Kensal Green Cemetery, founded in 1833, is the oldest and apparently the most prestigious private cemetery in Britain. The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery have just released an article by Henry Vivian-Neal about its Napoleonic and St Helena connections.
Here are to be found the remains of some of those who served under Hudson Lowe in guarding Napoleon on St Helena. Most well known is Colonel Gideon Gorrequer, whose diary revealed a deeply unsympathetic view of Sir Hudson and his wife. Less well known are General Wynyard, Lowe's military secretary, Alexander Baxter M.D., the doctor whose services Napoleon declined, and Lt Colonel John Ward who served with the 66th Regiment of Foot, made some sketches of Napoleon and assisted with the death mask.
Ward was also present at the exhumation in 1840, as was another inhabitant of the cemetery the Comte de Jarnac, a member of the expedition that returned Napoleon's body to France, who later became French ambassador to the UK.
The man who escorted Napoleon to St Helena in 1815, Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn, is also buried in the cemetery, as is the Lt Governor, General Skelton, who was on the island when Cockburn and Napoleon arrived. As the author notes, Longwood House was Skelton's summer residence, he and his wife were among the few senior British officials who got on well with Napoleon and frequently visited him.
Perhaps most interesting of all to followers of this blog is Lucia Abell, better known as Betsy Balcombe, whose story has been told and probably embroidered many times.
The most famous person mentioned, albeit with rather tenuous St Helena connections is the writer William Thackeray. Thackeray claimed as a child to have been taken to view Napoleon on St Helena. Although it is not mentioned by the author, Thackeray also attended Napoleon's second funeral about which he wrote a rather irreverent article.
The Cemetery also has a few royal graves. The first to be buried was the Duke of Sussex, who strongly associated himself with Whig criticisms of the Government's treatment of Napoleon, and later gave Queen Victoria a book about Napoleon to give her a more favourable view of his achievements.
This is an very well researched piece of work. It is only 30 pages long but includes a very informative history of the cemetery, the background to Napoleon's imprisonment, portraits of the subjects discussed, a map identifying the location of each of their graves in the cemetery and an incredibly detailed index. There are a few very minor errors in it, for example Grand Marshall Bertand only lived at Hutts Gate in the early part of the captivity. He and his family soon moved in to a cottage specially built for them at Longwood, which still stands to this day. Like others the author says that the decision to send Napoleon to St Helena was taken while the Bellerophon waited in English waters, but by the time the Bellerophon arrived in Torbay the decision to send Napoleon to St Helena and to appoint Hudson Lowe as Governor had been made although not publicly announced.
The friends of the cemetery are in September 2023 organising a guided, costumed walk, "Napoleonic Stories at Kensal Green Cemetery."
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