Douglas Jerrold Rededication, May 21st 2005
This article is from the Friends of West Norwood Cemetery Newsletter no. 54 (September 2005)Rededication of the Jerrold Memorialby Paul Graham
A
re-dedication ceremony took
place on Saturday 21st May 2005 to mark the restoration of the monument
to Douglas jerrold (1803-1857) in the South Metropolitan (West Norwood)
Cemetery (grave 5,452, square 97). The original monument had been
erected for the burial service at which Dickens, together with William
Makepeace Thackeray, had been the principal pallbearers. Sometime in
1986-87, the monument was destroyed by Lambeth Council, the owners of
the cemetery, as part of their monument clearance operations, These
clearances led to the formation of the Friends of West Norwood Cemetery
in 1989 to oppose this municipal vandalism. In November 1993 the
Consistory Court before the Chancellor of the Diocese of Southwark,
Robert Gray QC, heard an action brought by the Archdeacon of Lambeth,
the Venerable Richard Bird, who opposed such wanton destruction in
consecrated ground. Sympathetic organisations that gave evidence on
behalf of the Chancellor were the Friends, English Heritage, and the
Victorian Society. Professor Michael Slater spoke specifically
about the importance of Jerrold to mid-Victorian culture. The
judgement, delivered at the Old Bailey in March 1994, declared several
of the Council's policies illegal, and ordered the restoration of
several listed monuments that had been either destroyed or damaged in
the preceding years.
In
2002, after much hard work by the Cemetery Management Advisory Group
and the Scheme of Management Committee, both the results of Chancellor
Gray's judgement, agreement was reached on the plan to restore the
Jerrold monument. The site was excavated and the vault was found to
have survived in good condition. The Royal Commission for the
Exhibition of 1851 via FOWNC contributed £1,000 towards the
substantial sum needed, which was in excess of £18,000, with
Lambeth donating the rest. Towards the end of 2004, the
restoration was completed and a monument was back in situ after a gap of almost 20
years. The work of Don Bianco on behalf of FOWNC in providing
drawings and supervising the work was outstanding.
The
re-dedication ceremony organised by Paul Graham was therefore a
joyous event. Many Jerrold descendants had traveled from elsewhere in
England and had even crossed from Ireland. Yvonne Jerrold spoke for the
family in thanking all those who had campaigned over many years to see
the monument restored. Michael Slater, author of the recently published
biography of Jerrold, spoke of the lives and works of several members
of the Jerrold clan who are commemorated on the monument. To
Michael, it was an important triumph for our shared culture that the
burial place of a man who did so much to champion the poor and
oppressed by his writings is again appropriately marked. Bob
Flanagan spoke on behalf of the Friends and gave a summary of the
restoration campaign and its principal players. Finally, the
Reverend Robert Titley, Vicar of All Saints, West Dulwich, then
conducted the re-dedication and blessing of the stone. He
revealed that he had done his research by remarking how appropriate it
was that a humble parish vicar should officiate, given Jerrold's known
opinions of the higher clergy of the established church. The
Dickens Fellowship was represented by Tony Williams, the Joint Honorary
General Secretary.
The FOWNC newsletter is published three times a year by The Friends of West Norwood Cemetery website: http://www.fownc.org back to Yvonne Jerrold's website Jerrold Pages Links page |