Plaque

Shaftesbury - Harrow

Inscription

{In the top section of the fasces-style border:}
Love  Serve

Near this spot Anthony Ashley Cooper, afterwards 7th Earl of Shaftesbury KG, while yet a boy in Harrow School, saw with shame and indignation the pauper’s funeral, which helped to awaken his life-long devotion to the service of the poor and the oppressed.

“Blessed is he that considereth the poor”

The quotation is from Psalm 41, the King James Version.

While at school, Shaftesbury, a Christian teenager, witnessed a pauper's funeral pass by this spot, performed by drunken pall-bearers, which left him shocked, and committed to do what he could, to prevent such horrors in the future. One would guess that much worse had happened to the pauper while alive, but perhaps Shaftesbury's childhood, loveless though it apparently was, had sheltered him from the harsh realities of the poor.

Site: Harrow Old Schools + Shaftesbury (2 memorials)

HA1, Church Hill, Old Schools

The Listing entry explains: "West wing, originally built 1615 and incorporating panelled schoolroom probably about that date. Architect Mr Sly. East wing added 1820 by C R Cockerell and the Whole, apart from the left flank wall, appears to be refaced in red brick at that date. Two main storeys with basement and staircase link between the wings. Mullion and transom window and oriel at first-storey. Stepped gables with tiled roof."

The Harrow Heritage plaque is on the east wing (right) flank wall.

For our site photos we always like to have a person in the shot to give scale; someone with a dog is good, a cyclist even better, but our scoring system was seriously challenged when this team of Morris Dancers walked into shot.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Shaftesbury - Harrow

Subjects commemorated i

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

Born at 24 Grosvenor Square. Promoted many reform causes, connected with fact...

Read More

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Shaftesbury - Harrow

Also at this site i

Old Schools

Old Schools

The Old Schools This is the original building at Harrow, finished in 1615 an...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Ian Fleming

Ian Fleming

SW1, Ebury Street, 22

Designed by J. P. Gandy-Deering in 1830 as a non-conformist school in what was then known as Watkins Place. It later housing the Pimlico ...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
John Compton

John Compton

W5, Audley Road, 37

John Compton, 1876 - 1957, organ builder, lived here, 1930 - 1957. Ealing Civic Society Ealing Council Hanger Hill (East) R.A.

1 subject commemorated, 3 creators
Elephant and Castle Underground Station

Elephant and Castle Underground Station

SE1, London Road

Identical plaques are on both northbound and southbound platforms of the Northern line.

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Citroën House - Ford

Citroën House - Ford

W6, Shepherd's Bush Road, 184

This is the only London work that we can identify by Heathcote, a Manchester architect. e-Architect describes, with photos, Its recent re...

4 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Sir Alexander Korda

Sir Alexander Korda

W1, Grosvenor Street, 21-22

English Heritage Sir Alexander Korda, film producer, worked here, 1932 - 1936.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator