Plaque

Barber Beaumont - vault stone

Inscription

Within this vault are deposited the mortal remains of John Thomas Barber Beaumont Esquire, F.A.S., F.G.S., the founder of this cemetery, who died on the 15th of May 1841, in the 67th year of his age.

He commenced his career in life as an artist, in which profession his ability combined with singular industry, economy and perseverance, raised him to a state of honourable independence but as he became affluent he did not become idle. His character always instinct with energy led him to prefer a life of useful activity to one of inglorious ease. During the alarm of foreign invasion in the last war he organised a corps, the Duke of Cumberland's Sharp Shooters, of which he became major commandant and in which his skill and courage were eminently conspicuous.

To improve the condition of the inglorious poor was ever his most anxious care. For this purpose he instituted the first savings bank "The Provident" where the industrious operative may securely deposit his savings and turn them to account. The County Fire Office and the Provident Life Office owed their origin and their success to his wise forethought, his judicious management and his incessant toil.

In the list of those patriots and philanthropists who have laboured to promote the intellectual and moral well-being of man no one will be found to have achieved a work better calculated to accomplish this high and sacred purpose than the Philosophical Institution in Beaumont Square. Who that contemplates this Institution with its immediate benefits and its more beneficial tendencies will not exclaim when he pauses pensive over the sepulchre of the departed founder.

May the fruits of this good work be coeternal with his reward and may his example be prolific of similar glorious deeds, till ignorance, superstition and depravity shall vanish from the land.

Our transcription of this long inscription was aided by the typed Winter 1978 newsletter of the East London History Society  "A Tombstone And A Portrait Of An Age".

Wikipedia redirects "Duke of Cumberland's Sharp Shooters" to Queen Victoria's Rifles and gives the date of the Corps' formation as 1803.

Sources include: Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park.

Site: Barber Beaumont - QMC (2 memorials)

E1, Mile End Road, The People's Palace Foyer, Queen Mary University of London

This inscribed slab self-describes as being part of Beaumont's vault, which was in his own East London Cemetery, now Shandy Park, a 5-minute walk due south from here. See Barber Beaumont tomb for more information.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of plaquesoflondon.co.uk

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This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Barber Beaumont - vault stone

Subjects commemorated i

9th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Queen Victoria's Rifles)

The 9th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Queen Victoria's R...

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County Fire Office

An insurance organisation launched by Barber Beaumont in 1807. Beaumont was t...

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Provident Life Office

A savings bank launched by Barber Beaumont in 1806. We think this went on to ...

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Barber Beaumont

Army officer, painter, philanthropist. Born John Thomas Barber and in 1812 fo...

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Beaumont's Philosophical Institution

Founded in Beaumont Square, Mile End, by Barber Beaumont. Initially called th...

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This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Barber Beaumont - vault stone

Also at this site i

Barber Beaumont - information plaque

Barber Beaumont - information plaque

This information plaque is giving the provenance of the immense slab of infor...

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