Charlecote House – St. Leonard’s Church (Christina Cameron-Lucy)

I’m rather more interested in the graves and memorials of the less wealthy, such as William Malins, but it’s hard to entirely ignore the wealthy and this is the memorial located in St. Leonard’s Church at Charlecote commemorating Christina Cameron-Lucy (1845-1919). Born Christina Campbell, she married Henry Spencer Lucy (1830-1890) at St. George’s Church in Hanover Square in London in 1865, so there’s some considerable decadence there. In 1898, she decided to take the surname of Cameron-Lucy to bring the two families together in her name. There’s a disconnect here as Henry is buried at Charlecote, but circumstances meant that at this stage Christina decided to let the entire property out.

Christina is buried in the Cameron of Callart Mausoleum, which has fallen into a state of slight disrepair, although bits of it have been repaired relatively recently. Indeed, her memorial at Charlecote refers to her as Christina Cameron Campbell of Callart, this link was important to her. Christina and Henry had four children, Ada Christina Lucy (1866-1943), who married Sir Henry Ramsay-Fairfax (later Fairfax-Lucy), Constance Linda Lucy (1867-1955) who married John Secker, Sybil Mary Lucy (1868-1886) and Joyce Alianore Lucy (1871 – 1948), unmarried.

There’s a story somewhere here about why Christina decided not to be buried with her husband, I assume it’s because she felt a greater affinity to her Scottish roots although I wonder what Henry would have made of that.