Taissumani, Nov. 27
Lady Franklin’s Grave at Kensal Green
Lady Jane Franklin’s deteriorated grave site inside the Kensal Green cemetery in northwest London.
A day after attending the ceremony for the re-dedication of the Franklin monument in Greenwich last month, some friends and I decided to look for Lady Franklin’s grave site and headstone.
What we discovered was quite a shock.
In the 1850s and 1860s Lady Jane Franklin, widow of the famous explorer, was probably the most well-known woman in England after Queen Victoria herself. The British public admired – and later tired of – her unrelenting advocacy for search expeditions to sail to the Arctic to determine her missing husband’s fate.
Finally, in 1859, Leopold McClintock brought back documentary proof that Franklin had died 12 years earlier. Lady Jane lived on until 1875, dying at the age of 82.
We knew that Jane Franklin had been buried in Kensal Green cemetery in London. But finding her grave was not easy. A guidebook provided by a gate attendant indicated in what general area it lay, but not a specific location. And so we searched for it.
Kensal Green Cemetery is the final resting place of over 250,000 people buried in 65,000 graves. Britain’s nobility and its rich and famous lie here. It was established by an Act of Parliament, which mandates that its bodies may not be exhumed or cremated or the land ever sold for development.
Its official web site claims that the company that operates the cemetery is “proud to have provided a haven in the heart of London for over 170 years for its inhabitants” and a place where people can “remember their loved ones in a tranquil and dignified environment.”
Tranquil it may be, providing as it does 72 quiet acres of grounds west of the city’s centre. Two conservation areas are found within its gates and it is said to be home to 33 species of birds and other wildlife.
But dignified it is not. The state of many of the grave sites is deplorable. Once-impressive monuments stand at precarious angles. Some have toppled over completely. The ground has caved in beneath others. Above-ground tombs are falling apart, some with their sides completely open.
Limestone is the culprit, as it slowly deteriorates in the polluted atmosphere of London. Granite monuments have fared much better. The other culprit, quite obviously, is lack of maintenance.
I had expected that Lady Jane Franklin might have had a grand monument in a spectacular setting on these sacred grounds. She had no children and therefore no direct descendants, but I imagined that some society or other would have pronounced itself the guardian of her remains and the keeper of her gravesite.
I envisaged a well-kept monument bedecked with flowers. Eventually we found her monument. Unfortunately it is of limestone and is deteriorating.
But unlike others, its cross is still intact. The lettering on her name on its base is curious. The letters are individually formed of a different material and were inserted into tiny holes in the limestone, so that they stand in relief against the monument itself. Many have simply fallen off. It is apparent that no-one looks after her grave.
I was frankly shocked. So this was the fate of the mortal remains of the second most-famous woman in mid-19th century England.
We found other Arctic associations in Kensal Green. Admiral Sir John Ross’s once-impressive memorial is close to toppling over. Admiral Sir Edward Augustus Inglefield lies here as does Robert McCormick. Vice-Admiral Sir Robert McClure has fared better than most, with a durable memorial of pink granite.
I thought of Lady Franklin again, and of the hope that she had carried for so many years as she lobbied for search after Arctic search for her lost husband, when I read the words of the poet G. K. Chesterton:
“For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen,
Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.”
Taissumani recounts a specific event of historic interest. Kenn Harper is a historian, writer and linguist who lives in Iqaluit. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
