St Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church Mortlake

St Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church, Mortlake, is a Roman Catholic church in North Worple Way, Mortlake, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The church is dedicated to Jesus' companion Mary Magdalene.

The church building, in Gothic Revival style, was designed by Gilbert Blount, architect to the first Archbishop of Westminster, Nicholas Wiseman, and dates from 1852.

The church's first parish priest, Fr John Wenham, was a convert from the Oxford Movement, who had studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, and had been an Anglican army chaplain in Ceylon.

Burials

Burial records in the churchyard only survive from 1892. Frances Margaret Taylor (1832–1900), who was founder of the Roman Catholic religious congregation the Poor Servants of the Mother of God, was buried in the churchyard. Her remains were transferred in 1959 to the chapel at Maryfield Convent, Roehampton. Over 80 sisters of the order are buried in the churchyard.

Other burials include:

*Arthur William à Beckett (1844–1909), English journalist and intellectual
* George Bellew-Bryan, 4th Baron Bellew (1857–1935) was an Irish peer who fought in the Second Anglo-Afghan War, the Nile Expedition and in the Second Boer War.
*John Francis Bentley (1839–1902), the architect of Westminster Cathedral
* Walter Blount (1807–1894), a long-serving officer of arms at the College of ArmsMeller, Hugh: Parsons, Brian (2011). ''London Cemeteries: An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer'' (Fifth ed.). Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press. p. 261. .
* Katharine Harris Bradley (1846–1914) and her niece and ward Edith Emma Cooper (1862–1913), who together wrote about 40 works of poetry and verse drama and long journal ''Works and Days,'' using the pseudonym Michael Field; they were buried together in the churchyard. A now-lost marble tomb was erected in 1926.
* René le Brun, Comte de L'Hôpital (1877–1929), artist known for his illustrations for the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition (1911)
* Henry Clutton (1819–1893), architect and designer
* Alexander Kerr (1838–1909), a Scottish banker who was the first manager for the National Bank of New Zealand
*Henry Owen Lewis (1842–1913), an Irish Home Rule politician, MP for Carlow Borough from 1874 to 1880
* Donald MacGregor (1839–1911), a Scottish Liberal Party politician who, from 1892 to 1895 was a Member of Parliament for the Inverness-shire constituency
*May Probyn (1856–1909), British ''fin de siècle'' poet, who published a novel in 1878, and became a Catholic convert in the following decade
*The artists Adrian Stokes R.A. (1854–1935) and his wife Marianne Stokes (1855–1927), who was considered one of the leading women artists in Victorian England
*Leonard Stokes (1858–1925), an architect who designed many Roman Catholic buildings, including churches, convents and schools, as well as country houses and around 20 telephone exchanges. In 1919 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, having served as its president from 1910 to 1912.
* Leonard Stokes' brother Sir Frederick Wilfrid Stokes (1860–1927), an engineer and inventor in 1915 of the Stokes Mortar, which saw extensive use in the latter half of the First World War

Sir Richard and Lady Burton

The cemetery includes a Grade II* listed tent-shaped mausoleum of Carrara marble and Forest of Dean stone, containing the tombs of the Victorian explorer Sir Richard Burton (1821–1890) and his wife, Isabel, Lady Burton (''née'' Arundell; 1831–1896), who designed it; she also erected the
memorial stained-glass window to Burton, which is next to the lady chapel in the church.

Comte de Vezlo Mausoleum

The cemetery includes another mausoleum, commemorating the very young Comte de Vezlo, Guilaume Henri (1894–1901). A plaque near the mauseolum's entrance also commemorates his mother, Annette Rosamonde Blasio, the Comtesse de Vezlo, who died in 1938. The architect is not known.

Sir James Marshall

Sir James Marshall (1829–1889), a British colonial judge who helped the spread of Roman Catholicism in Ghana and Nigeria, is buried in the churchyard cemetery. His wife Alice (''née'' Young) died in 1926 and is also buried in the churchyard. A memorial plaque inside the church was unveiled on 11 August 1999, 100 years after his death.

The Knights and Ladies of Marshall, a lay association of Ghanaian Catholics, visit the church in Mortlake annually to celebrate a Mass in his memory.

War graves

The cemetery contains war graves of four service personnel of World War I and two of World War II.

Gallery

File:St Mary Magdalen, Mortlake, interior.jpg, Interior
File:Sir Richard Burton's Tomb.jpg, Mausoleum of Sir Richard and Lady Burton
File:De Vezlo Mausoleum.jpg, Comte de Vezlo Mausoleum
File:Sir James Marshall (1829–1889);St Mary Magdalen,Mortlake.jpg, Grave of Sir James Marshall and his wife Alice
File:Sir James Marshall (1829–1889) and Alice;St Mary Magdalen,Mortlake.jpg, Grave of Sir James and Lady Alice Marshall: inscription

See also

* St Mary the Virgin Mortlake

References

External links

Official websiteParish Register

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mortlake, Saint Mary Magdalen

1852 establishments in England
Saint Mary Magdalen
Churchyards in London
Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in England
Gothic Revival church buildings in London
Churches in the Diocese of Southwark
Roman Catholic churches completed in 1852
19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom