A return visit to the graveyard at St Nicholas in Chiswick was rewarding.
There is a fine table tomb for actor Charles Holland. The inscription is very worn but, like the Hogarth tomb, has an epitaph composed by David Garrick.
Then look out for Richard Wright’s tomb. He was a humble bricklayer but as he was in the employ of Lord Burlington his memorial was designed by William Kent.
It’s easy to spot this handsome small mausoleum for painter PJ de Loutherbourg. If it reminds you of a red telephone box it is because it was designed by John Soane.
I had never heard of PJ. He specialised in huge pictures depicting naval battles and branched out into designing scenery and costumes for David Garrick.
There is another table tomb for Ugo Foscoco, an Italian poet I’d never heard of either, but he is distinguished enough to have had his body repatriated to Santa Croce in Florence. If his name is familiar it may be because you have seen his blue plaque at 19 Edwardes Square where he lived for eleven years.
Another easy spot is this bronze tomb for JM Turner and his wife, Beatrix.
Fishermen at Sea, exhibited in 1796 was the first oil painting exhibited by Turner at the Royal Academy.
Near the Turner tomb is a cross marking Trumpet-Major Henry Joy’s grave. His career is remarkable, as described by the National Army Museum.
Born in Ripon, Yorkshire, Henry Joy was the son of James Joy, a private in the 1st Life Guards, who had served in the Peninsular (1808-1814) and at Waterloo (1815). Henry entered the Royal Military Asylum at Chelsea in 1825 at the age of six and in 1833 he enlisted in the 17th Light Dragoons (Lancers) as a musician in the regimental band, becoming a trumpeter in 1838. Promoted trumpet-major in 1847, he was in charge of the band at the funeral of the Duke of Wellington in 1852.
Appointed Orderly Trumpeter to the Earl of Lucan in the Crimea, he rode in the Charge of the Heavy Brigade where he had two horses shot under him and was slightly wounded. He died in 1893. In addition to the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM), Joy was awarded the Crimea War Medal 1854-56, Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, Army, 1857 and Turkish Crimean War Medal. Sadly, the exact circumstances of the award of his DCM are not recorded.
Three other interesting graves eluded me: Frederick Hitch VC who fought at Rorke’s Drift, William Blake Richmond, artist and sculptor, and Arthur Burden, assistant purser on the Lusitania.