Herbert Francis Westlake

In the east cloister of Westminster Abbey is the grave of the Reverend Herbert Francis Westlake, Minor Canon of Westminster Abbey. The inscription reads:

1879 + 1925 Herbert Francis Westlake M.V.O. M.A. F.S.A. Minor Canon, Custodian and Historian of this Collegiate Church and Edith his wife 1893 1982

He was the son of Alfred Westlake of Gloucester and was born on 3rd August 1879 and educated at Christ's Hospital and Oxford. He became a school chaplain and then assistant maths master at Lancing College 1903-1909 and at Westminster School 1918-1919. He was Minor Canon from 1909 to his death in 1925 and assistant keeper of Abbey records 1918-1925. In 1923 he published his two volume history of the Abbey making extensive use of the Abbey archive sources. He also wrote the "New Guide to Westminster Abbey" and a history of St Margaret's Westminster. In 1913 he married Edith May Raynor, daughter of the Reverend A. Raynor, Master of the King's Scholars at Westminster School. Their son John Francis was baptised in the Abbey in 1914 and later ordained, daughters Katherine and Margaret were baptised in 1916 and daughter Joan married the Reverend Ulrich Simon in the Abbey in 1949. He died suddenly from heart trouble just after Queen Alexandra's funeral service in the Abbey on 27th November 1925.