August 2023 Grave of the Month Walter Berkley Wilson
Date published: 05/01/2023
©
|
BERKELEY WILSON
1850-1882
Son of Alderman Edward Wilson, butcher of 85 Northbrook Street.
[Shop premises now occupied by Vodafone]
Walter was a fit man of 32, played tennis and went horse riding,
and was a sergeant in the Volunteer Fire Brigade.
He went to bed on Friday evening
and simply didn’t wake up on Saturday 29th July 1882.
A post-mortem revealed no clues so, on the Saturday evening
at a Coroner’s Inquest in the Jack Hotel (now M&S),
the jury concluded he ‘Died from the visitation of God’.
He was afforded ‘the rare spectacle of a fireman’s funeral’
on 2nd August, 1882.
A ‘broken-column’ monument is universally recognised as alluding to a life cut short.
Walter was the Worshipful Master of the local Freemasons (The Loyal Berkshire Lodge of Hope) and it was they that clubbed together to provide this symbolic memorial for him.
After The Friends found it to be in disrepair and lying in the mud, a working party of the current lodge members attended and re-erected it in 2010.
It would originally have been a wonderful sight in gleaming white marble: even now it is impressive.
Sources: |
|
|
|
