After a successful appeal organised by Clive Ward, David Rowlands and Rosemary Pardoe, M.R. James's gravestone in Eton Town Cemetery was restored in Spring 2000. A ceremony rededicating the stone took place on July 1, followed by a tour of Eton College and special viewing of the MRJ-related items and sites there.
Click on the thumbnails to see larger photographs of the gravestone, etc. See below for directions on how to find the grave.
Photographs copyright (c) 2000 David Rowlands, Jean Upton and Bill Read. H.E. Luxmoore photograph (c) 2007 Sean Duggan. Not to be reproduced without written permission.
Finding the Cemetery
In Eton High Street, just opposite the west end of College chapel, is a road going off at right-angles to the High Street (there are traffic lights). It is called "Keats Lane", and it bears round to the right past several Eton "Houses" and becomes the "Eton Wick Road". Follow it for about three to four hundred yards and you come to a constriction in the road (traffic 'calming'). At the right of this narrowing is the lychgate arch of Eton Town Cemetery.
Finding the Grave
Enter beneath the arch, and the disused chapel is ahead of you (now used as a store).* Incidentally, as you enter, the grave of H.E. Luxmoore (MRJ's tutor and friend) is on the left, easily found. The inscription on it was composed by MRJ. At the door of the chapel, turn right, then left to pass alongside the right side of the building. Keep on that straight line (you'll have to avoid several bushes that stick out), and go almost to the bottom of the cemetery - not quite as far as the brick wall. M.R. James's grave is round about there - I think it's about two-three rows back from the wall/boundary.
--- David Rowlands, September 11, 1999
* The chapel is no longer disused. It was recently acquired by Eton College and has been restored and secured for use as a store for College Library and Archives. It is possible that MRJ had some input into the late Victorian stained glass in the windows on the east wall, which depict scenes from the Book of Revelation. (RAP January 11, 2006)
Copyright (c) Rosemary Pardoe. Last altered July 23, 2007.