8. Some Grave Matters

East Budleigh’s All Saints, where both Sir Walter Raleigh’s and Roger Conant’s families worshipped, is celebrated as an ancient church, famous for its magnificent carved oak bench ends dating back to Tudor times.

But if you have time, during your visit to this beautiful historic building, you may like to take a wander in the churchyard, if only because it’s distinguished in its own way. In 2019 it was crowned the best churchyard in Devon in a competition organised by the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

A view of the churchyard from the tower

‘Devon’s churchyards are so much more than burial grounds,’ say the CPRE, which staged the first competition in 2018. ‘They are unique and special places. Green havens of sanctuary for people and wildlife. Some little changed over the centuries.’  

East Budleigh’s church won the CPRE competition on the basis of what was described as its ‘maintenance, planting and habitat management.’  An additional criterion, though it’s not mentioned, is the number of graves in All Saints churchyard which commemorate a fascinating range of historically important people - not all of them Devonians of course.  

My friend Prof Brent Lane at the resting place of Raleigh's grave during a visit to London in 2015

You won’t find Sir Walter Raleigh’s grave here – he’s buried in the church of St Margaret’s Westminster, in London. And sadly, no one seems to know the location of Roger Conant’s grave. His suspected burial place is Burying Point Cemetery in Salem MA, but it has never been determined with certainty.

However at least two graves of other people from the past buried in All Saints churchyard will have special interest for visitors from across the Atlantic.

Taking them in chronological order I found the last resting place of the retired wealthy London bookseller James Lackington (1746-1815). It's easy to discover, at the beginning of the path leading to the church.

The Rev Jonathan Froggatt, Minister of the Temple Methodist Church in Budleigh Salterton, and Cllr Christine Channon officiated at the unveiling of the blue plaque 

James Lackington was such a character that he well deserved the blue plaque set up in his honour in 2017 on the site of the Temple Church in Budleigh Salterton.  I’ve written about him elsewhere at http://budleighbrewsterunited.blogspot.com/2009/08/temple-is-apt-setting-for-literary.html

The grave of Baldwin Francis Duppa FRS in All Saints churchyard

Baldwin Francis Duppa (1828-1873), a distinguished chemist, was one of two Fellows of the Royal Society associated with the Budleigh area.  There is an excellent article about him by Dr Roger Lendon at http://www.ovapedia.org.uk/index.php?page=Two-Scientists-Duppa-Baldwin-Francis-Warington-Robert-Budleigh-Salterton-C19

Dr Lendon does not mention Baldwin Francis Duppa’s younger brother, Phillip Darrell Duppa (1832-92), who has no real connection with East Devon, and is certainly not buried at All Saints. But Duppa’s name may be familiar to residents of the state of Arizona because he is regarded as the founder of the city of Phoenix.

Indeed he seems to be revered there as much as Roger Conant is in Salem MA. ‘The legend of “Lord Duppa” lives on’ are the words on the gravestone of this ‘English Gentleman’ in Phoenix’s Pioneer and Military Memorial Park. 

The Preedy Window in All Saints Church: the inscription reads 'In memory of Vice-Admiral George William Preedy CB, who, when Captain of HMS Agamemnon with the Captain of the USS Niagara successfully laid the first Atlantic Cable uniting Europe and America in 1858'  

Back in All Saints churchyard you can find the grave of a courageous officer in Queen Victoria’s navy who is distinguished for helping to forge a historic link between Britain and the United States. This fine stained glass window commemorates the achievement of Admiral George William Preedy CB (1817-94) described in the above inscription.

The grave of Admiral Preedy and his wife

Photo by Trevor Waddington

I wrote about the event some ten years ago at http://budleighbrewsterunited.blogspot.com/2009/07/another-link-across-pond.html  Visitors to Fairlynch Museum were suitably impressed by an exhibition in 2017 to mark the bicentenary of the Admiral’s birth.

Baldwin Francis Duppa’s grave is also the resting place of his wife, born Adeline Frances Mary Dart (1845-95). She is known as a botanical artist with a meticulous eye for detail; under her married name she has drawings in London’s Natural History Museum of Italian and Madeira plants and English fungi, which are included in the ‘Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists’. Shown above is one of her delicate and skilful drawings which depicted the Budleigh area.

The grave of Henry John Carter FRS.  His biography was written to coincide with Fairlynch Museum's 2013 exhibition 'Sea, Salt and Sponges' 

A second Fellow of the Royal Society died and was buried at All Saints in 1895. This was the surgeon, geologist and marine sponge expert Henry Carter FRS, whose name is still revered by biologists worldwide. Such was his reputation among scientists of the time that the entire collection of marine sponges of the British Museum was transported from London to Exeter by rail; it was then brought to his home, ‘The Cottage’, in Budleigh Salterton, to be examined and catalogued. I was so impressed that I wrote his biography, discovering that twenty sponge species are named after him.  

The Tanqueray family grave, and some of the drinks for which the name is celebrated

Speaking of names, if you are a gin drinker you may be surprised to find the family grave of the Tanqueray family in the churchyard. Charles Henry Drought Tanqueray (1875-1928), born in East Budleigh, was the grandson of Charles Tanqueray, founder of the original London Dry Gin which bears his name.  

The year 1898 saw a merger with another well known name in the gin business and Charles Henry Drought Tanqueray was appointed  Company Secretary. He married a local girl, the East Budleigh vicar’s daughter Stella Green.

The grave of Victor Vaughan Reynolds Geraint Clinton Clinton-Baddeley - to give him his full name as inscribed - and that of his mother, Mary Constance Enid Clinton Goullet

And finally there’s the grave of the actor, author and historian who wrote under the name of V.C. Clinton-Baddeley (1900-70), and to whose book ‘Devon’ I refer elsewhere in this blog. 

He was deeply attached to the local area; one of the five detective novels that he published, ‘No Case for the Police’, published in 1970, is evidently set in Budleigh Salterton, which he calls ‘Tidwell St Peter’s’.

There are probably other graves of equally interesting individuals buried in All Saints churchyard, and I would be pleased to include them if you point them out to me.

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