingquite loud, the Peacock is playing hisfavourite solo on the railway whistle,and every now and then, you hear aloud piercing ‘Oh!’ that rises far abovethe horrible din, and is but a faint echoof the feeling that is filling, almost to acarpet-bag point of bursting, the breastof every man, woman, policeman, andchild. Oh what a crash was that! and nowonder. See one whole side of the castlehas fallen in. It is crumbling to pieceslike a stout Cheshire that has beenundermined by the cheeseknife. The tensoldiers (bless them!) are fightingbravely for their ten shillings; the rock-ets are drooping in a golden showerover Badajoz, like a great laburnum.

There is a grand explosion — thewhole air is hissing hot; the trees arecrimson; the water is the colour ofTomata sauce [sic], there is a mightyflash of red fire; Badajoz is taken. Thedevoted ten rush once more into thebreach, which is burning like a furnace;a figure with a wooden sword, cockedhat, and nose, is pushed forward onrollers — three cheers rend the sky — itis the DUKE OF WELLINGTON! From thisnight forth, he is the hero of a Hundredand One Fights. The siege at the SurreyZoological will not be forgotten amongsthis future victories.

George Danson lies in Square 141under a pink granite gabled ledger,south of the path, opposite theGascoyne mausoleum.

BOB MOULDER


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• Ludwig Alexander Blumberg (c1803-1857), Sq. 56 roadside• Alexander Bruce (1770-1845), Sq. 86• Alfred Cooke (1822-1854), Sq. 76 pathside• Thomas Simpson Cooke (1782-1848), Sq. 100 roadside• Joseph Almond Cropper (1784-1862), Sq. 88 roadside• Admiral Henry Collins Deacon (1788-1869), Sq. 125 pathside• Dadoba Dewanjee (c1813-1861), Sq. 16, row 2• Andrew Ducrow (1793-1842), Sq. 76 roadside• Thomas Fenwick (c1774-1843), Sq. 170 roadside• John Gibson, FRIBA (1817-1892), Sq. 65 pathside• Mary Eleanor Gibson (1854-1872), Sq. 56 roadside• Colonel Gideon Gorrequer (1777-1841), Sq. 162 roadside• Isabella Gregory (c1780-1833), Sq. 170 pathside• Samuel Griffith (c1766-1833), Sq. 157 roadside• Henry Edward Kendall (1776-1875), Sq. 48 roadside• William H. Kent (c1822-1874), Sq. 157, row 2• William Price Lewis (c1783-1848), Sq. 27• John Lucas (1807-1874), Sq. 153 pathside• James Morison (1770-1840), Sq. 50 pathside• Sir Charles Thomas Newton, KCB (1816-1894), Sq. 125 pathside• Sir Patrick O'Brien, 2nd Baron O'Brien (1823-1895), Sq. 48 roadside• James Poole (d. 1843), Sq. 10 roadside• Captain Charles Spencer Ricketts (1788-1867), Sq. 47 roadside• Admiral Sir John Ross, KCB (1777-1856), Sq. 112, row 4• Martha Ross (d. 1860), Sq. 48• Edward Adolphus Seymour, later St. Maur,

11th Duke of Somerset KG FRS FSA (1775-1853), Sq. 157, row 4• Julia Slater (c1834-1858), Sq. 91 roadside• Admiral Sir George Stewart, 8th Earl of Galloway (1768-1834), Sq. 7• Frederick Tillson (c1823-1870), Sq. 88 roadside• James Ward RA (1769-1859), Sq. 90, row 3• George Waugh (1801-1873), Sq. 15• Frederick Albert Winsor (1763-1830), Sq. 65 roadside• Frederick Yates (c1835-1839), Sq. 77

MONUMENTS AT RISK 2012


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CEMETERY TOURS

Guided by the Friends of Kensal GreenCemetery, every Sunday from March to

October (1st and 3rd Sunday only betweenNovember and February), starting at 14:00at the Anglican Chapel in the centre of thecemetery. Tours are held in all weathers, so

please dress appropriately.

Tours last about two hours, and concludewith tea and biscuits at the Dissenters’

Chapel (Ladbroke Grove gate).

£7 per person — free to members of TheFriends of Kensal Green Cemetery.

Full details on www.kensalgreen.co.uk

KENSAL GREEN CEMETERYHarrow Road, London W10 / NW10

OPENING HOURS (TOP GATE)

Summer (1 April to 30 September)Monday to Saturday 9.00 to 18.00

Sunday 10.00 to 18.00Bank Holidays 10.00 to 13.00

Winter (1 October to 31 March)Monday to Saturday 9.00 to 17.00

Sunday 10.00 to 17.00Bank Holidays 10.00 to 13.00

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE MAIN GATE AND DOOR

ONTO LADBROKE GROVE CLOSE BEFORE THE

TOP GATE (NEAREST KENSAL GREEN STATION);CLOSING TIMES ARE POSTED AT THE GATES.

FOKGC & RELATED EVENTS

Saturday, 8 June 2013TOWER HAMLETS CEMETERY PARK (www.towerhamletscemetery.org)11:00 to 16:00, Southern Grove, London E3 4TF (Mile End or Bow Church station)Woodland crafts, rickshaw rides, children’s activities, and events and displays on thetheme of ‘All Things 60’, to celebrate the anniversary of the coronation.

Tuesday, 11 June 2013ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE FRIENDS OF KENSAL GREEN CEMETERY18:30 for 19:00 Dissenters’ ChapelThis year’s AGM will be followed by a presentation on the proposed development ofthe Kensal Gasworks site, south of the canal (FOKGC Magazine Nº 66), to which ourneighbours who are not FOKGC members are cordially invited.

Saturday, 22 June 2013KENSAL GREEN CEMETERY OPEN DAY 2013 (www.kensalgreen.co.uk)11:00 to 17:00, Anglican Chapel (ticket sales, tours, stalls) and Centre AvenueFrequent general and themed cemetery tours, historic hearses, stalls, refreshments;stallholders welcome, please e-mail [email protected] for information.

Sunday, 21 July 2013BROMPTON CEMETERY OPEN DAY 2013 (www.brompton-cemetery.org)11:00 to 17:00, London SW10 9UG (West Brompton or Fulham Broadway station)Cemetery tours including a rare chance to visit the catacombs, plus exhibits, stalls andrefreshments. Events centre on the chapel, nearest the Fulham Road entrance.

(ABOVE) The Brunel family monument in Square 41 (on the grass path leadingsouth from Centre Avenue) during conservation in January 2010 (BELOW)

Volunteers from the National Grid around the monument of the engineers SirMarc Brunel and Isambard Kingdom Brunel after a good day’s work, clearing

overgrowth and scrub in the cemetery.

Photo courtesy of Gareth Burden

Photo: Signe Hoffos

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