Other noteworthy people buried in the churchyard (2)

Francis Hicks was born in around 1825 in Plymouth. He was a wine merchant, and became mayor of Plymouth in 1865. He had 4 wives, and the Hicks memorial (‘The Perivale Angel') is dedicated to his third one, Grace Caroline Black, who was born in Buenos Aires, and who he married in 1877. They lived at ‘Oakhurst', a large property on St Stephens Avenue, Ealing. Grace died in 1886, aged 52, and Francis died in 1893. The impressive monument is made from Italian marble and dominates the churchyard. It was cleaned and restored in 2011 with support from the Ealing Decorative and Fine Arts Association, and Gordon Rivett.

Richard Arthur Ledward was a sculptor born in Burslem Staffordshire in 1857, and studied at South Kensington, where he obtained a gold medal for his sculpture. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1882 onwards, and executed several life-like busts of contemporary notables. He resided in Chelsea and died in 1890 at the early age of 33.

John Boosey was born around 1832 into a longstanding music publishing family. Earlier in the century the family had owned the copyrights to Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi operas, but lost them in a legal case. Then John concentrated on publishing English ballads, and established the successful London Ballad Concerts in 1867 to promote them. John Boosey lived in Mount Avenue Ealing and died in 1893. The lych gate was built in 1904 to commemorate his wife, Rosa Boosey, who died in that year.

Gerald Seymour Valentin was an architect who lived at Sherborne Gardens, Ealing. He was churchwarden at Perivale from 1907 to 1910 and wrote a booklet about the church. He designed the ‘Electric Cinema' in 1910 in Portobello Road which is still in existence. His daughter Evelyn Elizabeth Valentin gave a bequest of £15000 to the Friends of St Mary's Perivale on her death in 2003. Some of these funds were used to renovate the chancel roof.

Dame Harriette Chick was an eminent nutritionist who was born in 1875 and educated at Notting Hill High School and University College London. She undertook important research into the prevention of rickets with ultraviolet light and cod liver oil. She was appointed DBE in 1949, and was President of the British Nutrition Society from 1956 to 1959. She died in 1977 aged 102.

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