Kensal Green is west of the London CBD bordered by Harrow Road and Scrubs (as in Wormwood Scrubs) Roads, postcode W10 4RA.
Opened in 1833, it was the first of 'The Magnificent Seven' London cemeteries. Its beautiful environment is a designated Conservation Area which includes not just many Grade I, II and II* listed buildings and mausoleums but also thousands of stunning memorials of many famous Victorians and Edwardians.
Local history group and charity, The Friends of Kensal Green, is dedicated to the preservation, conservation and restoration of the Cemetery for the public benefit. The Friends group not only campaigns to help conserve the many listed buildings and monuments but also provides tours, exhibitions and information about the Cemetery. For more information, see http://www.kensalgreen.co.uk/.
Many famous people are buried in the Cemetery or have passed through the Crematorium. The Friends state on their website:
"....Its notable personalities include some 650 members of the titled nobility and over 550 individuals noted in the Dictionary of National Biography. Kensal Green is the resting place of the engineers Sir Marc Isambard Brunel and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the mathematician Charles Babbage, and the novelists Wilkie Collins, Anthony Trollope and William Makepeace Thackeray; Lord Byron's wife, Oscar Wilde's mother, Charles Dickens' in-laws and Winston Churchill's daughter; a cross-dressing Army doctor and the surgeon who attended Nelson at Trafalgar; the creator of Pears' Soap, and the original WH Smith; the funambulist Blondin and the Savoyard George Grossmith; the first man to cross Australia from south to north; and the last man to fight a duel in England....."
Kensal Green (All Souls') Cemetery contains burials of both wars. Half of the 482 First World War graves form a plot in the south-west section of the cemetery, the rest form small groups or are scattered throughout the cemetery. All of the 51 Second World War graves are scattered. There are also 2 non war burials here. A screen wall in the First World War plot (Sect. 213) records the names of casualties of both wars whose graves could not be individually marked. Also recorded on the wall are the names of five servicemen whose remains were cremated in Kensal Green Crematorium.
A Visitor Information Panel was installed in March 2014 to provide information about the war casualties buried here. This is one of many panels to be erected to help raise awareness of First and Second World War graves in the UK.
