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NEWSLETTER NO.13: JANUARY 1993

Chairman's Report - Bob Flanagan

We are still awaiting sight of the long-promisedLambeth report on the future of the cemetery - wehave been asked unofficially to comment on thereport without having seen it but have politelydeclined! We understand, however, that EnglishHeritage have been consulted and have replied atlength asking for major changes in the draft reportsupplied to them. We will keep our membersinformed of progress on this important document asbest we can. We have been assured by Lambeth thatit will be presented as a consultation document in thefirst instance and that we will have full opportunityto read and to comment on the report in due course.

On a positive note the Cemetery Superintendent, MrMackay, has kindly offered to display postersadvertising our events in the cemetery. Secondly, MrMackay has agreed to undertake a short programmeof clearance of vegetation from important monumentswhich should be completed by the end of January.This includes removal of the sycamore saplings fromthe Appold and Dollond monuments, the birch treefrom John Lawson Johnston's tomb and the remainsof the tree stump from in front of the Mantellmonument. Thirdly, it has been agreed that FOWNCwill offer guided tours of the cemetery on the officia.lOpen Day on Sunday 20 June. We look forward toreporting continued improvement in our relationswith Mr Mackay and his staff in future News­letters.

The FOWNC Committee

We are very pleased to welcome Nicholas Long asour Vice-Chairman. Nit:holas, who iives in Clapham,is the grandson of the well-known West Norwoodestate agent of former years, Montague Long, and isa plotholder in the cemetery. Nicholas brings awealth of experience in local history and conser­vation matters to the committee - he is Secretary ofthe Clapham Antiquarian Society, Hon. Treasurer ofthe Twentieth Century Society and a council memberof the Victorian Society - and we are grateful that hehas found time in his busy schedule to give us thebenefit of his counsel. We are also very grateful tohis wife, Anna Long FCA, who audits our accounts.

Jill Dudman has successfully completed her post­graduate diploma in Information Studies and returnsto the committee as General Secretary and NewsletterEditor. Rosemary and David Comber continue intheir vital roles of Membership Secretary and Hon.Treasurer, respectively. Our founder Nicholas Reedremains an active member of the committee and hasoffered to take on the very important role of fundraising coordinator. Tom Easton and Celia Smith alsocontinue their work as ordinary members of thecommittee. Our former Minutes Secretary, MargaretJack:nan, although no longer a committee member,will continue in her important tasks of liaison withChatsworth Baptist Church and provider of refresh­ments at our meetings there.

If there is an envelope addressed to our Membership Secretary, Rosemary Comber, enclosed with thisnewsletter, this indicates that we have not yet received your subscription renewal for 1993. We hopeyou will wish to continue your membership; if so, please place your subscription (minimum £2) in theenvelope and return it to Rosemary. Remember to include your name and address!

Also enclosed is a spare membership form; please pass this on to an interested friend or relative, andhopefully thereby gain a new member for us.

FOWNC Officers - 1993

Chairman & Publications Officer:Bob Flanagan, 79 Durban Road, London SE27 9RW(Tel: 081 670 3265).Vice-Chairman:Nicholas Long, 58 Crescent Lane, London SW4 9PU(Tel: 071 622 7420)General Secretary and Newsletter Editor:Jill Dudman, 119 Broxholm Road, London SE27 OBJ(Tel: 081 670 5456)Membership Secretary:Rosemary Comber, 170 Knights Hill, London SE27OSR (Tel: 081 761 3996)Hon. Treasurer:David Comber (address and telephone as above)

FOWNC Events - OctoberlDecember 1992

Our talks by Winifred Murphy (on Parnell and Kitty0'Shea) and by Prof Michael Slater (on CharlesDickens and his Circle) were both attended by about30 people and were both very successful. WinifredMurphy was almost evangelical in her encouragementof groups such as ours to care for monuments to ourmore illustrious forbears. At present these may bestrictly in law private monuments, but in time thosewhich survive will become acknowledged publicmonuments in same way as features such as Stone­henge. Our AGM was held after this talk - copies ofthe minutes are available from Jill Dudman onrequest. Michael Slater was both entertaining anderudite - his talk took on the aspect of a 'dramaticreading' much as Dickens' own presentations musthave done. Note that there is a walk on Saturday 10July specifically to complement this latter talk. The'Military Connections' walk in November was notwell attended but this was more than compensatedfor by the wealth of new material discovered. Thisincludes the tomb of Sister Eliza Roberts, FlorenceNightingale's principal assistant in the Crimea, whichsurvives intact near the tomb of Sir Horace Jones,just off the 'Ship Path'. We now know of some 60notable soldiers, sailors, etc. who are buried in thecemetery, many of whose tombs still survive.

Forthcoming FOWNC Publications

As members will see from the 1993 events list wehope to have at least two 'theme' tour guidespublished by the end of the year, 'Entertainers'written by Bob Flanagan and 'Authors' written byPaul Graham. These will include a map and descript­ions and/or drawings of surviving monuments as wellas biographical notes and where possible portraits orother illustrative material. Bob is also writing ageneral guide to all notable people buried orotherwise commemorated in the cemetery. This willconsist of a map, very brief biographical notesarranged in alphabetical order and a brief descriptionof surviving monuments. It is anticipated that therewill be some 400 entries initially.

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If you are a plotholder in the cemetery then pleaseensure that details of your family grave (grave andsquare number, biographical details of.the deceased,including published obituaries, 1 copies ofphotographs, etc. if possible, and a note of themonument, if any) are sent to Bo~ as soon aspossible so that the details are on file for possibleinclusion in this publication. I

It is hoped to have a draft of this publicationavailable for consultation by intereSted membersearly in the New Year. Finally, if you have anysuggestions for possible sponsors fori any of thesepublications then please get in touch with Bob.

Contributions to Future Newsletters I

We hope you approve of the new typeface and layoutadopted for parts of this Newsletter. If you wouldlike to submit news items, feature articies and/orphotographs for possible publication in future issues(we plan to produce Newsletters in January, April,July and October each year) then please get in touchwith Jill Dudman. Although we appreciate that mostmembers are too busy or live too far away to helpwith stalls, etc. at weekends, preparation of shortfeatures on items relevant to the cemetery is analternative and no less rewarding way of helping withthe running of the group and hopefully will add toour fund of knowledge about the cemetery and its'residents'. If possible please submit articles as anIBM-readable ASCii file on floppy disk, but JiBwould be happy to receive material in manuscriptrather than not at all!

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FOWNC Meetings - 1993

Since posters advertising our tours and meetings arenow to be displayed in the cemetery we have decidedto offer general tours of the cemetery on the firstSunday of each month. Although primarily designedfor those unfamiliar with the cemetery, existingFOWNC members will always be welcome on thesetours - please come along when you can as there isalways something new to see or learn. One practicalway members could help in the running of FOWNCwould be to join the rota of guides for these tours asat present this task falls on Rosemary Comber, JillDudman, Tom Easton, Bob Flanagan and NicholasReed, all of whom are committee members and areheavily involved with FOWNC in other areas. Tournotes could be provided if there are volunteers forthis task - at least the volunteer(s) would be certainof themselves learning more about the cemetery!

As in Fevious years Vie have organised a programmeof lectures and specialized tours to supplement themore general tours. An outline of the year's prog­ramme is given in the enclosed sheet. Additionaldetails .about the January-March events are givenbelow. Note that we have booked the lecture roomuntil 17.00 on meeting days in order to allow timefor discussion of items of general interest.

January 16 - The Greek Community in England:The Aegean Connection by Paul Calvocoressi

This year we plan a more detailed study of the GreekCemetery than has been possible hitherto. To set thescene we are very pleased that Paul Calvocoressi ofEnglish Heritage has agreed to come to talk to usabout the origins of the Greek Community in Eng­land. Paul is well qualified for this role - his familyhave a vault at Norwood and his grandfather - whomarried a Ralli - is buried in St Stephen' s Chapel,otherwise known as the Ralli Mortuary Chapel. Tocomplement this lecture there will be a Special Tourof the Greek section at Norwood on 16 May whichwill be led by Don Bianco, who is the EnglishHeritage staff member with special responsibility forNorwood. The Greek Section at Norwood is espec­ially important as it is by far the largest of the twoareas in the cemetery which have not suffered someloss of monuments over the years - the other is in theconsecrated area by the Pond mausoleum (square 88).

February 20 - Alexander Parkes (1813-1890):Creative Genius by David Leaback

Those who attended the Lambeth Archives Open Daylast September may have heard David Leaback'sfascinating talk on the dyestuff pioneer EdwardChambers Nicholson. In later life Nicholson lived atthe erstwhile home of Elhanan Bicknell, The Cedarsat Herne Hill. However, it is known where he isburied - it seems that he does not lie at Norwood.Alexander Parkes, however, is buried at Norwood ­his grave is near the wrought iron canopied tomb ofMrs Ann Farrow by the east wall of the cemetery.

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However, his tombstone is no more - it may evenhave been one of those destroyed in the clearanceoperations a couple of years ago. Parkes was aninventor in the same league as Sir Henry Bessemerand Sir Hiram Maxim. According to the Dictionaryof National Biography he 'took out 46 patentsextending over 46 years, most of them connectedwith the deposition of metals by electricity;discovered the method of using zinc for the desilver­ization oflead (1850) and invented celluloid'. I leaveyou to ponder which of these inventions has been ofthe most lasting import...

March 13 - Entertainers Commemorated atNorwood by Bob Flanagan

Norwood has many connections with the stage andthe sporting arena. Given the growth of theatres andof other places of entertainment on the South Bankand in the area to the south of Waterloo Bridge inGeo!'gian aod early Vkt.orian times this is perhapsnot unexpected. Indeed, Sir Joseph Barnby, WillertBeale, Lionel Brough, George Conquest, GeorgeDavidge, Frederick Gye junior, David WebsterOsbaldiston, Philip Phillips, Fred Robson (himselfacknowledged as the greatest actor of his generation),John Saunders and Harriet Waylett all managedtheatrical or musical enterprises here or in the WestEnd. Moreover, David Roberts began his career as atheatrical scene-painter and became recognised as oneof the leading figures of his profession. WilliamClarke and Charles Alcock, amongst the most import­ant figures in the development of professional cricketand of association football, respectively, are alsoburied at Norwood.A recent article on CharlesAlcock is reproduced later in this Newsletter.

Events at Other Societies

The following Norwood Society meetings will be ofinterest to FaWNC members, since they relate tosome of the most eminent Victorians buried in theCemetery, who are always included in our tours:­Tuesday 26 January: 'The Life and Work ofCharles Haddon Spurgeon' - a talk by the Rev. J.J. Brown about the famous Baptist preacher (thisis a different speaker from the FOWNC lecture onthe same subject last year).Tuesday 23 February: 'Artists and Art Galleries ofSouth London' - a talk by Brian Bloice, which willinclude the contribution made by Sir Henry Tate tothe nation's art collection.Tuesday 30 March: 'Belgravia: its Buildings and itsPeople' - a talk by John Gardner about the greatestate laid out by the building contractor ThomasCubitt.All meetings are held in All Saints' Parish Rooms,Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood, SEI9, at 8.00 p.m.(entrance along a path to the left from All Saints'Church).

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THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1992 I

A small sign is all that shows C W Alcock's grave in West Norwood; the FA are to pay for a headstone. Picture: Tony Henshaw

FA pay homage toforgotten fatherof English sport

Reproduced by kindpermission of the

Daily Telegraph

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Bryon Butler on the debt football and cricket, amongothers, owe to C W Alcock, whose part in shaping themodern era is being recognised 150years after his birth

'+-<oco'U)en

A GRAVE in a corner ofWest Norwood cemetery­number 14689 in one of Vic­

torian London's most fashion­able burial grounds - will soonhave a headstone. It will beinscribed "Charles WilliamAlcock,1842-1907".

The Football Association havejust agreed to adopt the graveand pay for the stone, which coin­cides neatly with the 150th anni­versary on Wednesday of Al­cock's birth. But if his memorialis to carry even an outline of hiscontribution to late 20th Centuryleisure, it will need to be a monu­ment of almost Centre Point pro­portions. He might, on the otherhand, be simply described as"the father of English sport".

There may be other cootendp.rsfor this rhapsodic title, but,before rival names are banked,consider Alcock's claims.

The FA Cup, football's firstand best-loved national tourna­ment, was his idea; and so wasinternational football. The WorldCup itself is an extension of histwo priceless notions - and, ofcourse, his concept of a sudden­death knock-out tournament isnow used by most other sports.Someone had to be first with theidea: it happened to be Alcock.

Alcock championed and pro­posed the acceptance of profes­sionalism in football, and workedobsessively hard for his own liv­ing. He was secretary of the FAfor 25 years (1870-95 but onlypaid from 1887) and secretary ofSurrey County Cricket Club for35 years (1872 until his death in1907) - combining the two postsfor more than 20 years.

He was also a prolific sportswriter, a pioneer in the field. Hewrote the first history of football,edited its first annual, as well asa highly-acclaimed cricketannual, started several maga­zines and contributed regularlyto The Sportsman and The Field.He rnade'history, then recordedit with insight and style.

Kennington Oval, the Wem­bley of the time, was his homefrom home. Here· he captainedThe Wanderers to victory in thefirst FA Cup Final in 1872; cap­tained England against Scotlandin a first single unofficial footballinternational; instigated andorganised cricket's first Testmatch in England in 1880; andwas the presiding official twoyears later when Australia beatEngland for the first time andThe Ashes were born. He wasalso instrumental in giving shapeand order to the county cricketchampionship.

Alcock was' heavily involved,too, in organising the first RugbyUnion international in England,and provided the Varsity matchwith its first neutral home.Hockey and even baseball alsotook place at the Oval - whichAlcock promoted with sharpbusiness acumen.

Alcock, in short, led the way inthe standardisation and develop­ment of team-games during theIndustrial Revolution. It was thebirth-time of modern sport - andAlcock, with his vision andenergy, was its father figure.

He was one of five sons of awealthy Sunderland shippingman and left Harrow School in1859 as a tall, straight figure, atalented footballer ("excellentdribbler and goal-getter, veryhard to knock off the ball"), auseful cricketer who played forthe Gentlemen of Essex, a willingorganiser and a natural leader.

Alcock was not quite 30 yearsold and had been the FA secre­tary for little more than 12months when he had his vision ofa national knock-out tournamentin 1871. He remembered playmgin an inter·house sudden-deathcompetition at Harrow, and rec­ognised that the format could beemployed on a national scale.

Now, 500 clubs enter the tour-

nament each year; but only 15entered the first, three scratchedwithout playing a game, and Al·cock led the famous Wanderers(a club he helped form) to victoryby 1-0 over the Royal Engineersin the final.

Alcock led England to victoryin an unofficial internationalagainst Scotland at the Oval, and,but for injury, would have. cap·tained them in the first officialone in Glasgow in late 1872 ­which he arranged "to furtherthe interests of the Associationin Scotland'. He captained Eng­land in 1875, though, and a weeklater, refereed the FA Cup Final.He became the first president ofthe Referees' Association.

As an administrator, Alcockwas liberal, catholic, a percep­tive judge of character, a calmman who used words sparinglyyet tellingly, but who could also

be caustic and stubborn. WilliamPickford, an FA contemporary,described him as "lovabl"e and

genial". But he also moved withthe times and adjusted smoothlyto the quickening tempo andbroadening democracy offootball.

The balance of power in thegame swung away from the uni­versities and public schools ofthe South, with their cherishedconcept of amateurism, towardsthe clubs of the North, who sawnothing wrong in profit andsuccess.

ALCOCK said he objected "tothe argument that it isimmoral to work for a living",and, on his proposal, profession­alism was legalised in 1885. Hebelieved it would be better tocontrol it than drive itunderground.

Surrey County Cricket Club,with Alcock at the helm, becamethe country's most successfulclub. In nine seasons, 1887-95,they won the county champion­ship seven times and shared it

once. By this time, too, Alcockhad moved English cricket on toa new, higher plateau: the inter­national game.

The second Australian team tovisit England, in 1880, had a mod·est, rather messy fixture list. ButA\cock somehow persuaded Sus·sex to call off their game with WL Murdoch's men at Hove, andarranged instead the first Testbetween England and Australia.At the Oval, of course, W GGrace, a close friend of Alcock's,duly scored the first Test centuryfor England.

Alcock's Oval was also thescene of Australia's first triumphover England, in 1882, which ledto the birth of The Ashes. N L'Pa' Jackson, the founder of theCorinthians, remembered seeingthe Surrey secretary in his officeafterwards, "sitting down on ahuge iron safe, burying his headin his hands, oblivious toeverything" .

Alcock, though, had missed

nothing, and wrote a perceptiveaccount of that turning point incricket history. "Men who werenoted for their coolness at criti·cal moments were trembling likea leaf," he wrote. "Some wereshivering with cold; some evenfainted. At times there was anawful silence."

Now the FA have agreed toadopt his grave - a plot AIcockpurchased in 1874, 33 yearsbefore his death in Brighton. Heis in illustrious company: withhim, among 40,000 graves in the42-acre cemetery, are Mrs Bee·ton, Baron de Reuter, HenryDoulton, Edward Coleman of themustard family, artist DavidRoberts, William Wy,on; ~whoengraved the image of QueenVictoria for the Penny Black,prizefighter Tom King, the last ofthe bare-knuckle champions, andsuch cricketing luminaries asLord Hawke and William Clarke.

The FA's attention was drawnto Alcock's grave by Dr Bob Flan·agan, chairman of the Friends ofWest Norwood Cemetery, whorevealed that Lambeth Councilintend to take possession of pri·vate graves more than 75 yearsold and place other coffins inthem. Dr Flanagan hopes theFA's adoption will allow th'egrand old man to rest in peace.

As a contemporary wrote of Al·cock: "When the flashing mete·ors have come and gone, whenthe league tables are full andcomplete, and when the presentfades into the past, the name ofC W Alcock will stand out all themore prominently like a ruggedrock in a sea of bubbles."

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Publications News - Bob Flanagan

Postcard (30 p): Isabella Mary Mayson, Mrs Samuel Beeton (1836­1865). Hand-tinted albumen print. Maull & Polyblank, 1857.National Portrait Gallery.

Isabella was born in Cheap side. In 1856 she married the journalist andpublisher Samuel Orchart Beeton (1831-1877). She published her firstarticles in The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine published bySamuel in April 1857. In July of that year her first child SamuelOrchart died and she began planning her Book of Household Manage­ment. This appeared in 30 monthly parts from 1859 and in book formin 1861. Much altered, it is still in print. Sadly Isabella's second child,also Samuel Orchart, soon died and Isabella too died aged only 28shortly after the birth of her fourth child. Isabella, Samuel and theirfirst two children all lie at Norwood (grave 8348, square 64) ­remember that this lady with the haunting face twice stood where wecan stand today to watch her children's coffins being lowered into thevault. The tombstone which remains was restored by their survivingchildren Orchart (1863-1947) and Mayson (1865-1947) in the 1930s,the 'original having fallen into disrepair'.

Book Review: Step-by-Step Guide to Tracing Your Ancestors by D.M. Field. Treasure Press, 1987.64 pages(hardback) £4.25. Illustrated.

We now have a few copies of this practical guide to the use of census returns, parish records, wills, etc. in familyhistory and other biographical research projects. First published in 1982, this new edition has been reprinted fourtimes since 1987 which gives some idea of its popularity. It is packed with useful information for the genealogistand cemetery historian!

Book Review: Seventeen Stations to Dingle - The Liverpool Overhead Railway Remembered by John W.Gahan. Countyvise, 1982. A5, 88 pages (softback) £3.50. Illustrated.

I found this fascinating little book which tells the story of Britain's only overhead railway on a recent trip toLiverpool. Little did I think that two months later I would find that James H. Greathead (1844-1896), designer andengineer of the Liverpool Overhead with Sir Douglas Fox, lies at Norwood (grave 27,103, square 83). Greatheadof course is best known for his adaptations of Sir Marc Brunei's tunnelling shield which facilitated the driving ofthe Tower Subway in 1869 and the deep 'tube' railway lines under London towards the end of the nineteenthcentury. His experience in providing electric traction for City and South London Railway (now part of the NorthernLine) was in all probability a major factor in his commission for the Liverpool Overhead once the decision wasmade to install electric traction for the 'dockers' umbrella' which opened in 1893. Greathead's premature deathat his home in Streatham in October 1896 cut short his involvement with several other major projects, includingthe Central London Railway. Unfortunately, Greathead's monument, which was recorded by Eric Smith in the late1970s, has disappeared. I plan to write to London Regional Transport to see if they will pay for a replacement.

Book R~view: T•...ansit Ci•...de - The Story of \VilIiam Simms, 1793-1860 by Eleanor Mennim. Vv'iiiiamSessions, 1992. A5, 316 pages, £9.50 (softback) - 26 monochrome illustrations.

This book tells the story of William Simms and other members of his family.After being apprenticed to a goldsmith William worked with his father and laterwith the well-known optical instrument maker Edward Troughton in Fleet Street.Elevated to partnership with Troughton in 1826, William embarked on theconstruction of a series of major optical instruments. His most notable workswere executed in collaboration with the Astronomer Royal, George Airy, for theRoyal Observatory at Greenwich. His four principal instruments still survivethere in their original positions, including the Transit Circle which defines theMeridian. Troughton and Simms also made astronomical instruments forobservatOlies in other parts of the world and also telescopes, surveyingequipment, standard lengths, etc. William' s descendants canied on the familytradition until 1936. The Simms family memorial at Norwood (grave 79, square64), one of the earliest in the cemetery, was demolished 10 years or so ago.

However, Or Mennim, the great, great grand-daughter of William, has erected a new headstone. The Simms graveis not far from that of another famous optical instrument maker, George Dollond FRS (grave 2,205, square 62).The Dollond name of course lives on as the opticians Dollond & Aitchison whilst the names of both Simms andof Dollond are commemorated in telTacotta on the New Physical Observatory built at Greenwich in 1899.