Bust of Sir Henry Thompson (1820-1904)

William Silver Frith (1850-1924)

1904

Marble

West Chapel, Golders Green Crematorium, London NW11

Sir Henry was an eminent surgeon, who became Professor of Clinical Surgery at University College London in 1866, and was knighted in 1867. A polymath and trailblazer, he first became interested in cremation after seeing an incinerator at the Great Exhibition in Vienna in 1873. He experimented with animals, promoting cremation in his writing, and was the leading light of the Cremation Society, of which he was the first president. [Commentary continues below.]

Photograph, formatting and text by Jacqueline Banerjee

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