By Logan Zachary. November 24, 2019.
Sophia Cracroft’s lost grave inscription at Kensal Green Cemetery. The late afternoon sun reveals the deeper holes that anchored the letters.
Building an alphabet, I worked the inscription over a rainy weekend. I gave up with one word undeciphered, “attached” in the 1st line. I sent it to Alison Freebairn, and she figured it out by finding that the 1st of the 6 lines happens to be recorded at a Canadian archive.
The two long words of the Bible verse seem questionable; I picked the King James verse that fit best.
IN MEMORY OF
LADY FRANKLIN
DIED 18 JULY 1875
SOPHIA CRACROFT
THE DEVOTED AND ATTACHED NIECE OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN
AND CONSTANT AID IN ALL LADY FRANKLIN’S EFFORTS IN
THE FURTHERANCE OF ARCTIC SEARCH FOR TRACES
OF HER HUSBAND AND HIS BRAVE COMPANIONS
DIED 20TH JUNE 1892 AGED 76
WHEN THIS MORTAL SHALL HAVE PUT ON IMMORTALITY.
COR XV. 54
On the Bible quote: Peter Carney notes that the the very next verse is “O death, where is thy sting?” from the Peglar Papers.
The End.
– L.Z. November 24, 2019.
Afterword. August 24, 2020.
A close read of the Bible verse in my photograph will show that I initially used the wrong translation. The correct translation was found when Alison Freebairn – contacting the archive she'd found to complete the first line – discovered a century old black and white photograph of Sophia's grave, the transcription still intact. To see the remarkable photograph she found, read her article at Finger-Post.blog (link).
Sophia's cross. (inscription on the other side)
Originally posted November 24, 2019 (link to private group):
– Afterword, with a link to Alison Freebairn's historic photograph, added August 24, 2020.