The grave shown in the image above belongs to Marjorie THORNHILL found hidden amongst the undergrowth.
Hospital and Burial Records
The details of the people buried in Horton Cemetery are summarised in the cemetery burials register in the Epsom & Ewell History Explorer website. These records have been used by our Volunteers (listed in the Friends and Patrons section) as the basis of their research.
Notable Burials
There are some burials of special consideration such as:
- London’s infamous Tottie Fay
- Victorian stage star Byron Pedley
- Titanic survivor, George PELHAM
- Flamenco dancer, Félix Fernandez Garcia
For those buried in Horton Cemetery
Although you are dead,
you are here in our hearts,
sacred and to be remembered;
unclaimed lives lived
and buried in untamed land
in unmarked paupers graves;
so many of you have suffered
so much: we do not forget you
you live on – we must restore
your dignity,
find your names,
know as much as we must
about who you are and
treasure your lives,
respect your stories;
the days, years you spent
in one or other of our five
psychiatric hospitals before
someone buried you alone
and nameless in this plot of land;
you are like the snowdrops
in spring - a life force
never to be forgotten.
Audrey Ardern-Jones
Félix Fernandez Garcia
The only known impression of Félix Fernandez Garcia is a 1919 hand drawn sketch by Pablo Picasso, of Félix ‘el Loco’ (crazy) dancing with Russian ballet dancer Vera Nemtchinova.
This drawing can be pinpointed to have been drawn between 1st-7th May 1919.
A Headstone Discovered in a Local Garden- Marjorie Ethel Young
In the 1980s, before Horton Cemetery went up for sale, a notice was published in the local press. It was intended for the families of those who were buried in the cemetery, informing them that they could come, retrieve, and save their relatives’ headstones. Those stones that were left would be destroyed.
At that time, an electrical engineer was working on a project for the Epsom hospital cluster (Long Grove, Horton and West Park).
One day, he saw a headstone in a skip (presumably marked for destruction) and rescued it. In later life, he told his family that he had been so appalled by this blatant disregard for someone’s final resting place that he felt compelled to rescue it. The headstone belonged to Marjorie Ethel Young.
Today her headstone is being kept safe in readiness for a time when it can be returned to the cemetery where it was intended to stand in perpetuity.
Her full story may be read here YOUNG, Marjorie Ethel – Friends of Horton Cemetery
Physical Graves
Of the few remaining gravestones, which have since been removed, only four could just about be made out. They were:
Military Veterans
At least three of the Epsom Cluster Hospitals were used during and after World War One as military hospitals. Horton Asylum, The Manor Hospital and Ewell Epileptic Colony (St. Ebba’s today) were designated as a War Hospital and more than 45,000 military personnel passed through from 1915 until the end of 1920.
During this period, one CWGC recognised WW1 soldier was buried in Horton Cemetery, named P. McMahon.
His memorial stone stands in Epsom Ashley Road Cemetery. All other serving military personnel who died in the hospital were either buried in Epsom’s Ashley Road cemetery, or their bodies were claimed by family or other interested parties and were buried elsewhere.
From 1939 until sometime in 1947, Horton Hospital was again designated as a War Hospital. During this period civilian patients were not treated in the hospital. Epsom’s Ashley Road cemetery was again used for the bodies of serving military personnel. Again, for some unknown reason, there is a single CWGC recognised WW2 soldier buried in Horton Cemetery, that of Henry Walter JAMES.
Polish Soldiers
Between 1943 and a point after the end of World War Two, 400+ Polish military personnel who fought under British Command were admitted to Long Grove Hospital as psychiatric patients.
Further research, perhaps a project in its own right, will be necessary to discover whether the 60+ Polish WW2 soldier buried in Horton Cemetery until its closure in 1955, warrant Commonwealth War Graves Commission recognition.
Most if not all Polish military personnel, who died in the Epsom Cluster Hospitals prior to May 1948, about one third of all admissions, were claimed on behalf of the Polish Government and buried under Polish Forces headstones in British military and civilian cemeteries. Verification of this may also be part of this further research.
This research may also apply to military personnel from other nations, e.g., Czechoslovakia, who fought under British Command and whose bodies were not claimed, resulting in a burial at Horton Cemetery.
Removed Gravestones
On 06 July 1983 local solicitors Kirkwoods, acting on behalf of the freeholder, sent the Registrar General of Miscellaneous Records, St Catherine House, a list of tombstones and memorials removed from the cemetery.
HORTON HOSPITAL ESTATE CEMETERY,
EPSOM, SURREY
Schedule of all the tombstones and memorials set in a vandalised paved area inside the previous entrance from Hook Lane which, having been broken and defaced, were removed from the Cemetery on the 26 May, 1983, in accordance with Clause 9 of the Schedule to the Disused Burial Grounds (Amendment) Act 1981. There being no evidence of any other such memorials existing in, on or around the cemetery.
Set horizontally in paving
- Constance Nellie Chaplin – died 14 January 1933 aged 53 years
- In Loving Memory of my dear husband Arthur aged 44
- In Loving Memory of Vittorina Stratta Born 9th February 1904
Died 18th May 1924 - In Loving Memory of my dear son Arthur James Faithful who
died 11th June 1944 aged 41 years. - In Loving Memory of Arthur Thomas Stubbings 1873-1929
- In Loving Memory of my dear Husband George Saunders
November 16th, 1942, aged 33 - In Memory of my dear Mother Elsie Fatje died 2nd July 1910
aged 78 years - In Loving Memory Miriam E. Puddle died February 26 1945
aged 42 R.I.P.
Set vertically in paving
- In Loving Memory of Ann Barrows Howkins died December 16th 1912
“Into Thy Hands” - Pollard Lewis. Died 12th November 1926 aged 69
- Enid Barnet Born on 23 March 1861 in Sydney, N S W. Australia
Died December 19th 1911.
