Brompton cemetery in west London is the burial place for more than 200,000 people. Their lives are commemorated by hundreds of memorials ranging from mausoleums to small marker slabs; there are even catacombs here.
This is one of many memorials which caught my eye: ‘To the Glory of God and in revered and grateful memory of 2625 Pensioners of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea buried around this spot between 1855 and 1893’.
For anyone outside the UK, a Chelsea Pensioner is a retired soldier or non-commissioned officer of the British Army in receipt of a state pension and able to live independently at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea. These men (and now women), in their scarlet tunics, are held in esteem and great affection by the British public. The Royal Hospital, by the way, takes its name from the Latin ‘hospitalis’, meaning a place of hospitality rather than a medical centre. It was founded in 1692 and is still going strong.
