Thomas Furner
5 Oct 2024 • Rebecca Thomas
Thomas Furner (1837-1907) was the first superintendent of Fulham Cemetery, and he served in this position for 42 years. Furner’s time as the superintendent was not without controversy, however.
In July 1865 the Fulham Burial Board placed an advert in the local newspaper:
WANTED A RESIDENT SUPERINTENDENT of the cemetery of the Parish of Fulham. He must be an active, intelligent and well-educated man, able to give his whole time to work entrusted to him, and possessing some knowledge of gardening. Salary with residence, coal and gas, £60 per annum.
West London Observer, 8 July 1865
The grave is located directly behind the lodge where Furner lived. The inscription reads:
In memory of Thomas Furner, who rested from his labours here October 22nd 1907, in his 70th year. Erected by his friends in gratitude for his services as the first superintendent of this cemetery for 42 years.
The application was to be submitted by 12 noon Tuesday 11 July, with interviews being held on the same day at 6.30 pm at Burial Board’s offices in Berwick House, Walham Green.
The man who most impressed the Board that day was Thomas Furner. He was the son of the local blacksmith, also called Thomas, and his wife, Mary Ann, who lived on Fulham High Street. By the age of 14 Thomas junior was listed on the census as an ‘outdoor servant’ (a term which could apply to a groom, stablehand or gardener) and ten years later as a ‘house servant’. Once appointed as the Superintendent, he moved into the Cemetery Lodge where he was to remain until his death in 1907.
Furner’s time as the Superintendent was not without controversy. Like most Superintendents, he appears in the local papers as a witness in cases brought before the magistrates against the petty criminals who hung around the Cemetery and the occasional coroner’s inquest. In 1904, however, it was Furner’s conduct that was brought under scrutiny.
The management of the graveyard had been brought into question and in August 1904 Fulham Burial Council convened a special meeting. The complaint had arisen during the process of appointing a gatekeeper for the Munster Road entrance to the Cemetery. At the interview, a long-time employee of the Cemetery admitted to ‘doing up’ private graves for two shillings a week and implicated Furner in the arrangements. When this was raised at Council a list of other complaints ensued about those employed in the Cemetery. These included non-attendance to duties, such as looking after the entrances, gravediggers using the Council’s equipment to mow residential gardens, turning a blind-eye to the pilfering of flowers from grave sites, and the turfing of private graves with Council turf. The Council put the allegations to the Superintendent and asked for a Report to be made to the Town Clerk. Within the month the Report was made and Furner appeared before the Council. For four and a half hours the Council scoured the paperwork but found no evidence of wrongdoing. They accepted that, at most, the gravediggers had attended less than a dozen private graves and that Furner had not amassed riches from his public position.
Throughout the reporting of the ‘burial scandal’, the newspapers were keen to emphasise Furner’s integrity and good standing in the community and it seems that his reputation suffered little from this brief episode. He and his family continued to be active members of St Clement’s Church on Fulham Palace Road opposite the Cemetery and when he died, after 42 years of service, his funeral was attended by multiple municipal dignities including the Mayor and “an immense crowd” of mourners. Soon after an appeal was launched to erect a memorial to his memory, which is the granite cross that today marks his and his wife’s grave.
Author: Rebecca Thomas
September 2024