Charles St Clare Bedford

Charles St Clare Bedford, Chapter Clerk at Westminster Abbey 1854-1900 and Coroner for the City of Westminster 1845-1888, is buried in the north cloister of the Abbey. The Chapter Clerk looked after the business affairs of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. He was a son of George Bedford, of Bedford Row in London, and his wife Judith (Thompson). He married firstly in 1850 Mary (died 1857), daughter of George Giles Vincent, chapter clerk of the Abbey, and had three daughters - Emmeline, Georgina, and Mary (died 1947) who married barrister John Lydekker in the Abbey in 1881. His second wife from 1861 was Harriet Broughton. She died in 1902 and had her funeral in St Margaret's Westminster. Their child Emma was baptised in the Abbey in 1866. His residence was at 21 Dean's Yard in the Abbey precincts.

The inscription on the stone reads:

Charles St Clare Bedford, born April 1 1810, died June 5 1900, 46 years Chapter Clerk and Registrar of this Collegiate Church, 49 years Steward of the Manors, 43 years Coroner for Westminster. Father in thy gracious keeping, leave we now thy servant sleeping

The coroners inquests for his period, up to 1880 only, are kept in the Abbey archives.